Recruiters are reconsidering years of work to make job applications effortless as AI tools and automated form-fillers flood openings with submissions. Vendr’s head of people says listings that once drew a few dozen candidates can now attract hundreds or more than a thousand, including fake identities and highly similar AI-written résumés.
The surge makes it harder for strong candidates to stand out and shifts recruiters from finding people to filtering large queues. LinkedIn told WIRED that submissions per applicant have risen 46 percent since February 2020 and total applications are up 22 percent since ChatGPT’s release. The platform is adding limits and warnings for people who appear underqualified for a role.
The change also reflects a tighter labor market. US job openings peaked at 12.3 million in March 2022 and have hovered around 7 million since mid-2024, while services continue to promise dozens of automated applications with little effort from the candidate.
Some hiring teams now want deliberate friction, such as role-specific questions or other signals of genuine interest. Those checks may reduce spam, but employers must still avoid barriers that unfairly exclude qualified applicants or recreate accessibility problems that simpler online applications helped remove.