By Gordon Ebanks, CNN
(CNN) — As America’s labor market slows, AI-led interviews and auto-generated cover letters are dramatically changing the process of getting a job. And maybe not for the better.
More than half of the organizations surveyed by the Society for Human Resource Management used AI to recruit workers in 2025. And an estimated third of ChatGPT users reportedly leaned on the OpenAI chatbot to help with their job search.
However, recent research found that when job seekers use AI during the process, applicants are less likely to be hired. Meanwhile, companies are fielding an increased volume of applications.
“The ability (for companies) to select the best worker today may be worse due to AI,” said Anaïs Galdin, a Dartmouth researcher who co-authored a study looking at how large language models (LLMs) have impacted cover letters.
Galdin and her co-author, Jesse Silbert at Princeton, analyzed cover letters for tens of thousands of job applications on Freelancer.com, a jobs listing site.
The researchers found that after the introduction of ChatGPT in 2022, the letters all got longer and better-written, but companies stopped putting so much stock in them. That made it harder to distinguish a qualified hire from the rest of the applicant pool, and the rate of hiring dropped as did the average starting wage.
“If we do nothing to make information flow better between workers and firms, then we might have an outcome that looks something like this,” said Silbert, referring to the results of his study.
And with more applications to review, employers are automating the interview itself.
A majority (54%) of the US job seekers surveyed by recruiting software firm Greenhouse in October said they’ve had an AI-led interview. Virtual interviews exploded in popularity during the pandemic in 2020. Many companies now use AI to ask the questions, but that hasn’t made the process any less subjective.
“Algorithms can copy and even magnify human biases,” said Djurre Holtrop, a researcher who has conducted studies about the use of asynchronous video interviews, algorithms, and LLMs in hiring. “Every developer needs to be wary of that.”
Daniel Chait, CEO of Greenhouse, warned that with AI infiltrating hiring – from applicants using the tool to apply to hundreds of jobs and employees automating the process in response – it has created a “doom loop” making everyone miserable.
“Both sides are saying, ‘This is impossible, it’s not working, it’s getting worse,’” Chait told CNN.
Pushing back
Employers are embracing the technology — one estimate projects the market for recruiting technology will grow to $3.1 billion by the end of this year. But state lawmakers, labor groups and individual workers have begun pushing back over fears that AI could discriminate against workers.
Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO labor union, called the use of AI in hiring “unacceptable.”
“AI systems ro