Elementor #25293
AI is your frenemie
As artificial intelligence becomes more integrated into hiring and recruitment systems, journalists face the challenge of explaining technical changes in ways audiences can easily understand. In her Fortune article on the growing mismatch between recruiters and job seekers, Jacqueline Munis explores how AI-driven tools are reshaping hiring expectations across industries. By combining research, expert perspectives, and human stories, Munis highlights how technology is influencing who gets hired and why. Her reporting demonstrates how journalists can make complex topics approachable while still emphasizing the real-world impact behind technological change.
In your Fortune article on how hard it is to get hired given the mismatch between recruiters and job seekers, what first drew you to report on this topic?
Munis said the idea for the story came from recognizing how widespread hiring challenges have become. “I think it’s widely understood that getting a job today at all levels—from recent graduates to older people who’ve been laid off—is incredibly challenging,” she explained. While artificial intelligence is often blamed for these struggles, she noted that focusing only on AI overlooks deeper changes occurring within the labor market.
“It’s really easy to point to AI as the source of why it’s so hard to get a job, but when you say that, you’re missing the larger picture,” Munis said. She found that AI systems often reflect employer priorities rather than independently replacing workers. “The reason why AI can replace some jobs is because it has the same skills as certain workers, so employers are changing what they’re looking for.” Exploring that gap between workforce skills and employer expectations ultimately became the foundation of her reporting.
What was your reporting process for understanding how AI tools are shaping recruitment, skill matching, and hiring systems? How did you decide which voices and perspectives were most important to center in the piece?
Munis began her reporting process with extensive research. “I started reporting how I always do: by reading a lot,” she said. She reviewed previous coverage published by Fortune as well as recent studies examining hiring trends and skills mismatches.
After building background knowledge, she turned to sourcing experts who could help answer emerging questions. “From there, I had a lot of information and a lot of questions, so I reached out to my sources to help answer my questions,” Munis explained. One source connected to LinkedIn research proved especially valuable because she could represent multiple perspectives within the hiring process. According to Munis, the source “could speak from the perspective of both job seekers and employers as a researcher,” offering both economic insights and real-world context.
Munis added that balanced reporting often develops across continued coverage rather than a single article. “I cover a lot of hiring, and I try to get different perspectives across my coverage—sometimes in the same story, sometimes in different stories,” she said.
How do you approach making a technical topic like AI hiring systems and skills evaluation accessible to a general audience while keeping the human impact clear?
When writing about complex technologies, Munis focuses on human experience first. “I try to focus on how humans are using the technical side,” she explained. Rather than overwhelming readers with technical explanations, her goal is to provide clarity about how AI systems function in everyday situations.
Readers, she said, need to understand both how the technology works and how it is being applied. “Readers need to know how this technology is being deployed, and on a basic level, understand how it works.” Ultimately, accessibility guides her storytelling approach. Munis aims to provide “enough information so that if a reader is talking about the topic I’m writing about, they could easily explain it to a friend.”
What questions about AI-driven hiring or recruiter–job seeker mismatches do you think are still missing or underexplored in mainstream media coverage?
Because artificial intelligence continues to evolve quickly, Munis believes journalists still have much to explore. “Any story involving AI is an evolving story because the technology is changing so rapidly,” she said. She emphasized that different industries—and even companies within the same industry—are adopting AI in very different ways.
“It’s clear that different industries, or even companies within the same industry, are using AI very differently,” Munis noted. As a result, future reporting will likely focus on understanding how organizations continue adapting their hiring strategies. Munis said she is “excited to continue reporting on the many different pathways companies are taking when it comes to AI and hiring.”
- Elementor #25293 - February 24, 2026
