Some of these recruitment things are scammers based in North Korea. Be careful out there, especially if they want you to download something for their "assessment".

It's (almost) always a pipeline, but I've never seen it fully automated. I would never take even the first step without having an actual person to talk to.

I used hired.com to get my current job and I really preferred the experience. Instead of me sending a billion resumes out and hoping, I took some basic coding assessment tests (I found them straightforward, but I have the sort of brain that does well on the stupid puzzle interview format - so your experience may differ if your brain struggles with that sort of puzzle) and then actively hiring companies sent me job positions. If I liked the job I'd set up an interview, which was usually for the same week.

The whole process was much faster and less painful than usual. My last job hunt was when the market was really hot so take it with a grain of salt, but I went from starting my hunt to hired in about three weeks, vs usualyl taking me about 8 weeks to land a new job. (But I tend to interview very serially. It stresses me out to have more than two irons in the fire at once)

Anyway, good luck!

I'm in a privileged position as a veteran coder who somehow still uses and builds AI, from within the Vim editor session that I never figured out how to close.

That said, I only work with human (free agent) recruiters.

I send a polite "fuck off" to folks who want me to take a coding test.

But, I do use my AI skills to translate the "fuck off" into a polite decline, in case I'm desperate later.

I'm hot shit today, but that'll change at some point. Hopefully I'll be retired by then and spending all my coding time perfecting a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine PG-13 erotic fiction AI ghost writer.