AI Is Helping Job Seekers Lie, Flood the Market, and Steal Jobs

Oodles of Experience

The advent of generative AI has fundamentally altered the job application process. Both recruiters and applicants are making heavy use of the tech, making an already soul-sucking and tedious process even worse.

And as TechRadar reports, applicants are going to extreme lengths to nail down a job — and stand out in an extremely competitive and crowded job market. According to a recent campaign by insurer Hiscox, more than half of recent job applicants said they had used AI tools to write their resumes.

A whopping 37 percent admitted they didn't bother correcting embellishments the AI chatbot made, like exaggerated experience and fabricated interests. 38 percent admitted to outright lying on their CVs.

The news highlights a worrying new normal, with applicants using AI to facilitate fabricating a "perfect candidate" to score a job interview.

"AI can help many candidates put their best foot forward... but it needs to be used carefully," Hiscox chief underwriting officer Pete Treloar told TechRadar.

Perfect Candidate

Meanwhile, it's not just job applicants using generative AI to automate the process. Recruiters have been outsourcing the role of interviewing for jobs to often flawed AI avatars.

Earlier this week, Fortune reported how a former software engineer went from earning $150,000 in upstate New York to living out of a trailer after being replaced by AI. Out of the ten interviews he scored after sending out 800 job applications, a handful of them were with AI bots.

In short, it's a frustrating process that's unlikely to make applying for jobs any less grueling. Hiscox found that 41 percent of applicants said AI gives some candidates an unfair advantage. 42 percent of respondents said the tech is misleading employers.

But now that the cat is out of the bag, it remains to be seen how the future of job applications will adapt to a world teeming with accessible generative AI tools.

It's never been easier to lie on your resume — but anybody willing to do so will have to live with the consequences as well. Being caught could not only lead to immediate disqualification, it can damage one's professional reputation, and in a worst-case scenario, result in a lawsuit. Remember: Just because everyone's doing it doesn't mean you won't get busted for it — or worse.

More on lying AIs: Law Firms Caught and Punished for Passing Around "Bogus" AI Slop in Court

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