Eighteen months ago the world changed. ChatGPT exploded into practically every laptop, smartphone and dinner conversation. Within two months, it reached 100 million users — faster than TikTok, Instagram, Spotify, and Uber.
Today, people of all ages use it much like a calculator to enhance their abilities and provide answers to previously out-of-reach questions. While the calculator was limited to arithmetic, consumer-focused AI tools offer augmented intelligence in every aspect of human information processing — from content writing to video creation.
When we first researched candidate use of AI a year ago, we predicted a rapid take-up. But adoption and expertise have been faster than anyone expected.
TA teams around the globe are now feeling the impact. Overwhelmed with a 10X rise in the volume of applications, they're seeing a stark difference between candidate performance in the early, digital stages of the selection process — and their performance in later, in-person stages.
Our latest research, which for the first time includes those in work with more than 3 years of experience, reveals four major insights:
1. Adoption and proficiency in AI tools are rising rapidly
It’s clear that AI has taken root with students and recent graduates, with a staggering 88% now using it regularly. Just last year, this figure sat at 72%, showing how significant AI adoption has continued to grow among this generation.
And it’s not just frequency of use that’s growing — 86% of Early Careers candidates now consider themselves proficient in AI. Advanced use is no longer limited to a few outliers; it’s becoming the new norm.
Perhaps most surprising is that these trends also hold true for professionals and experienced hires. 61% of professionals are now using AI regularly. And with 2 in 3 experienced hires with 10-20 years of experience tapping into AI tools, it’s clear that usage goes far beyond Gen Alpa and even Gen Z.
This widespread adoption is reshaping the recruitment process in a big way. Our findings show that AI is shifting the balance of power, giving candidates an edge and forcing recruiters to adapt or become overwhelmed.
2. The balance of power has shifted towards candidates
AI is now an integral part of the application approach by candidates –– 59% of students and recent graduates, and 58% of experienced professionals, have already or plan to use AI in the next 12 months to boost their chances of landing their next role.
Candidates aren’t just polishing their CVs with AI, they’re using it to prepare for interviews and automate applications. 1 in 5 are even using AI to tackle psychometric assessments. This level of adoption signals a radical shift in the candidate-employer dynamic, giving job seekers more control over the hiring process.
For talent acquisition leaders, this means one thing: adapt or let the integrity of your recruitment process become totally undermined. The days of using traditional methods are numbered if you want to maintain an efficient and effective process. Now, it’s on TA leaders to stay one step ahead in a landscape where the balance of power is increasingly tipping in candidates' favour.
3. If you think using AI is cheating, you’re in the minority
Candidates and professionals alike are not turning to AI to cheat the system — far from it. Only 8% of Early Careers respondents and 10% of professionals want to cheat. Instead, the majority are using AI to enhance their chances in a competitive job market: 33% of Early Careers candidates and 37% of professionals say they’re simply trying to give themselves the best shot at landing a role.
Many also use AI to improve their writing and clarify their thinking (36% across both groups), while others (19% of Early Careers candidates and 20% of professionals) are adopting it to avoid being left behind by their peers.
The message is clear: AI isn’t being used to cheat — it’s levelling the playing field for those struggling to break through, especially for underrepresented groups like Black professionals, where 1 in 3 report using AI after struggling to break through in the hiring process, even after a long period of applications.
At the same time, the growing consensus is that employers need to embrace AI. One in three Early Careers candidates wouldn’t work for a company that banned AI, and 59% see it as their right to use AI when applying for jobs. This feeling is even stronger among professionals, with 58% of those with 3-10 years of experience feeling that banning AI would make an employer seem outdated.
As the use of AI grows, employers who fail to re-assess their approach, risk losing credibility and a competitive edge -- when your workforce is increasingly reliant on these tools to compete and succeed, why would you not allow them access to the same tools in applying for a job?
4. AI has shattered recruitment best practices. Why TA professionals must act now
Standing still and waiting to see what will happen is no longer an option. As candidate behaviour shifts, traditional recruitment processes are starting to crack under the pressure.
In partnership with UCL researchers, Arctic Shores revealed: ChatGPT didn’t just hold its own in verbal reasoning tests — it outperformed 98.8% of human candidates. (This research has now been validated and peer-reviewed.) It also scored in the 70th percentile on Situational Judgement Tests. When it comes to personality assessments, it’s unbeatable — just by scanning the job description.
When you combine these AI breakthroughs with the rapid adoption of tools like AutoApplyAI, it’s clear the recruitment landscape is changing fast. We’ve already seen a software company’s application volumes soar from 12,000 to 45,000 in just a year. Candidates can now apply to thousands of roles while they sleep, leaving TA teams buried under an avalanche of applications.
In response, some teams have resorted to hiring extra staff to sift through the mountain of CVs, but this costly fix only addresses part of the problem. With more CVs comes a greater risk of going ‘CV-blind’ and letting top talent slip through the cracks.
Without a scalable, accurate way to sift through this growing pool of candidates, recruitment processes will become inefficient, unsustainable, and most importantly, ineffective at finding the right people for the job. It’s time to evolve, or risk falling behind.
Why TA teams must act now
TA leaders need to act fast to rethink their selection process:
- Overstretched recruitment teams are in no position to manually screen a flood of AI generated applications.
- Lost in a 'sea of sameness' TA teams will become CV numb and be unable to determine who is a good fit and who is not, missing out on great talent while being hoodwinked by AI enhancements.
- As application volumes spiral out of control, increasingly arbitrary reasons will be used to screen candidates in and out, increasing bias.
- Candidates with access to the best (paid) versions of AI tools will have an advantage over those who do not, closing the door to social mobility.
- Forced to take on more in-person interviews, at a time of budget cuts, as current processes struggle to effectively sift the right candidates.
There is one solution to all of these challenges. Instead of deterring or detecting AI usage, we need to embrace AI and redesign selection processes without sacrificing accuracy or fairness. Monzo, Siemens and Amazon are already pioneering this approach. Today we’re launching our brand new report to show why and how more companies should do the same:
‘The state of the AI-enabled candidate 2024-25. How candidates’ are using AI in the recruitment process — and why traditional selection tools are now redundant'.
👉 Download the report now for fresh data and practical steps on building an AI-proof selection process.
Or feel free to get in touch if you have any questions. We’d love to hear from you.
