“Everyone’s applications are becoming more and more similar.”

For job seekers and recruiters, the job market can feel like a crowded party with AI as the DJ.

With little room to sneak a foot in the door, applicants are bombarding the people with AI-tailored resumes and cover letters to those in a position to change their fortunes. In response, some recruiters, HR professionals, and recruiters are turning to AI to help deal with the deluge. Job seekers believe that artificial intelligence is pushing their applications to the bottom and are devising more AI-based hacks that they think will fool the system.

Daniel Chait, CEO of employment platform Greenhouse, calls this a “loop of doom,” or “the idea that both sides are trying to use AI to save themselves.”

“Volume is increasing significantly, but everyone’s applications are becoming more and more similar,” Chait says.

With low overall hiring rates, 1.1 unemployed people for every job opening, and a wealth of talent for employers to choose from, it would be a tough labor market even without automation as part of the equation.

But for job seekers who feel they are being unfairly recruited, AI offers the best scapegoat of all.

AI as a screener? It’s happening.

Greenhouse data shows the average recruiter is receiving about 400% more applications than just a few years ago, Chait said. Recruiters also have to deal with straight-up fraudulent candidates.

To survive this onslaught, companies are using AI to screen resumes to ensure they meet the minimum requirements for the job, said Johnny C. Taylor Jr., CEO of SHRM, a trade association for human resources professionals. Their recently posted position received 150 applications on the first day it was posted online. Small businesses simply don’t have the resources or hiring teams to screen such an avalanche of applicants, he said.

“Generally speaking, I can confidently say that when an AI tool sifts through candidates, it doesn’t find them,” Taylor Jr. said.

Indeed, despite applicants’ fears that AI will automatically reject some qualified candidates based on opaque reasons, humans still scrutinize resumes in many situations, recruiters told Yahoo Finance.

“There’s so much misinformation out there that I see as a problem,” said Elias Cobb, director of Denver-based staffing and search firm Quantix and author of the book “From a Recruiter’s Brain.”

However, in his opinion, the use of AI in resume screening is limited. Sure, some large applicant tracking systems have AI capabilities, but “few companies are using them.”

“Job seekers feel like everyone is taking advantage of them,” he says. “But they really aren’t.”

Additionally, “there is no AI that will automatically reject someone,” Cobb said. “There’s always at least a human being who has to push the button.”

Jim Riney, talent acquisition manager at engineering, planning and consulting firm Freeze & Nichols, said that while he has seen AI-based products that help recruiters evaluate and categorize applications, “we’re not outsourcing decision-making.”

“The important thing for me is that even though we haven’t implemented anything like that, humans always have to make the decisions in the end,” Riney said.

Nicole Lawler, director of client partnerships at staffing firm Veridic Solutions and co-founder of TechYeet, a leadership technology community with about 9,000 members, noted that companies still come to agencies like her for the human touch.

But she also knows that some companies are using AI to screen candidates themselves.

“My agency, we don’t do that,” Lawler said. “But I think for companies that don’t have access to outside agencies, sometimes they have to do that.”

Advice from your boss: AI doesn’t make a good first impression.

Meanwhile, David Hack, founder and CEO of Crash Yard, a pickleball bar and lounge with multiple locations and about 250 employees, said he sees some job candidates relying heavily on AI to create applications.

It can diminish their individuality or give the impression that they are not willing to put in the hard work.

“I think young people are sometimes using shortcuts where everything from their email to their cover letter is clearly built by AI,” he said. “If you’re already relying on AI to do everything for you, that’s not a good first impression.”

Job seekers are dissatisfied and “have legitimate concerns about what role AI will play,” Greenhouse’s Chait said. But AI slop doesn’t help anyone. At the moment, Chait said, with so many applications and resumes so similar, AI is helping to screen out fake applications and bring in more people for audio interviews, giving applicants a chance to show off their humanity.

“Companies are now also looking at the more positive aspects of AI. How can we go out and find people who are being overlooked? And how can we give people the opportunity to go through all of their inboxes and actually show more than what’s on their typical resume or LinkedIn profile?” Chait said.

emma okerman I’m a reporter covering economics and labor for Yahoo Finance. She can be reached at the following address: emma.ockerman@yahooinc.com.

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