> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.kenst.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # What Have You Built With AI? Is Becoming a Hiring Question - URL: https://www.kenst.com/what-have-you-built-with-ai-is-becoming-a-hiring-question/ - Published: 2026-09-07T22:26:25.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-07T22:26:25.000Z - Description: “What have you built with AI?” caught me off guard on a job application. Now that I’m seeing similar questions from the hiring side, I’ve been thinking about what a useful answer reveals and how building my own tools has given me a new perspective on testing and quality. - Author: Chris Kenst - Tags: Hiring Earlier this year, while I was looking for a job, I applied for a management position at an AI company. One of the questions on the application was some version of: > What have you built with AI? It might have asked for the “best thing” I had built, or how I had used AI to build something. I don’t remember the exact wording. I do remember how the question made me feel: disappointed because I didn’t have a great answer. I had used AI to build a few small prototypes, and add features to my side projects, but I hadn’t created much that felt substantial. After submitting the application, I knew my response wasn’t especially compelling. However, the question stuck with me. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was asking: - How are you responding to this change in our industry? - Are you exploring what is now possible? - Are you using AI to become more capable, productive, or creative? - Can you turn that exploration into something concrete? Today at FreightPOP, our engineering job applications ask candidates what AI tools they have used and how those tools have improved their productivity. Not having this experience puts you at a disadvantage relative to other candidates. You can find FreightPop's open jobs here: [FreightPOP | We simplify and streamline the transportation management | Torre.aiWe simplify and streamline the transportation management experience for manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and 3PL’s by reducing friction and connecting systems for a seamless and optimal supply chain.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/64/2d/642d9fac-06bc-48ce-a22c-14219bd777e6/content/images/icon/favicon-7b963567-a91f-4f95-b6e9-413a173d8c1d.ico)Torre.ai![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/64/2d/642d9fac-06bc-48ce-a22c-14219bd777e6/content/images/thumbnail/FreightPOP-926d1e8e-53b4-45d6-a6b1-0068519d3f1f)](https://torre.ai/teams/FreightPOP?ref=kenst.com) That changes the significance of the question. You can’t just brush it aside as another trendy application prompt because the answer has real consequences for whether you move forward in the hiring process. I expect questions like this to become more common. ## What is the question actually measuring? The most obvious interpretation is that employers want to see whether candidates know how to use AI tools. But I think the more interesting signal is **curiosity**. Have you investigated how these tools might change your work? Have you gone beyond asking a chatbot a few questions? Have you tried to create something, improve a process, or solve a problem that previously seemed too expensive or time consuming? The answer doesn’t need to be earth shattering. It could be a small internal tool, an automated workflow, a prototype, or a personal project. It could be covering an existing project in automated tests. What matters is being able to explain what you attempted, why you attempted it, what worked, what failed, and what you learned. Even if the answer is that you weren’t more productive, I’ll bet you have a better idea what to try next. Employers need to be careful with how they evaluate the answer. A flashy app is not automatically evidence of good judgment, and AI usage alone is not a substitute for professional expertise. Still, the ability to [experiment thoughtfully](https://www.kenst.com/ai-and-the-declining-cost-of-trying/) with AI is becoming relevant to more roles. ## Changing my own answer After encountering that job application question, I decided I wanted a better answer the next time someone asked. Since then I’ve been building more tools and showcasing them on GitHub: ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/64/2d/642d9fac-06bc-48ce-a22c-14219bd777e6/content/images/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-09-07-at-3.18.32---PM.png) Showcase of my current projects Some of these are convenience tools created simply because I was curious about what was possible. Some are tools and projects I use regularly. Today if I answered that question I’d lead with my TimeTap app. I built a time tracking and invoicing web app for my consulting. It’s got unit, integration and UI tests. I’ve been vibe coding it and using test driven development as I add features. I can run it from the command line through an agent or in the UI. It’s saved me a ton of time when it comes to billing my clients. The unexpected benefit of building is that it puts me in the developer’s seat. I have to think through requirements, modularity, interfaces, tradeoffs, and failure modes. I get to build my own agentic workflow! This experience also influences how I think about testing and quality. Quality is not something a tester applies after development is finished. It emerges from all the decisions made while the system is being imagined and built. Creating my own tools gives me another perspective on those decisions and, I hope, makes me a better tester. ## Build the answer before you need it “What have you built with AI?” may not be on every job application yet. But questions about how candidates use AI are becoming more consequential. You don’t need to wait until you are searching for a job to decide how you would answer. Build something small. Explore a problem that interests you. Document what you tried and what you learned. The goal isn’t merely to produce an impressive application response. It is to understand how your work is changing and to take an active role in that change.