Job seekers have turned their eyes to AI for everything from career advice to cover letters, but experts say too many candidates have put “blind faith” in AI tools.
According to a 2025 market trend report from the recruitment company’s career group companies, approximately 65% of candidates use AI at some point in the recruitment process.
Jen Delorenzo, career coach and founder of professional coaching business The Career Raven, says job seekers can run into problems if they rely heavily on AI.
She warns that many AI tools tend to hallucinate or create information to meet user requests. In DeLorenzo’s experience, when AI is asked to rewrite his resume and adjust it to a job description, she says, “I’d lie if the title doesn’t align 100%.”
And even if all the information is accurate, applications generated by AI tend to share certain uniformity, according to Jessye Kass Karlin, a fractional recruiter and former career coach.
“You can fully know that someone has used AI, because all of a sudden there are six applications that have the same type of structure and format,” she says.
According to Karlin, the authentic, thoughtful answer is what sets the best candidates apart among hundreds of applicants.
She says when everyone is trying to adjust to a job statement that “often people lose sight of what we are actually looking for.”
Signs of AI can be “transparent”
In both Karlin and Delorenzo, clients have encountered trouble using AI in their recruitment applications.
One DeLorenzo client found himself in a difficult situation after using AI to rewrite his resume for multiple different jobs. She didn’t read the edited resume before sending out, but later found out that the AI tool exaggerated her work experience and inserted inaccurate information.
“When she was interviewed, she would be terrified because she didn’t know how to prepare,” DeLorenzo recalls. “You have to be able to speak to the points of your bullet. If you don’t have a story, it will become clear.”
Carlin says he saw multiple job seekers accidentally include an AI prompt in their answers to questions in their online application.
She remembers particularly memorable examples of what AI was wrong. One applicant answered the question, “Why do you want to work here?” “As an artificial intelligence, I have no emotions.”
“I, OK, we definitely had to proofread,” laughs Carlin.
Best Practices for Using AI
DeLorenzo is not opposed to using AI on job seekers, but she warns that the process still requires human surveillance.
“You really need to be careful about that,” she says. “Unfortunately, people want to rewrite their resumes every time, so it’s easy to be lazy.”
AI-generated resumes are often stuffed with keywords, which can be “unpleasant” to read.
“What we’re going to get is a salad of a lot of words,” she says. “People who actually use their words to tell their impact are far more effective than people using AI.”
Instead of using AI to generate your first draft, Delorenzo recommends job seekers write their own resume or cover letter, asking the AI to hone their language.
Even when training AI tools to accomplish tasks, “a lot is still wrong,” Delorenzo says. She has seen AI make big errors, such as mistaken company in recruitment applications.
“You really need to look into it and recheck it before sending it, because that might be embarrassing,” she says. “It certainly could ruin your chance.”
The work process can be “exhausted and overwhelming.”
But she says that employers ultimately want to hire you, not the tools you can use.
Do you want to stand out, grow your network and get more employment opportunities? How to sign up for CNBC’s Smarter to build a standout personal brand online, online, in-person, in the workplace. Learn how to showcase your skills, build a great reputation, and create a digital presence that AI can’t replicate.
Additionally, we request that you sign up for CNBC to connect with experts and peers in our newsletter, money, and life to get tips and tricks for success in the workplace.
