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"Recruitment is broken." As I write, a Google search reveals that the sentence has been written more than 700,000 times. Not surprising. Managers complain that the hundreds, even thousands of jobseekers who apply for their open roles are doing so without pausing to read job descriptions. Instead, they're using poorly trained agents or robots that leverage keyword searches. Jobseekers fret that AI, not humans, is reviewing their resumes and ruling them out for the wrong reasons. That's how ugly and desperate the world of employment looks now.
"The market is currently fundamentally broken, and people are submitting hundreds of applications and being auto-rejected by either AI or humans who largely haven't even looked at the CV," Rob Moore, a tech lead from Bexleyheath, England wrote on LinkedIn.
Melissa Swift, founder and CEO of Anthrome Insight, likens today's hiring environment to an arms race. The weapons are the volumes of job postings and job applications. "There's a psychology of panic on both sides," said the organizational and individual effectiveness expert who has held management positions at companies like Capgemini Invent, Mercer and Korn Ferry. Employers want to leverage AI to the nth degree to find great candidates. Jobseekers want to leverage AI to the hilt to find a job.
Some refer to this phenomenon as "the hiring doom loop," a term credited to Daniel Chaiat, CEO of Greenhouse Software. Jobseekers use AI to present themselves in the best light. Hiring managers use AI to select candidates for interviews. Round and round it goes.
"Good, well-qualified people and good jobs aren't finding each other because of this," Swift said.
AI Hiring Tools Aren't the Fix to Broken Processes
"Stop looking at AI as a strategy," said Matt Charney, a talent acquisition analyst and former editor of ERE.net, an online source for talent acquisition professionals.
The "Godfather of HR," Gerry Crispin, explained why. "AI is making decisions about resumes developed with AI. It makes no sense at all. It's garbage in, garbage out."
With all of that said, some of the experts we spoke to said the problem started long before AI hiring tools entered the picture. Swift points to job design. "Work has changed a lot," she said. "Cloning old job orders isn't going to work."
Instead she recommends those responsible for job design sit down with the hiring manager to determine exactly what the person in the now vacant role will do and the experience and skills they'll need to be successful.
Employers need to think through what they actually need and want — even when it's a backfill. The worker who is leaving probably had a very different job than when they got hired. Not only that, but workers with the same job title might now do different things.
If you don't begin with the end in mind, you waste time and money. In 2025, the hiring process took anywhere from 50 to 120 days on average from the time a meeting is set up to write the job description to the day that the new hire walks in the door.
Why so long? Consider the steps:
Planning and Preparation
- Set up meeting to write job specs: 0–7 days
- Write job specs and obtain approvals: 2 days
Posting the Role
- Post role internally: 2 days
- Post role externally
If hiring an internal candidate, the remaining steps do not apply.
Sourcing and Screening Candidates
- Attract candidates and review résumés:
- Minimum 1 week
- Typically 2–3 weeks (unless pre-selected candidates exist)
- Prescreen 3–10 candidates: 1 day–1 week (depends on scheduling)
Interview Process
- First-round interviews (Zoom or in-person): ~1 week (including scheduling)
- Second- and third-round interviews and back-channel reference checks: 1 week minimum (due to multiple stakeholders involved)
Selection and Offer
- Final interview and candidate selection: 1 day–1 week
- Offer, negotiation, acceptance: 1 hour–1 week
Pre-Hire and Transition
- Background check, drug testing, approvals: ~3 days
- Candidate notice period: 2 weeks
No matter how you view it, AI, on its own, can't fix this given today's world of work. But it can help. In the interim, the company may need to call in a contractor to do the work created by the vacancy, or shelve some of the work or have someone pick up the slack. Whatever the choice, it's expensive.
Do What You Say, Say What You Do
When companies hire, there's a that needs to be fixed, Charney said. Talent management says, "We're not just a job, we're a destination," while acquisition recruits and hires along a very narrow set of specs. The latter, too often, calls for recruiting an external hire.
"Look inside," said Charney. "Candidates who are promoted or referred remain with the company longer. Yet employers spend 90% of their time and money looking externally."
That's not the only problem. "There's an overreliance on technology," Charney added. "The best software and best recruiter are less important than knowing the business."
Charney recalled working at Disney earlier in his career. "HR's in a different building, it's where you went when you were bad." His point: HR, too often, doesn't sit with the business and doesn't know the business. If the opposite were the case, "They'd have first-hand evidence of who can do the job. They could proactively pinpoint employees who are looking for a change and could become flight risks. It's almost as if the recruiter is working undercover."
Now compare this with AI and other technology entering the picture. "AI is supposed to make things more efficient, but at present, it slows things down," said Charney. Worse yet, managers now believe that there are an infinite number of candidates to consider because of all the job listings and job applications AI helps generate. The result isn't any better and the cost of hire has gone up.
"Stop looking at AI as the solution. That's asinine," Charney said. AI is a tool.
Where AI Might Actually Help
Crispin said AI is a tool to experiment with. But it doesn't necessarily help if your hire comes from one in 1,000 applications instead of one in 100 applications that all look alike.
In fact, job postings aren't the first place Crispin would look for job candidates. He strongly recommends filling open roles with internal candidates even if they're only marginally qualified. These people know how the company works and fit into the culture.
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In Crispin's world, recruiters reach out to potential candidates whom they have been nurturing for years. If three to seven internal candidates haven't been identified, he approaches the workers' affinity networks and indirectly pitches them. A good recruiter should be able to short-list four or five well-qualified candidates in 24 hours, Crispin said. Then he presents them to the hiring manager. "They can all do the job, one of them is hired."
Whether you recruit like Charney, Crispin or Swift, AI isn't going to do the job for you. But that doesn't mean you should ignore it.
The question is understanding what AI can and cannot do. It can help sort through large volumes of data. It can identify patterns in successful hires. It can automate scheduling and basic screening tasks. What it cannot do is replace human judgment about whether someone will thrive in a role, fit with a team or bring the intangible qualities that make someone exceptional.
How to Avoid the Hiring Doom Loop
The belief that AI is the fix is what's making talent acquisition worse. Companies that treat it as a cure-all end up with the hiring doom loop. Companies that treat AI as one tool among many, deployed strategically after getting the fundamentals right, might actually improve their hiring.
But first, they need to fix job design. Look internally before posting externally. Get HR to understand the business. Stop cloning old job descriptions and start thinking about what work actually needs to be done.
Only then will AI stop being part of the problem and start becoming part of the solution.
Editor's Note: What else is happening with AI use in recruiting?
- AI Hiring Bias Has an Accomplice: You — If AI has an opinion, people trust it. We need new strategies to stop humans from signing off on AI bias.
- Why AI Hiring Discrimination Lawsuits Are About to Explode — AI is reshaping hiring — and the courtroom. Job seekers are suing over biased screening tools, and experts say a wave of lawsuits is just beginning.
- Job Candidates Can Now Spam Employers More Efficiently — The ability to stand out when applying for a job has been thwarted by AI. But a new tool promises job seekers an easier path to recruiters’ inboxes.
