It’s a confusing time to be a job seeker right now: While artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an increasingly critical part of work, many companies (including AI-focused ones) are emphasizing how much they disapprove of the technology being used in the job search.
“Please do not use AI assistants during the application process,” Anthropic, the organization behind popular AI assistant Claude, tells candidates who apply on its website, as reported by 404 Media last month. “We want to understand your personal interest in Anthropic without mediation through an AI system, and we also want to evaluate your non-AI-assisted communication skills.”
You may have a very good excuse for wanting or needing to use AI when applying to jobs. Lief Larson, the CEO of Salesfolks, a hiring agency for sales teams, argues that it can often feel like the only solution for tackling a crowded market that requires playing the numbers game.
“You have massive volumes of job postings at the same time that people who are looking for roles are having to apply to more roles than they ever have before,” Larson says. “If I’m putting myself in the shoes of the candidate, I understand why. You can write more content, you can try and have it be more customized and bespoke to an opportunity. And so the temptation is large, and it’s real to utilize that.”
So what can we make of this contradiction—that adopting AI is a must for many workers, and yet discouraged in one of the most important stages of one’s career journey?
Turns out, recruiters and hiring managers have their reasons for rejecting this tool. But they also don’t say you need to remove it from your process completely.
Let us explain.
What’s wrong with using AI in the job search?
Companies want to hire people, not robots—or else they wouldn’t put out job postings in the first place. So when they say “Don’t use AI,” what they’re really saying is, “I want to know there’s a human being behind this resume or cover letter—a human being with interests, soft skills, and a unique background and perspective.”
“When you start artificially introducing these layers of the technology, that becomes an impediment to connecting with the real person,” Larson says. “Whether you’re a manufacturing business that’s trying to find new hires or you’re an AI technology company that’s trying to find people, at the end of the day, humans still have a massive role in commerce. People still buy from people that they know and they trust.”
Add to that the problem that AI isn’t always an accurate or reliable source, especially if what you input or how the tech was trained leans a certain direction or lacks useful context. In turn, recruiters often can’t trust an AI-generated (or seemingly AI-generated) application. The tech may exaggerate someone’s qualifications, or make up skills or experiences the applicant doesn’t actually have.
“If you’re looking for a specific outcome with your application development process, the AI is going to take your input of that desire, that wish that you have for it to be able to fit specific types of job opportunities, and it’s going to try and make it fit as closely as it can, even if you’re 10-15 degrees off of true north,” Larson says.
“I’ve seen candidates submit glowing, polished resumes that suggest they’re quota-smashing rainmakers, only to completely fumble when asked, ‘Tell me about a time you had to turn around a failing deal,’” he says. “AI can optimize a job application for keywords, but it can’t manufacture real experience.”
Hiring managers aren’t just turned off by AI-supported applications because they seem untrustworthy. Peter Swimm, a former Microsoft product manager and the founder of AI consultancy Toilville, notes that it can feel as if the applicant doesn’t value the recruiter’s time or commitment to finding the right person for the job. “Even if it would demonstrate a candidate’s adeptness at using AI tools, employers see it as a way of gaming the system and robbing them of their ability to evaluate talent,” Swimm says.
And if everyone’s using AI, it will be harder for even superstar candidates to stand out. “AI levels the playing field in a way that hiring managers don’t necessarily want,” Larson says. “If you’re looking for the best talent, the last thing you want is a stack of applications that all sound eerily the same.” What results is poor decision-making, bad hires, and a “messier hiring process” overall.
Consider, too, that HR teams are using AI in their everyday workflows—including using it to detect AI-generated content where they’re required to weed it out. What reads as dislike for AI, then, might actually be a mere warning for candidates who don’t want their resumes tossed in the “no” pile before they’re given a fair shot face-to-face.
How to use AI responsibly in your job search
Larson and Swimm agree that AI still has its place in the job search. “If you’re a curious person, you should be out there using AI—it’s a force multiplier, and it has amazing capabilities,” Larson says. “But at the end of the day, you’ve still got to be the best version of you.”
One of the best uses of AI, they note, is for refining content you’ve already created. “The use of AI, especially with regards to readability and grammar, is super helpful,” Swimm says. “I would not let AI write things whole-cloth. I would write how I write, and then use my AI to make sure that I structured stuff in a proper way.” For example, it can help you get a cover letter started, or reframe a resume bullet point so it’s more results-driven, or organize your LinkedIn summary.
AI can also serve as an interview prep partner or career advisor (like The Muse’s Maya!). You can ask it to suggest responses to tough behavioral questions you might encounter, pretend to be an interviewer at a company you’ve applied to, or provide advice for a specific job search or career scenario. None of these instances require you to completely depend on the tech to make a good impression—rather, it can merely aid or inspire you when you’re feeling stuck.
“People fall into pitfalls,” Swimm says, “when you’re asking it to do stuff that you’re not adept at, and it changes the meaning of what you’re trying to say and do to represent yourself.”
(For more ideas, read this Muse article about leveraging AI in the job search effectively.)