AI Is Creating Jobs. Employers Still Hire for the Old Resume.

By Grace Kim

45% of small-business owners trying to hire reported few or no qualified applicants in September, according to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). Another 26% named labor quality or availability as their single most important business problem, more than twice the historical average.

What is employers’ labor problem?

Kim argues that some businesses may be worsening the talent shortage by defining “qualified” too narrowly. A job description built around five years of experience performing a specific set of tasks assumes those tasks will remain relatively unchanged. AI, automation and other technologies challenge that assumption.

Her advice is to separate the capabilities a role requires from credentials that describe past methods. The distinction can open the talent pool to candidates with adjacent skills and more potential. Experience remains useful where specialized knowledge matters; Kim says it cannot reveal how someone will respond when familiar tools, expectations or customer needs shift.

Kim draws on her experience in a service business. She recalls candidates who looked nearly perfect on paper but struggled once the job became unpredictable. She also recalls people without the obvious résumé rising quickly because they learned, communicated and made good decisions without constant supervision.

Her standard shifts from exact experience to future performance: “Has this person already done this exact job? A better question may be: Can this person succeed in the job this is becoming?”

Is AI expanding or shrinking work?

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s 2026 Empowering Small Business report found that 47% of small businesses using AI say it is creating jobs, while only 6% say it is reducing them.

Kim reads that split as evidence employers should focus first on how AI changes existing roles rather than on elimination counts alone. For many entrepreneurs, the immediate workforce question is how jobs change as people gain access to better tools. Her plain conclusion: plan for changed jobs, not only job losses.

Which capabilities matter in service jobs?

Kim uses commercial cleaning to show how hiring works in a process-driven, highly people-dependent business. Procedures, quality standards, extensive onboarding and technology for scheduling, communication and accountability can support distributed teams working across different client locations.

She treats unexpected events as a test of judgment. Her examples include:

• A client makes an unexpected request.
• A team member calls out.
• Something at a facility does not look right.
• An employee notices a problem that technically belongs to someone else.

Some employees wait for instructions. Strong ones tend to take ownership of the outcome. They know when to act, when to ask for help and when a small issue could become a larger client problem if nobody addresses it. That judgment has become one of the qualities Kim values most.

How should employers measure learning velocity?

Kim’s experience leading within a franchise system reinforces the lesson: The ability to learn quickly can be more valuable than arriving with all the answers. Franchise organizations operate across markets, customers and teams that are never completely identical.

Technology is accelerating that reality. An employee may learn one software platform this year and work with an AI-enabled version next year. A manager who built expertise around producing reports may suddenly have technology that can produce those reports in seconds. Their value then shifts to interpreting information, spotting what matters and deciding what to do next.

That is why Kim increasingly evaluates learning velocity. Her questions focus on whether a candidate becomes curious or defensive when something changes and whether the person can apply feedback or transfer a lesson from one situation to another.

Those answers reveal more than familiarity with a method, Kim says. Curiosity and the ability to apply feedback predict performance better than a résumé does.

What should interviews test?

Kim says practical scenarios in interviews can reveal learning velocity more clearly than another résumé screen. She recommends asking candidates to explain how they approached an unfamiliar challenge, what they learned and what they would do differently now.

Interviewers should listen for self-awareness, resourcefulness and a willingness to revise their thinking. Kim’s standard is direct: “The best hire isn’t the person who already knows every answer. It’s the person ready to find the next one.”

For business leaders, Kim says that means designing interviews and development plans around adaptability, judgment and ownership rather than simply checking boxes on a résumé. Experience should inform hiring decisions but should not limit an employer’s view of potential.

As AI continues to reshape roles, Kim expects resilient employers to recognize talent in new places and give capable people the tools, trust and opportunity to grow with the work.