OpenAI this, Claude that.
Everyone is using AI, but what do the people who are actually doing the hiring want from you (and your resume)? What are the AI skills that actually make a difference to recruiters?
57% of RTC members use AI daily at work, but 44% have received no AI training from their employer, according to RTC’s December 2025 Pulse Survey.
But the AI skill recruiters are actually looking for isn’t a tool, or even official training.
It’s how you use it.
What Are AI Skills, Really?
Most people assume “AI skills” means knowing which tools to use. The skill isn’t the tool; it’s the judgment you bring to it.
It isn’t knowing that ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, etc. exist.
It’s knowing when to pull them into your process.
It’s knowing how to evaluate the output they give you.
In a way, you can think of AI like a paintbrush. If you let it just kind of do its own thing, it won’t really work the way you want. But if you guide it? And understand what you’re doing? That’s where the magic happens.
Why Are Recruiters Asking About AI Skills Right Now?
AI is the hot topic right now, isn’t it?
But truthfully, at least in tech, AI is here to stay (it’s also been around for a lot longer than most people realize, but we’ll save that for another day).
In the workplace, AI is already embedded in most tech workflows.
They know you’ve likely used it. So that isn’t the question.
They’re asking how.
The concern isn’t that you’re using AI. It’s that you might be outsourcing your thinking to it.
But what do we mean by that?
We spoke with two recruiters from partner companies, Netflix and Clay, and both immediately said that, when prompted about AI skills, critical thinking is the most important part of using AI.
Critical thinking is the ability to analyze output using your own judgment. Critical thinking, alongside an AI tool, means being able to examine its output and understand it. Recruiters want you to be able to understand your work so thoroughly that any output that AI gives, you’re able to understand and, if needed, dissect where it went wrong.
That is the key differentiator that recruiters are looking for.
What Does It Mean to Use AI Without Losing Your Own Thinking?
There is a lot of research that shows AI is harming critical thinking skills, which is a key part of why recruiters find it so important.
You can prevent that from happening.
How?
By doing the following:
- Treating AI output as a first draft, not a final answer
- Asking “Does this actually make sense?” before using anything it produces
- Knowing enough about a topic to catch when AI is confidently wrong
- Using AI to go faster on tasks you understand, not to skip understanding tasks
- Have AI-free days to test yourself (and your reliance on AI)
How Do You Talk About AI Skills on Your Resume?
So…how do you actually show critical thinking skills as part of your resume?
You can, but it’s important to note that both recruiters that we talked to have AI-specific evaluations as part of their interview process. While each company has its own system, both specifically highlighted that the tool used is significantly less important than the ability to think critically.
In fact, both companies within the interview process are tool-agnostic.
As part of their process, they evaluate your ability to think critically. So, while yes, listing it on your resume is vital to getting through the process, it is important to note that you will have to showcase your critical thinking skills throughout the process.
Things to keep in mind:
- Don’t list tools as skills (e.g., “ChatGPT” as a bullet is weak). Instead, describe what you accomplished using AI as part of your workflow.
- Frame it around outcomes and judgment calls, not tool names.
- Show the thinking, not just the doing.
Example of what we mean:
Weak: “Used ChatGPT for research and writing tasks.”
Stronger: “Used AI to accelerate research synthesis, then verified outputs against primary sources before incorporating into final deliverables.”
We also have a template and guidelines for resumes, developed with insights from our on-staff recruiters and experts, that go into this further.
→ RTC’s Guide to Writing a Tech Resume
How Do You Demonstrate AI Skills in an Interview?
AI is part of the process and will likely come up within the interview process.
Here’s an easy framework to help structure your process. When answering questions about AI, think about these three concepts
- Do you know when to use it? This shows judgment about the appropriate application.
- Do you verify what it gives you? This shows you haven’t outsourced your thinking and gives you a place to highlight your critical thinking skills.
- Can you articulate your process? This shows self-awareness and communication skills, something every recruiter looks for in applicants.
We want to reiterate: the skill isn’t which tools you know. It’s that you still think for yourself while using them. That’s not a hard bar to clear. It’s just that most people aren’t framing for themselves or for recruiters.
You don’t have to figure out how to navigate this alone.
Join our Slack to talk about your own experiences discussing AI in the recruitment process.