The Unspoken AI Battle Between Candidates and Companies
The surge in AI usage within hiring has led to a quiet stalemate; companies are using it to assess candidates while candidates are using it to strategize and easily pass video interviews, talent assessments, and other screening approaches.
Many recruiters now worry they’re talking to prompts instead of people – and they’re not exactly wrong.
On the flip side, candidates worry they’re being judged by algorithms instead of humans – and they’re not exactly wrong either.
The result? An unspoken arms race, where one side adds AI safeguards and looks for the polished sheen of AI language, and the other finds clever ways to “sound more human”.
The challenge now isn’t stopping AI, it’s rethinking, restructuring, and even rebuilding a hiring process that can surface authenticity, experience, and personality, even in a world where both sides have AI-powered copilots.
If you’re wondering how to do that, this article will help by reaching across both sides of the aisle and digging into how AI is used on both sides of the hiring process, and what you can do to move this unspoken AI battle closer to a peaceful agreement.
A Quick History of AI in Hiring
Just a few years ago, automation in hiring was mostly happening behind the scenes. With advancements in machine learning and natural language processing (NLP), AI was quietly helping those HR teams with large candidate pools and even larger budgets use Applicant Tracking Systems with more sophisticated resume parsing and candidate ranking systems.
Fast forward to today, where AI has gone from the seen-but-not-heard helper to center stage in hiring – on both ends of the spectrum.
Tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and more aren’t just assisting recruiters anymore – they’re sitting in the corner of your candidate’s browser, helping them answer interview questions, polish resumes, and prep for video interviews.
AI’s presence in recruitment started slowly and subtly, gaining traction in the early aughts as some HR tech vendors and Fortune 500 companies began testing new strategies to improve their hiring processes.
As with anything new, it didn’t come without its bumps and bruises. For example, Amazon infamously scrapped its own AI recruiting tool in 2018 after discovering it was inherently biased against female candidates.
Where Do Candidates Come Into the Picture?
Candidates weren’t really introduced to AI until it hit the mainstream when it exploded in popularity with the launch of the generative AI tool, ChatGPT.
Over 100 million users tried it out within two months of launch in 2022, making it the fastest-growing consumer app in history!
Since then and into today, candidates across the world are using it to:
- Generate or completely rewrite resumes
- Script pre-recorded video answers
- Prepare for live interviews with mock Q&As
And so the unspoken AI hiring battle began.
How Candidates Are Using AI and What You Can Do to Prepare
AI is the new video interview wingman or the new-age Swiss Army knife for job seekers if you will.
According to a recent study, approximately 65% of job seekers will use AI at some point in their application process, whether that be to optimize their resumes, skill match, or even automate job applications – and that’s just the beginning.
Generative AI tools have become a regular part of most candidate’s toolkits, helping candidates navigate landing interviews and completing them with answers, coaching, and real-time support during the process.
The reality: most candidates believe they are less likely to get a job without using AI.
It’s so popular and common that a simple Google search will pull up several cases where candidates admit to using AI to:
- Translate technical jargon into easy-to-understand language
- Research company strategy and product messaging
- Write press releases or copywriting assignment drafts
- Generate potential interview questions and responses
Other Common AI Use Cases For Candidates
- AI-Generate Resumes & Cover Letters: Tools like ChatGPT and Resume.io can craft custom, applicant-tracking system-optimized resumes in seconds. A survey from Capterra found that over 40% of candidates are using AI to write and refine their resumes
- Prepping for Phone Screens & One-way Video Interviews: Candidates can copy and paste screening questions directly into AI tools to get polished responses, sometimes in real-time during one-way video interviews and even live video interviews if the candidate is bold.
- Practicing and Participating in Live Interviews: Not only are candidates pasting screening questions directly into AI tools to get polished responses, but interviewers and talent acquisition leaders are publicly sharing their experiences of getting that “uncanny feeling that something is off”.
Candidates also use it to create mock interview questions based on the industry or role, refine STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) assessment responses, and even simulate technical whiteboard challenges.
These are just a few examples of how rampant the use of AI is for job seekers, and with every passing minute, candidates discover new workarounds and ways to keep up with employers.
So the question remains…
How Should Companies Approach Candidates Using AI?
Here’s the bottom line: if we’re being completely realistic, trying to catch or ban AI use for applicants is a losing battle. Candidates are using it in smart and, more often than not, ethical ways.
So, instead of treating AI as cheating, organizations need to shift their hiring processes, especially in the screening and selection stages, to reward authenticity and lived professional experience.
Here are some strategies we’re using here at Spark Hire to stay ahead of candidates using AI unethically or to create a false narrative about themselves:
- Set expectations early: Add clear disclaimers letting candidates know you welcome preparation through the use of AI, but that you expect answers in their resumes and interviews that reflect their real experiences – because you will be checking.
- Ask behavioral interview questions that AI can’t fake or will have problems generating: Be ultra-specific. Ask about roles, timelines, companies, and outcomes. A good example question might be, “Tell me about a project you led at [Company Name] where you had to overcome [specific challenge].” This question is a lot harder to prepare an AI-generated answer for.
