TL;DR

A survey by recruitment firm Robert Half finds 48% of UK employers say AI-written CVs and applications are causing them significant difficulty, and 67% of hiring managers report that checking for such material has made hiring slower. Only one professional in ten says they use no AI at all when applying for jobs. The figures come from a firm that sells recruitment services, and the published coverage gives no sample size, so they are best read as a direction of travel rather than a measurement.

Where the time is going

Employers in the survey described a flood of near-identical, polished applications, along with CVs containing invented or inflated experience. Both make it harder to judge whether a candidate can really do what the paperwork claims.

Robert Half broke the added burden into four parts. The largest, cited by 28%, was sifting a greater number of applicants who lack the qualifications for the role. Next, at 27%, came telling machine-written CVs apart from genuine ones. Two further pressures were each named by 23% of organisations: more in-person interviews or skills screening, and more time spent checking credentials.

Matt Weston, who runs Robert Half’s UK and Ireland business, said that when applications “appear highly polished or follow near-identical formats”, it becomes harder to identify the best fit. His prescription was more human judgement in the process, with technology in a supporting role.

A contradiction employers are creating

The findings sit awkwardly beside what happens once candidates are hired. Some employers now reward AI fluency in performance reviews, treating heavy tool use as a sign of productivity. The same behaviour at the application stage is being treated as noise, or as dishonesty. Screenwriter Jack Thorne made a similar distinction this week for his own profession, separating AI as an aid from AI as a substitute for the work.

Looking forward

For UK employers, the practical response is to stop treating the CV as the main filter. Structured skills tests, work samples and short early conversations are harder to outsource to a chatbot, and they address the credential-checking problem directly. Firms that do this should also be clear with applicants about what AI use is acceptable, since nine in ten are already using it somewhere. Without that clarity, employers will keep penalising candidates for a habit they encourage in existing staff.