Why This Matters
Before this, Claude gave you the same level of effort no matter what you asked. Needed a quick answer? It would still overthink it. Burn tokens. Cost money.
Now you match the brain to the job.
What We're Testing at Alongside
We work with companies building tech teams. A lot of that involves HR tasks. Screening. Writing. Scheduling. Repetitive stuff that eats time.
Here's how we're using the effort dial:
Screening CVs
A client sends 200 applications for a senior developer role. Most won't fit. Wrong stack. No experience. Location mismatch.
Old way: read them all manually, or pay full price for AI to analyze each one deeply.
New way: dial down. Claude scans fast. Flags obvious mismatches. 200 CVs become 30 in minutes. Cheap.
Then we turn the dial up for the 30 that look good. Deeper read. Better analysis.
Writing Job Posts
Job posts need thought. Tone matters. Clarity matters. You want good people to apply.
We turn the dial up here. Claude takes more time. Thinks about wording. Suggests better structure.
Still faster than writing from scratch. But not rushed.
Scheduling Interviews
This is pure logistics. Match availability. Send calendar invites. Confirm times.
Dial down. Fast. No deep thinking needed.
What Stays Human
The interview itself.
Reading someone's energy. Gut feeling about culture fit. Noticing what they don't say.
No dial for that. That's human work.
The Point
This isn't about replacing HR people. It's about giving them their hours back.
Less time on CVs that obviously don't fit. Less time on scheduling emails. More time on the conversations that actually matter.
Try It Yourself
Anthropic released this in Claude Opus 4.6. They call it "adaptive thinking effort controls."
More details here: InfoQ article on Opus 4.6
We're still early with this. Testing different settings. Seeing what works.