When generative AI (genAI) systems are used in high-stakes decision-making, its recommended role is to aid, rather than replace, human decision-making. However, there is little empirical exploration of how professionals making high-stakes decisions, such as those related to employment, perceive their agency and level of control when working with genAI systems. Through interviews with 22 recruiting professionals, we investigate how genAI subtly influences control over everyday workflows and even individual hiring decisions. Our findings highlight a pressing conflict: while recruiters believe they have final authority across the recruiting pipeline, genAI has become an invisible architect that shapes the foundational building blocks of information used for evaluation, from defining a job to determining good interview performances. The decision of whether or not to adopt was also often outside recruiters' control, with many feeling compelled to adopt genAI due to calls to integrate AI from higher-ups in their business, to combat applicant use of AI, and the individual need to boost productivity. Despite a seemingly seismic shift in how recruiting happens, participants only reported marginal efficiency gains. Such gains came at the high cost of recruiter deskilling, a trend that jeopardizes the meaningful oversight of decision-making. We conclude by discussing the implications of such findings for responsible and perceptible genAI use in hiring contexts.

翻译：当生成式AI系统被用于高利害决策时，其推荐角色是辅助而非取代人类决策。然而，鲜有实证研究探讨涉及高利害决策（如就业相关决策）的专业人士在与生成式AI系统协作时，如何感知自身主体性与控制水平。通过对22名招聘专业人士的访谈，我们探究了生成式AI如何潜移默化地影响日常工作流程的掌控权乃至个体招聘决策。研究结果凸显了一个紧迫矛盾：尽管招聘人员认为自己在整个招聘流程中拥有最终决定权，但生成式AI已成为无形架构师，重塑着用于评估的信息基础构建模块——从界定岗位职责到评判面试表现优劣。是否采用生成式AI的决策也往往超出招聘人员的掌控范围，许多人因企业高层要求整合AI、应对求职者使用AI的竞争，以及个体提升效率的需求而被迫采用。尽管招聘方式看似发生翻天覆地的变化，受访者仅报告了边际效率提升。这种提升以招聘人员技能退化为高昂代价，这一趋势将危及决策的有意义监督。最后，我们探讨了此类发现对招聘场景中负责任且可感知的生成式AI应用所蕴含的启示。