How common is the use of AI in job applications? Very common, according to new research from Statista+. In a January 2026 survey of 500 adults in the US, 70% said they had used artificial intelligence when applying for a job in the past 24 months, compared to 64% in the UK. As the infographic shows, AI adoption varies slightly depending on several factors, but it appears to be becoming the norm rather than the exception.
Of all the generations surveyed, Millennials are the most likely to trust AI tools to help them with their job search, at 78 percent in the US and 79 percent in the UK, several percentage points more than any other generation. Men were also slightly more likely than women to have used AI in an application in the past two years. The biggest gap identified in this article was between office/desk workers and manual workers in the UK. Seventy-two percent of the former admitted to using AI in the application process, compared to just 35% of the latter. Interestingly, the difference was much less pronounced in the United States, at 82 percent compared to 72 percent.
Although AI appears to be fairly widely adopted for job searches and applications in both the US and UK, concerns remain. In both countries, around 6 in 10 respondents said applicants should be careful to use AI in a way that does not identify it as AI. More than half of those who have not recently relied on technology were concerned that the use of AI would result in the loss of personal human contact during the application process. At the same time, the majority believed that in the future it will be impossible to apply for a job without AI.
