A Recruiter's Guide to Setting Up and Training a Custom AI Screening Agent

8/16/2025 • 4 min read

One of the most powerful features of modern AI screening platforms is the ability to create customizable agents that can be trained to understand what “qualified” means for your unique organization. These agents allow you to encode your specific hiring criteria and create a system that continuously learns and improves over time.

This guide will walk you through the process of setting up and training your own AI screening agent, from defining your initial criteria to establishing the feedback loops that will keep it performing at its best.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Deploying Your AI Agent

Deploying a custom AI agent is a straightforward process, but it requires a thoughtful and structured approach.

Step 1: Define Your Screening Criteria: The first step is to clearly define the criteria for each role. This includes identifying the must-have skills, any acceptable alternatives, and any knockout conditions that would automatically disqualify a candidate.
Step 2: Map Your Skills Ontology: A skills ontology is what allows the AI to understand the relationships between different skills and qualifications. Work with your vendor to map your specific needs, normalize synonyms, and define seniority signals for your key role families.
Step 3: Integrate with Your ATS: Use webhooks from your ATS to trigger the AI’s “parse-match-shortlist” workflow. The AI’s scores and the rationale behind them should then be written back to the ATS, providing your recruiters with a seamless and integrated experience.

The Art and Science of Training and Tuning Your AI

Once your agent is deployed, the real work of training and tuning begins.

Start with a Seed Set: To calibrate the initial thresholds for your AI, use a seed set of recent hires and rejected candidates. This will give the model a baseline understanding of what a good and bad candidate looks like for a particular role.
Create a Tight Feedback Loop: The feedback from your recruitment team is the most valuable training data you have. Implement a process where recruiters can quickly accept or reject the AI’s recommendations and provide reasons for their decisions. This feedback will be used to continuously refine the model.
Monitor for Drift: The job market and your own hiring needs are constantly changing. It’s important to monitor your AI for “drift” and re-validate its performance after any significant changes in your sourcing strategy or the market.

Governance and Compliance: The Non-Negotiables

As with any AI system, strong governance and a commitment to compliance are essential.

Prioritize Explainability and Auditing: Your recruiters should always be able to see the “why” behind the AI’s decisions. The system should also provide detailed audit logs for every decision, ensuring transparency and accountability.
Ensure GDPR Compliance: From establishing a lawful basis for processing data to respecting a candidate’s rights to access and deletion, your AI screening process must be fully compliant with GDPR and other data privacy regulations.

Your Questions on Custom AI Agents, Answered

Q: How do I get started with setting up an AI agent for resume screening?

A: The process begins with defining your screening criteria and integrating the AI with your ATS. From there, you’ll need to calibrate the system using your historical hiring data and establish a continuous feedback loop with your recruitment team.

Q: Are AI screening agents truly customizable?

A: Yes, the best platforms offer a high degree of customization. You should look for a solution that provides editable rules, tunable thresholds, and the ability to capture detailed feedback from your recruiters.

Q: How do I train an AI for my specific screening needs?

A: The key is to iterate on labeled outcomes. By consistently providing the AI with feedback on its recommendations, you can train it to better understand your unique needs and monitor for any drift in its performance over time.

At GreetAI, we provide our clients with highly configurable AI agents, built-in recruiter feedback capture, and powerful analytics to ensure that your screening process is always aligned with your hiring goals.