How you should use AI in your job hunt, according to recruiters and career coaches

Since getting laid off from a big bank in March, Lamar Rogers has used AI to help him apply to nearly 200 jobs.

He turns to Claude to tailor his résumé, uses an AI-powered dashboard for every interview, and recently vibe-coded a résumé-review app. Yet Rogers draws the line at letting AI apply for jobs on his behalf.

For the senior roles in banking and tech that he’s pursuing, using AI to handle the entire application would be “disingenuous,” Rogers, 34, said. “I want to put a lot more thought and care into it.”

While employers use AI to screen applications, job seekers are using AI to whip up résumés and apply for jobs.

Yet as AI firms make it easier to identify a bot’s helping hand — Anthropic recently said new Claude models would insert an “imperceptible watermark” into text that AI kicks out — the big question is how much AI is too much in the application process?

Business Insider spoke with headhunters and HR pros about best practices for using AI in your job hunt:

You don’t need to hide AI

Job coaches said that candidates don’t necessarily need to hide their use of AI. Employers are more focused on whether a candidate’s claims hold up than on how polished their résumé looks.

“It’s not really about whether AI helped write it,” said Stephen Telford, a headhunter and career coach. “It’s about whether the claim actually holds up once I start digging.”

If a candidate claims they “improved sales by 30%” yet can’t provide a detailed breakdown or point to evidence of how they achieved that result on their LinkedIn profile or elsewhere, Telford said he starts to lose trust.

“That tells me it’s just AI-generated confidence,” said Telford, who previously recruited for AWS.

He said candidates can use a simple test: Before letting AI phrase an accomplishment, ask whether the claim would hold up if a recruiter looked into it. Could you clearly explain the mechanics behind it, the starting point, what you did, and the outcome?

“If AI helped you say something you can’t independently prove, that’s where I’d draw the line,” Telford said. “AI can help you tell your story better. It just can’t be the source of the story.”

Focus on your brand

In a sea of AI-generated cover letters using the same buzzwords and perfect grammar, maintaining a personal brand can help candidates stand out and seem authentic.

Liz Andora, chief people officer at DHI, parent company of tech career marketplace Dice, said that AI can be useful for structuring a résumé or sharpening the language, though candidates should make sure their apps still reflect them accurately.

“You want to make sure you’re representing and putting forward who you are and what you offer to the potential employer,” said Andora, who also does career coaching.

That extends beyond your résumé and cover letter. At a time when it can be difficult to tell whether you’re interacting with a person or a bot, recruiters want to see evidence of the person behind the application. That doesn’t mean leaving grammatical errors to prove you’re human. However, candidates should keep their LinkedIn profile up-to-date and give hiring managers a clear sense of what they’ve accomplished.

Ron Porter, a senior client partner at the recruiting firm Korn Ferry, said he sometimes comes across materials with phrasing that is technically correct, but doesn’t sound like the person who wrote it. Candidates should ensure the language reflects how they actually communicate and is something they could have written themselves.

Don’t try to undermine the ATS

In a job market where getting past résumé-screening software can feel impossible, it may be tempting to try to game the system by doing something like hiding keywords in white text.

Andora said getting through ATS is a “legitimate issue.” However, secretly stuffing applications with keywords that don’t match your skills could backfire.

Telford said it can signal that a candidate is more focused on maximizing visibility than building credibility.

“If that keyword list doesn’t match what’s actually on their LinkedIn, their GitHub, or what they can speak to when I ask about it, it doesn’t just hurt that one application. It makes me second-guess everything else they’ve told me, too,” Telford said.

Job seekers’ frustrations are understandable, said Xenia Wade, an AI adoption consultant. Employers “don’t want the résumés to sound too much like AI, but they’re filtering it out with AI,” Wade said.

One way to sidestep the issue is to get a referral from someone inside the company. DHI Group’s Andora said it’s best to find an insider to make sure your application gets seen.

Applicant bots are risky

Applicants are sending out more applications on average, making the competition for each opening steeper. In the third quarter of 2025, hiring software company Greenhouse found that the average job opening received nearly triple the amount of applications from 2017, when the unemployment rate was comparable.

That doesn’t mean using an AI bot to mass-send applications is the most effective way to land an interview.

One risk is that, if it’s obvious, it can signal that the job wasn’t worth the candidate’s time or effort, Telford said. And in a competitive market, generic applications are unlikely to get you very far.

Throughout his job search, Rogers has leaned on AI. Nevertheless, he said, it took months of experimenting to get his résumé, cover letter, and application process where he wanted them.

“AI cannot do everything for you,” Rogers said. He still checks its work and makes the final calls.

“It’s the structure of the car, but it’s not necessarily the engine,” Rogers said. “You have to be able to drive it yourself.”