When an unemployed British man came for a job interview, the interviewer was an AI robot | Money News

David Gwynne is not satisfied with the outcome of his job interview at a London hospitality company last month.

The 37-year-old said he didn’t feel heard, didn’t get any feedback, and found the whole process “incredibly alienating.”

That’s because he was being interviewed by a robot.

That meant I had to wait a month to see a manager.

Gwynn is one of a growing number of job seekers facing non-human interviewers as recruiters leverage AI to deal with overwhelming candidate pools.

“Being interviewed by an AI bot felt incredibly alienating. There was no feedback or human interaction, so I had no idea how I was being perceived,” says Gwynne, a part-time bartender.

According to , more than four out of five recruiters have implemented some form of AI in their application process. resume library Your data will only be shared with the Money team.

At the same time, a CV-Library study found that 40% of job seekers have given up or considered giving up on an application due to the use of AI in the hiring process.

Gwynne likened the experience to Harrison Ford’s 1982 dystopian sci-fi epic Blade Runner.

“You feel left out, and there’s so little real communication that it’s easy for the effort you put in to be completely ignored.”

Behind the rise of robots

Faced with an explosive increase in the number of applicants, recruiters are relying on AI to schedule calls, screen resumes, manage and score assessments, take notes for interviews, and even conduct interviews.

The number of applications per job ad jumped 286% from 13 to 49 in the year to November 2024, according to the latest data available from recruitment platform Tribepad.

Additionally, data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that between May 2022 and February 2025, the number of job openings per 100 vacancies almost halved from 4.1 to 2.2.

Again, the AI ​​seems to have a problem, but not the employer.

“Candidates are using AI to write cover letters, resumes, and apply, so the number of applicants is huge,” said Dina Taylor, senior executive and head of AI at Hirevue, which provides recruitment services that include AI tools to employers.

The company counts Walmart, Nestlé, William Hill and several universities among its customers, but it doesn’t say which customers use specific AI tools.

Taylor added, “Recruiters and hiring managers don’t have the brain space or time to read every resume and make informed decisions. And every day a job goes unfilled, companies lose money.”

Nearly 80% of the 500 employers surveyed by CV-Library said that AI-generated applications have exploded in the past year.

Trapped in an “arms race”

Gwinn said he understands why recruiters are deploying AI, but it speaks to a broader “imbalance” between companies and prospective workers.

Employers are requiring candidates to jump through increasingly hoops in the hiring process, with some of Gwin’s first-stage applications taking more than three days to complete. “Even if you seriously consider it, there’s basically nothing you can get back.”

More than half (53%) of the 1,100 applicants surveyed believed their applications were rejected by AI without human review.

Some bosses were not impressed with the results.

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According to data from CV-Library, 72% of recruiters feel AI struggles to identify cultural fit, and 55% say soft skills are poorly assessed.

Lee Biggins, chief executive of CV-Library, said the study was a “wake-up call” for recruiters, who need to use AI to support rather than replace human intuition.

“We are witnessing the beginning of a vicious cycle. AI is being used to manage application volume, but it is also contributing to that volume, creating an ‘arms race’ where both employers and candidates optimize efficiency while sacrificing quality.”

“As the market becomes more competitive, recruiters are under pressure to process applications faster and are adding AI-powered screening steps such as filters, ratings, and pre-questions, all of which are lengthening the candidate process.

“In response, job seekers are turning to AI for applications and application optimization at scale, and the cycle continues.”

Overall, 35% of employers feel they are missing out on the best hires because AI lacks human intuition.

“Use it to your advantage.”

However, High Review’s Taylor rejected this figure, saying the findings were based on “hypothesis and hunch”.

“If I posted a job and 1,000 people applied for the job, I would seriously challenge whether I actually talked to all 1,000 people.”

Taylor said the most important thing to successfully implement AI in the hiring process is to tailor it to assess the skills that specific companies are looking for, rather than “one-size-fits-all.”

Bots that properly vet candidates can give them a better chance to sell themselves than written applications, she says.

“It’s very hard to have the opportunity to tell your story when you’re a piece of paper being compared to 999 other people. Whereas, you’re one of 1,000 people and you have a chance to have a conversation. Even if it’s a digital conversation, you can reveal more about yourself.”

Taylor added, “And the reality is that AI is becoming kind of a core skill that everyone expects.”

She suggests candidates should “lean into it” and use the AI-powered application stage to their advantage to get to the next stage.

Despite Gwyn’s aversion to using AI, it appears he did just that, securing an interview with a human hiring manager.

5 important tips

CV-Library shared five top tips to ensure your applications don’t get filtered out by AI.

1. Bring your skills forward: Start your resume with clear bullet points that match the job description.
2. Showcase your unique achievements : Use positive, measurable language to showcase your accomplishments. Emphasizing actual results rather than general claims will help both recruiters and AI recognize your impact.
3. Customize any application. Customize your resume and cover letter for each job. AI helps with formatting and presentation, but it also shows that it understands your company and role.
4. Be specific rather than vague.Avoid relying on general claims like “improved,” “driven,” or “managed” and instead include data and context. AI systems identify quantifiable outcomes.
5. Stick to simplicity: Avoid text boxes, images, graphics, and tables as AI tools have a hard time interpreting them. Use simple layouts with basic styles and clean, professional fonts like Arial or Calibri.