Research from CV-Library suggests more than a third of recruiters are finding AI tools are now causing them to miss out on strong candidates, as employers increasingly rely on automation to manage high volumes of applications.
The research shows 83 per cent of recruiters use AI in hiring, with 28 per cent relying on it to screen applications. But 35 per cent say it has led to missed talent, while 27 per cent believe strong candidates are being filtered out before they reach an interview.
The study, based on nearly 500 recruiters and 1,100 candidates reveals more than half (53 per cent) of jobseekers believe they’ve been rejected by AI without a human ever reviewing their CV.
A further 46 per cent say unfair rejection is one of their biggest frustrations when job hunting, while 63 per cent say AI-led hiring is less fair than human judgement. The technology is also changing behaviour, with 40 per cent of jobseekers abandoning or considering abandoning applications when AI is used in early screening.
CV-Library quotes a candidate, David, 37, a part-time bartender from Doncaster as saying: “Being interviewed by an AI bot felt incredibly alienating – there’s no feedback or human interaction, so you have no idea how you’re coming across. It feels like you’re being filtered out, and with so little real communication, it’s easy for the effort you put in to be completely overlooked.”
Younger jobseekers are most concerned about automated hiring decisions. Nearly two-thirds (64 per cent) of Gen Z believe AI is responsible for rejecting their application in early stages – the highest of any generation. They are also the most frustrated by unfair rejection (53 per cent), followed by Millennials (47 per cent) and Gen X (46 per cent).
The rise of AI is also changing how candidates present themselves. 79 per cent say AI-generated CVs have surged in the past year – but this is creating unintended consequences. 81 per cent of recruiters cite CVs have become more standardised and less distinctive due to AI, with individuality and personality disappearing.
More than four in five recruiters (83 per cent) say they are using AI to speed up hiring, with 28 per cent relying on it to manage application volume. But its not always delivering the benefits, with just 36 per cent say it improves speed-to-hire.
AI is strongest in admin tasks such as writing job descriptions (63 per cent) and scheduling interviews (38 per cent) but struggles with judgement-based decisions. 72 per cent say AI cannot assess cultural fit, while 55 per cent say it performs poorly when evaluating soft skills.
“Candidates have long felt that the human touch is ebbing away from the hiring process and that good people are getting screened out unfairly,” said Lee Biggins, CEO and Founder of CV-Library. “This insight from recruiters in both agencies and businesses suggests their frustrations may be justified.
“It’s a timely wake-up call that not everything should be outsourced to AI, especially in recruitment where every candidate is individually unique. It can add value in automating some laborious process, but good recruiters are using it to support human intuition, not replace it.”
Full report: https://www.cv-library.co.uk/recruitment-insight/ai-in-recruitment-survey/.
