AI (artificial intelligence) isn’t exactly in its infancy, but the way it’s being applied today is a lot different to how it was being applied 70+ years ago when the field really started to take off. Back then, the idea that almost everybody in the world would have access to AI tools at their fingertips, for free, every single day, would have seemed like science fiction. Yet here we are, and it could be affecting hiring decisions for UK businesses.
AI is a great tool for small businesses who want to optimise their business processes, and it can be great for larger businesses who are managing huge amounts of admin tasks and large business operations. But it can be a problem, too.
2309 job applicants in the UK were recently surveyed to find out whether they used AI for their job application process – and a whopping 46% said yes – and of the remaining 54%, 26% said they were likely to use AI in future job applications. But what does that mean for UK businesses? And what can business leaders do about AI applications?
Industry Experts React To AI Job Applications
James Robinson, who runs an advertising agency in Cardiff, Hello Starling, said that he and other business leaders were noticing an upward trend in AI use in job applications, and it was making it “very difficult” to “try and work out who is real, versus which ones are robots”. He went on to warn that candidates could use the technology to “engineer” the application process in their favour, without being “capable of doing the job” when they were eventually hired.
Whilst this is just one point of view, it certainly seems as though the growing trend of AI use is becoming a problem for UK business leaders and hiring managers, who are becoming increasingly concerned about the quality of the candidate chosen.
How Might AI Stack The Odds In A User’s Favour?
AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, can perform complex reasoning tasks for users, for free. Sharing a link to a job post and asking it to help create a job application or CV to align with what the employer is looking for is not only possible, but incredibly easy to do. And the content the system throws out in seconds is of high quality, relevant to the job post, and can be tweaked to be personalised to the user based on their employment and educational backgrounds.
This wouldn’t be such a bad thing, if it wasn’t for the fact that the user didn’t come up with such a strong application themselves. After all, a job application is the first thing you read from a potential candidate, and reading it helps you decide fairly quickly if the person is likely to be a fit for your business and whether or not to offer an interview. If a candidate is able to rig the odds in their favour by providing a polished application that ticks all the boxes, then they could get through to the next stage with 0 effort on their part.
AI could, in theory, outright lie about (or certainly embellish) the candidate’s skills and experiences in order to make them sound attractive to those making hiring decisions. But when those skills are then required for the role, the new hire could prove to be ineffective. This could spell disaster for businesses, increasing hiring costs and employee turnover.
Interviews Are More Important Than Ever In 2025
There is one saving grace: the face-to-face interview. AI might be able to help an individual with their initial application, but it can’t help them in a face-to-face interview where you’ll be able to really assess their knowledge. A skills-based assessment might also prove to be useful here to weed out those who don’t really have the skills and experience they claim.
AI is here to stay, and its use will only become more prevalent in the years ahead. That’s why it’s so important that business’ review their hiring process to ensure that it can stop those who use AI from misrepresenting themselves. After all, you want someone with a deep understanding of their role and the relevant skills and experience.
Get your hiring process right in 2025, though, and you can still find the right talent for your open job roles. You just have to be cautious of AI applications…