A few years ago, writing a tailored resume and cover letter took real effort. A candidate who sent a clean, well-organized application for your role had usually spent some time on it, and that told you something. Today, a candidate can paste your job posting into an AI tool and get a polished resume and cover letter back in a minute or two. Some tools go further and submit applications to dozens of jobs on the candidate's behalf.
That is a reasonable thing for job seekers to do, and plenty of strong candidates use these tools. But it changes two things for any company that is hiring. There are more applications to sort through, and a well-written application says less about the person behind it than it used to. If your screening process was built before this shift, it is worth a second look.
More Applications, Same Number of Good Fits
The jump in volume is real. In 2025, The New York Times reported that LinkedIn was seeing about 11,000 job applications a minute, up 45 percent from the year before, with AI tools as part of the reason.
At a company of 50 to 200 people, this tends to show up in a familiar way. Say a role that used to draw 80 applicants now draws 400. The number of people who are actually qualified has probably not grown nearly as fast, so whoever does the first screen spends a lot more hours finding them. When that person is a busy recruiter, or an office manager covering hiring on the side, good candidates can sit in the pile for a week before anyone sees them.
Why a Polished Resume Means Less Now
Many screening habits treat the application itself as a signal. A clear summary, strong action verbs, a cover letter that echoes the job posting, and no typos all used to suggest someone who was careful and interested in the role. AI tools now produce all of that by default.
As a result, a lot of applications look alike. Keyword matching gets less useful too, since a tool can read your posting and mirror its language right back. A resume that matches your posting almost word for word may only mean the candidate ran it through a tool. Meanwhile, a strong candidate who wrote a plain resume on their own can end up looking weaker by comparison.
None of this means candidates are being dishonest. Most are using the same tools everyone else is. The document simply carries less information than it used to, so your process has to get that information somewhere else.
Move the Real Evaluation Earlier
The most useful change is to get to evidence of actual ability sooner. A resume can still tell you whether someone has the basic background for the role. After that, the goal is to see how they think and work as early as you reasonably can.
- Add two or three short questions to the application that are specific to the role, such as asking a sales candidate about a deal they lost and what they took from it. The answers will not stop anyone from using AI, but they give the first conversation something specific to dig into.
- For anyone who clears the basic requirements, replace a long resume review with a 15 to 20 minute phone screen.
- Use a small, realistic work sample where it makes sense, like a short writing exercise or a walk-through of how the candidate would approach a real problem. Keep it short, and talk through it with them afterward.
- In interviews, ask follow-up questions. Asking someone why they made a choice, or what they would do differently next time, tells you much more than a prepared answer.
Live conversation is where AI help matters least. A candidate can use a tool to prepare, and that is fine. It is much harder to fake understanding when someone asks a second and third question.
When a resume can be written in a minute, the conversation becomes the most reliable part of your process.
Be Clear About What You Expect
Candidates are often unsure where the line is, and so are many hiring teams. It helps to decide on a position and say it plainly.
For most roles, using AI to polish a resume is a lot like asking a friend to proofread it, and treating it as a red flag will shrink your pool for no good reason. A take-home exercise is a different matter. If you want to see the candidate's own work, say so in the instructions. If you are fine with AI help, say that too, and then ask them to walk you through what they did and why.
Make sure your hiring managers know the policy as well, so candidates hear the same thing from everyone they meet.
Use Screening Software Carefully
With more applications coming in, it is tempting to answer AI with AI and let software make the first cut. That can help with volume, and many applicant tracking systems now offer some version of it. It also comes with risks worth taking seriously.
Automated screening can filter out good candidates for reasons that have nothing to do with the job, like an unusual career path or a gap in work history. Some places have also started regulating automated tools in hiring. New York City, for example, requires bias audits for certain automated employment decision tools. If your team is considering one, have employment counsel review how it will be used, and make sure a person still reviews at least a sample of the candidates the tool rejects.
What to Ask Your Team This Month
You do not need to rebuild your hiring process. A few questions to whoever runs recruiting will show you where to start.
- How many applications are open roles getting now compared with a year ago, and how long does it take to review them?
- How long does a qualified candidate wait between applying and hearing back?
- At what point in the process does the team first see a candidate's actual work or thinking?
- Is there a written position on AI use in applications and take-home work?
- If software is screening candidates, who checks what it filters out?
If response times are slipping as volume climbs, fix that first. Strong candidates usually have options and will not wait long. From there, moving a live conversation or a short work sample earlier in the process will tell you more about candidates than any amount of extra resume reading.
If your team is buried in applications, a recruiting partner can take on the first screen and keep qualified candidates moving while you decide on longer-term changes.