WUHAN, Dec. 1 — In an interview booth, postgraduate student Zhang Hui adjusted her posture, looked into the camera and answered a series of questions posed by an artificial intelligence (AI) interviewer.
As she wrapped up, she lifted her phone to record the screen, capturing the automated feedback and suggestions generated from her responses.
“I’m quite introverted, so practicing with an AI interviewer helps me stay calm and improve my answers,” said Zhang, who attends South-Central Minzu University. “It really makes a difference.”
The Third National Conference on the Development of Human Resources Services was held from Friday to Saturday in Wuhan, the capital of central China’s Hubei Province, offering a glimpse into the growing role AI is playing in China’s labor market. During the conference, Zhang scanned a QR code to upload her resume.
“In less than 30 seconds, the system recommended five jobs for me,” she said. “It even explained why each position suited me.”
After receiving these job recommendations, Zhang visited the booth of one of the suggested companies — a new-energy firm — and secured an in-person interview for the following week.
In the conference’s AI experience zone, Wang Wei, chief technology officer of Guangdong Chitone Human Resource Chain Co., Ltd., guided visitors through the company’s integrated terminal offering tailored job recommendation, policy interpretation and resume optimization services.
“I’ve been working in this industry for nearly 40 years and have witnessed a major transformation brought by AI, especially the exponential improvement in efficiency,” Wang said.
One of the company’s AI tools can screen a resume in three to four seconds, raising enterprise recruitment efficiency by at least 80 percent, he noted.
“Our goal is not to replace humans with AI, but to let AI help redefine and upgrade every link of the HR process,” he said.
Beyond university-focused tools, companies also showcased AI job-matching solutions for community-level employment services.
At the booth of the Jiangsu Leader Human Resources Group Co., Ltd., visitors gathered around a smart terminal known as an “employment-at-your-doorstep services station,” which has already been deployed in east China’s Nanjing City.
The device allows residents to browse local job information, learn about employment policies, and submit resumes on their phones.
“In just half a day, more than 200 enterprises and human resources departments made inquiries,” a company representative said.
“This conference has helped us strengthen connections with partners in Hubei and beyond.
With AI, we look forward to deeper cross-regional cooperation and better support for high-quality development.”
As noted in a recommendations document for the formulation of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), China will apply AI tools in industrial development, cultural advancement, public well-being initiatives and social governance, and will strive to gain an edge in AI industrial application.
Lei Chengpu, an official of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said that AI is already applied widely across the HR services sector, improving the efficiency of resource allocation and the accurate matching of people and jobs.
“Typical applications include real-time job matching on intelligent recruitment platforms, AI interview systems, data-monitoring tools that analyze labor market trends, and personalized career guidance that recommends training based on individual needs,” Lei said.
China’s HR services industry provided more than 300 million employment services and supported over 50 million companies to hire staff each year from 2021 to 2025, according to Lei.
Online recruitment platforms now publish hundreds of millions of job posts every year, with AI-driven matching becoming a major employment services channel.
Lei noted that while AI has evolved from a simple auxiliary tool into a powerful enabler across recruitment, training, assessment, consulting and outsourcing, challenges remain.
“Data standards are not yet unified, data-sharing across platforms needs improvement, and small and medium-sized enterprises still face barriers in adopting AI tools,” he said.
China will advance an AI Plus HR Services initiative to improve data standards, encourage industry innovation, and build a more intelligent HR services system, Lei added.
Back in the interview booth, Zhang Hui reviewed the feedback on her phone.
“If AI can help me understand myself better and find the right job faster, that’s already a big step forward.” (Namibia Daily News/Xinhua)