- Incorporate follow-up questions and throw a few curveballs: AI-generated responses tend to fall apart when you go off-script or ask for personal thoughts, ideas, and feelings. They also have the added benefit of surfacing surprising insights about your candidate’s personality that allow you to establish clear winners as well as candidates not well-aligned with your company values. For example, a question such as, “What’s something you learned recently outside of work?” would work well as a curveball, and “Tell me more about [previously discussed topic]?” as a follow-up.
AI is evolving at breakneck speeds, and your candidates are evolving along with it, but at the end of the day, it’s just another hiring tool – Like Grammarly or Google.
The real winners in the arms race are hiring teams and talent acquisition professionals who aren’t afraid or frustrated by AI use but understanding of it, and working to design interviews and assessment strategies that surface who candidates are beyond the AI.
How Organizations Are Using AI Hiring Tools And What Candidates Should Know
More and more hiring teams are implementing AI in their hiring processes.
According to the 2025 LinkedIn Future of Recruiting Report, 70% of talent acquisition professionals are integrating or experimenting with generative AI to improve their hiring efficiency.
Nowadays, as a candidate, if you’re applying for a role at a Fortune 500 organization, you’re more likely to encounter AI in the interviewing process than not. From resume screening to job description writing, AI has quickly embedded itself into nearly every stage of modern hiring.
Remember when we said candidates are mainly using AI ethically? Well, so are recruiters so it’s equally important that candidates acquaint themselves with how organizations are using it to better prepare.
Here are a few of the most popular company-implemented AI use cases you’ll run into:
- AI-Powered Resume Screenings and Rankings: The average applicant tracking system (ATS) comes pre-loaded with AI-powered resume parsing and scoring tools to help recruiters surface top matches within seconds. The average recruiter without AI spends about 23 hours a week screening resumes for a single hire – AI cuts that time dramatically.
- Automated Candidate Outreach and Scheduling: Chatbots and AI assistants help recruiters manage the early touchpoints with you. It’s used to send interview or assessment reminders and schedule interviews automatically.
- Writing Job Descriptions: Generative AI tools are used to optimize job posts for inclusivity, remove biased language, and tailor descriptions to specific candidate profiles. A study by ZipRecruiter found that job listings with gender-neutral wording get 42% more responses, meaning AI is helping create a more inclusive hiring process.
The smartest hiring teams aren’t just throwing AI at their problems, they’re using it to create an efficient and fair hiring process.
Again, for those organizations using AI ethically, you can expect them to be:
- Regularly auditing their AI tools for bias.
- Keeping the human in human resources – human review cannot be removed.
- Communicating with you on exactly how and where AI is used.
AI is permanently reshaping how both sides of the hiring table are operating, but candidates should know that its goal is to help hiring teams spend more time with the right candidates, not less. It’s here to enhance the human connection and not replace it. So keep your chin up and remember, authenticity wins everytime!
Candidates: Are you in need of practical tips to better prepare for and succeed at video interviewing, assessments, and AI usage in all of the above? Check out our candidate boot camp!
Where Does AI in the Hiring Process Go From Here?
We’ve established that AI in hiring is here to stay, but in a world where everyone has access to the same tools, the playing field can get crowded and loud – FAST.
So, how do you “win”?
Well, the companies and candidates who will win the unspoken AI battle aren’t the ones fighting it or just using it as a temporary workaround. They’re the leaders and innovators who are working with it while staying unmistakably human every step of the way.
What Does This Mean for Hiring Teams?
You can only succeed if your screening and selection process expects every candidate to use AI. You need to design it to surface what AI can’t fake, such as:
- Real-world Experience. What have they lived through?
- Authentic Stories. What makes them tick?
- Emotional Intelligence. How do they move through the world?
- Problem-solving and Critical Thinking. What happens when they face a challenge they can’t solve with a prompt?
Think less about “we need to catch them” and more about “how do I show them that showing me the real version of themself will be rewarded?”
What Does This Mean for Candidates?
AI can help candidates get their foot in the door, but it won’t close the deal.
Unfortunately, it’s becoming commonplace that every resume looks the same. A 2025 study by resume.io identified that nearly half (49%) of AI-generated resumes are automatically dismissed because they don’t “feel authentic”.
We’re not saying you shouldn’t use AI, but you also can’t forget to:
- Share your unique story
- Share specific professional and personal experiences
- Connect like a human
Strategize and prep with AI, but win with yourself.
Resources to Help Organizations Better Understand and Navigate AI in Hiring
Looking to sharpen your hiring strategy in an AI-driven world, especially in the screening and selection stages of your hiring process? Good news: we have THE comprehensive guide for you!
Looking to join the AI-driven hiring world – How can’t you? Drop into The Ultimate Guide to Hiring Software, which includes all you need to know before you pump that gas pedal up to 100 on AI.
Candidates and job seekers – Looking to prep for an interview or assessment? Check our candidate boot camp for tips and guides to help you better understand why employers choose the hiring tools and processes they do, and how you can prepare to tackle each one.
