ChatGPT Revolutionizes Job Search: Hirers & Applicants Embrace AI

January 21, 2026 — 4:04pm You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Employers are being swamped by “machine gun” job applications as job-seekers increasingly turn to AI to write cover letters or CVs, prompting warnings that applicants relying too heavily on the technology risk wasting their time. Zoe Sullivan, head of people and culture at labour hire organisation Co-Op Group, says there has been a surge in the volume of job applications because of AI, mainly across white-collar roles. “Some applicants are using AI to polish their CVs, but many are using it to falsely present themselves,” she says. “That means the manual side of the process for recruiters has become huge.” Sullivan says a recent case manager opening, which would have only had about 10 to 20 applicants before the uptake of AI, received nearly 100 applicants. “That was really hard,” she says. “It was very difficult to discriminate between what experience people have and what they don’t.” Advertisement Joel Delmaire, chief strategy and product officer at AI recruitment software firm JobAdder, says his firm has seen a 42 per cent increase in the volume of job applications over the past year. “Candidates can now prepare applications much faster, but we see two behaviours which are quite different,” he says. Delmaire labels one of these behaviours the “machine gun application” where candidates “spam” their resumes to a wide range of potential employers, generating hundreds of versions using AI in the hopes of getting noticed. “The other behaviour is tailoring resumes, and using AI as a guide to help you prepare for a job that you’re a really good match for,” he says. “That one is more likely to be successful.” David Holland, managing director of talent solutions at employment software firm Employment Hero, says it has become easier for candidates to apply through traditional job boards using an AI-driven cover letter and CV tailored to cover the keywords in job descriptions, but that employers are also seeing an increase in “irrelevant applications.” Advertisement Holland says candidates who rely too heavily on AI, using it to draft whole cover letters or optimise their CVs, end up wasting time. “Any talent acquisition person today will explain that they have experiences where, on paper, someone is scoring 90 or 95 based on a technical review of their application, but it just doesn’t come through in the interviews and the disparity is stark,” he says. “You’re not doing yourself any favours by qualifying for the interview stage for roles that you just are not qualified to do.” Dean Connelly, director and founder at recruitment agency Latte, says AI allows candidates to produce tailored cover letter in a fraction of the time, but that job applicants still need to be able to articulate their own views. “If you can’t bring an AI-generated brief to life with your own perspective, you haven’t saved time, you’ve just automated your own rejection,” he says. Advertisement In response to the surge in AI job applications, businesses are also using the technology. Australian HR Institute chief executive Sarah McCann Bartlett says that businesses are increasingly using AI to sift through CVs and cover letters after experiencing an “extremely high” volume of applications. “It does make the screening process extremely onerous for employers, hence the increasing use of AI for screening,” she says. Companies such as buy now, pay later firm Zip actively encourage the use of AI throughout some parts of their recruitment process, saying they see AI as a core skill for the future while blue-chip consultancy McKinsey has asked graduate applicants to collaborate with an artificial intelligence tool as part of its recruitment process. Holland says he is confident that 90 per cent of medium and large businesses in Australia are already adopting AI in their hiring processes, with the exception of some bricks-and-mortar businesses in retail and hospitality which still tend to rely more heavily on walk-ins. Advertisement “[Using AI] can free up time for hirers to spend on the pointy end of the hiring process which is really getting to understand who the person is, what they genuinely bring to the role,” he says. Delmaire says more than 80 per cent of the businesses that JobAdder has surveyed have indicated they use AI in their hiring process, up from 69 per cent last year. Bunnings is one example of a major employer that uses an AI interview platform during the early stages of its recruitment.This process includes an online questionnaire with five behaviour-based questions, which the hardware giant says is “similar to a phone interview with a recruiter” but “completely unbiased” because it focuses only on the answers which are then compared to what the company is looking for. However, the Bunnings spokesperson says the recruitment team is responsible for reviewing applications, conducting in-person interviews and “making all decisions throughout the hiring process.” Advertisement You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. More: AI Millie Muroi is the economics writer at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She was formerly an economics correspondent based in Canberra’s Press Gallery and the banking writer based in Sydney.Connect via Twitter or email.