The AI hiring doom loop

It’s not a pretty sight on the frontline of hiring at the moment.

Hiring managers are buried under the CV avalanche, thanks to the rise of AI. According to the 2026 Greenhouse report, the average number of applications per hire increased by 158% between 2022 and 2025. Companies are now receiving CVs presented in the same perfect template and worded with the same filler vocabulary. In a user research call, a talent manager from a well-known VC shared her observation from across all their portfolio companies:

Now all CVs look the same. There are no errors because they are generated by AI and tailored to the job description.

That’s only the tip of the iceberg.

Talent acquisition managers have also observed experience inflation in CVs. Some candidates are taking credit for others’ work or even fabricating achievements. Additionally, using autonomous AI agents to apply for jobs is also becoming a more common practice, even for jobs that are not relevant to their experience. 42% of HR professionals say that less than half of job applications received meet all the criteria listed.

But the truth is, life hasn’t been any easier for candidates either.

They feel compelled to use AI to write CVs because they are being assessed by another AI searching for relevant keywords in their applications. Many have already experienced being assessed by AI, some even at multiple stages, before they get to see a human. According to Gartner’s survey, only 26% of candidates trust AI to evaluate them fairly during the hiring process. My favourite example is a candidate who told the BBC that an AI interviewer had said she hasn’t shown enough empathy.

We are now officially deep in the AI hiring doom loop, and no one is winning.

Hiring based on CVs is broken beyond repair

AI’s advance is inevitable, and it will be applied more thoroughly in every aspect of our lives, including hiring.

If we keep evolving hiring practices based on CVs, we will end up with more layers of AI writing applications, screening them and interviewing candidates. We can all pretend the work is being done while candidates and hiring managers drift further apart. This will only increase the cost, reduce the speed, and lower the quality of hiring.

We’ve already seen this happening. Established ATS softwares are racing to launch AI screening features, AI interview features and AI technical test. In my opinion, these are patchwork solutions. They are simply plasters over a severed arm.

Let’s bring back the core of hiring - the human connection

I strongly believe that taste, judgement, values and agency are the qualities employers most desire, when AI is becoming more capable to take on repetitive and technical tasks. Unfortunately, the signal for these qualities is very weak in CVs, not to mention they are qualities only humans can perceive and evaluate.

Fundamentally, hiring is an art of human connection, judgement and intuition. Some of the greatest recruitment stories in history and literature, from Bilbo Baggins to Kong Ming, began with one person’s faith in another. We won’t improve hiring by pushing candidates and hiring managers further apart. We need a solution that brings them closer, sooner.

That’s why we are building Wolven.