Summer is peak season for many retailers, and hiring seasonal workers to meet that demand is critical. But with the pressure to find quality candidates in a short amount of time, summer hiring can be very challenging for talent teams. In the past, they had to muddle through this high-stress process, crossing their fingers that they’d hired the right people.
But thanks to the rise of AI, that story is changing. Today, hiring tools can help retail businesses move faster and hire better, even when applicant volume is at its highest.
Here are some of the biggest summer hiring challenges the retail sector faces and how AI can help solve them.
Challenge #1: High Application Volume Under Tight Deadlines
One of the biggest hurdles for recruiters during the summer hiring season is the time crunch. Hiring teams are suddenly tasked with reviewing a flood of applications, screening candidates and scheduling interviews — all within a very short time. And with the traditional hiring process often taking anywhere from two weeks to 60 days, it’s just not built for the kind of speed seasonal hiring requires.
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How AI helps: With AI-powered hiring tools, teams can automatically assess large volumes of applicants in a fraction of the time, quickly identifying the best matches based on role-specific skills and qualifications.
Using AI agents, hiring teams can rely on science-powered AI to reason and adapt in real time, even when unexpected challenges arise. Not only does this help get the right candidates into the right roles much faster, but it also frees up recruiters to prioritize top candidates.
Challenge #2: Low Applicant Engagement and High Dropoff Rates
It’s no secret that many application processes are tedious and frustrating for candidates. From creating new usernames and passwords to re-entering the same information already on their resume into an applicant tracking system (ATS), candidates are often met with roadblock after roadblock. It’s no wonder that 92% of applicants drop off after clicking “apply.”
This is bad enough during regular hiring cycles. But for seasonal hires, hiring teams can’t take that chance. They need a fast, efficient experience where candidates are guided through a process and left feeling like their time truly matters.
How AI helps: Acting as a digital recruiter, AI tools ensure that every candidate feels seen and supported, even when human recruiters aren’t available. That means there is no lag time or long, drawn-out processes. An AI-powered communicator can chat with a candidate, learn and adjust responses based on the candidate’s needs and screen them to ensure they can move onto the next stage of the process, just like a human would. And throughout it all, candidates are constantly engaged, significantly reducing the drop-off rate.
Challenge #3: Finding Candidates that will Excel in the Role
Retail talent teams only have a short window to bring summer hires on board, and while the job might be temporary, the stakes are high. A mis-hire can slow the entire operation during the busiest season.
And yet, it’s not just about filling roles quickly — it’s also about finding candidates who will thrive. You need dependable, adaptable team members who can learn fast, work well under pressure and positively represent your brand.
How AI helps: Rather than manually sorting through stacks of resumes (hoping to infer the right skills), recruiters can now use science-backed assessments to evaluate candidates on the qualities that matter most — like adaptability, reliability and customer service skills.
With a library of validated assessments, talent teams can screen a high volume of applicants in less than 20 minutes, giving them a crystal-clear view of who’s ready to hit the ground running. It’s faster, smarter and built for the pace of seasonal hiring.
Challenge #4: Scaling Hiring Efforts with a Lean Team
Summer hiring season brings a big challenge: Already-busy talent teams are suddenly expected to handle a surge of seasonal hires on top of their regular workload. With limited time and resources, how can they juggle it all without burning out?
How AI helps: Think of AI as an extension of your recruiting team. It can chat with candidates, assess their skills, schedule interviews and even conduct on-demand interviews around the clock — all while your team focuses on the high-impact work only humans can do, like nurturing relationships and making smart hiring decisions.
There’s no question that HR professionals who use AI see faster hiring — 52% faster, in fact, according to HireVue’s 2025 Global Guide to Hiring. But beyond speed, they also save hours of talent team time.
Challenge #5: Inconsistent and Subjective Hiring Decisions
When hiring teams are under pressure to fill roles quickly, it’s tempting to rely on gut instinct — choosing the candidate who seems charming, who interviews well or who just feels like a “good fit.” It’s human nature.
But hiring based on personality or personal connection can unintentionally sideline incredibly qualified candidates who simply didn’t have the chance to shine in a rushed or subjective process.
How AI helps: AI takes the guesswork out of hiring by focusing on what really matters: a candidate’s skills, not their resume polish or where they went to school. With standardized assessments and structured interviews, every applicant is evaluated on the same criteria, ensuring a more level playing field.
The result is a fairer process that gives more people a shot and helps hiring teams uncover the right fit for the role, faster and more confidently.
Dr. Lindsey Zuloaga is Chief Data Scientist at HireVue, the global leader in skills-based hiring. HireVue helps organizations elevate the hiring process, from evaluating candidates’ credentials to understanding their capabilities. The company’s deep expertise in selection science and AI helps companies understand an applicant’s unique skills and potential to match them to jobs where they can excel today while suggesting a future path. Serving over 1,150 pioneering customers around the globe, including over 60% of the Fortune 100, HireVue has hosted over 70 million video interviews and 200 million chat-based candidate engagements.
