Artificial intelligence in intern application screening: Efficiency and fairness

From an economic management perspective, recruitment is a human resource allocation activity involving high transaction costs, with application screening accounting for a substantial share of search and information costs. To test the hypothesis that an AI-integrated process could simultaneously shorten processing time, reduce personnel costs, and limit subjective bias, the authors designed and developed the Support HR system. The study combines four methods: literature review, survey research, product-development experimentation, and before-and-after comparison, using 20 job descriptions, 100 applications, and five enterprises. The results show that processing time per application decreased from 3–5 minutes to less than 30 seconds, representing a time saving of 83 - 90% and exceeding the initial target of 40 - 60%. Personnel costs for the screening stage decreased by approximately 80%, equivalent to 20 - 30% of total recruitment costs, while the proportion of applications preliminarily assessed as suitable increased from 54% to 72%.