Remember all the nerves and effort that were part of your last job application? Today there are a bunch of AI tools out there that can speed through writing a cover letter, tailoring your resume to a job description, polishing your presentation, and shooting out many more applications than you could send without the tech boost. But what’s actually happening is that candidates are looking more and more like each other. That’s not much help when you, a serious job applicant, really want to stand out among the crowd so you land the job. Meanwhile HR teams must spend more time and money dealing with a flood of applications.Many reports have covered the impact of AI on the job application process, but from a recruiter point of view the situation seems to be getting desperate, the Washington Post reports. According to Matt Wallaert, the chief experience officer at outsourcing and offshoring company Oceans, one particularly dumb example of overreliance on AI is when candidates use the tech to write a script to follow when they’re giving a presentation. This is a typical recruitment requirement, and when all the answers follow roughly the same pattern, it’s clear AI is involved. “You did the laziest possible” thing, Wallaert explained, adding “you failed the basic task of sharing your personal beliefs.”

The Post also quotes Joseph Eitner, chief human resources officer for New York-based investment firm Eaton Capital Management, on AI use by job applicants. It’s totally fine to use AI to brush up your application, Eitner thought, but there’s a line. If it’s clear AI has been overused, Eitner said, “I don’t want to hire you” —it’s possible you’ll rely too much on AI if you get the job.

All of this seems like common sense, though it’s fair to point out that assessing whether a candidate has overused AI is very subjective. It’s similar to criticisms of writers using em dashes, when a current meme suggests this is one way to spot text written by an AI—which is not true for this article, for example!

On the flip side, job candidates also pointed out how recruiters are using AI. Stephen Harris, a candidate seeking a job as a tech support specialist, told the paper it’d be fair for him to stop using AI as part of the application process when recruiters stop using AI on their end as part of their candidate screening.

And this is where AI use by candidates and recruiters can seem a lot like a tech-driven arms race. A recent report from recruitment marketing platform Appcast found that recruiting is definitely getting more difficult, which is driving up both per-hire and per-application costs. The average cost per application will rise to $19.32 this year (in 2024 it hit a low near $15) while the cost per hire nearly doubled to $1,340, after being closer to $900 in 2024.

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