A few years ago, technology in recruitment had one main goal: to help people find each other more quickly. ATS systems organized applications, search engines helped find candidates, and automation tools streamlined communication.

Today, the situation is starting to look different. Increasingly, technology not only supports the recruitment process but becomes an active participant in it - on both sides.

Candidates use AI to prepare their applications. Companies use AI to analyse those applications.

As a result, a phenomenon is slowly appearing that seemed abstract not so long ago: recruitment is beginning to resemble an interaction between two algorithms, with people appearing only at a later stage of the process.

Candidates have been using AI for quite some time

For many people, artificial intelligence has become a natural element of job searching today. Candidates use it to prepare their CVs, write cover letters, or tailor applications to specific job postings.

This is not surprising. Tools like ChatGPT can analyse a job offer in minutes and suggest a version of a CV that highlights exactly the elements of experience an employer is looking for.

AI also helps prepare for interviews. Candidates can simulate interview questions, practice responses, and even analyse their answers for clarity or structure.

From a candidate's perspective, this is simply using available tools to better present their experience.

However, from a recruiter's perspective, the situation looks more complex.

When a CV begins to resemble a perfectly customised document

More and more applications today look excellent. They are cohesive, well-written, and include keywords matched to the job posting.

The problem is that such document quality does not always mean an equally high quality of skills.

AI can very effectively optimise a CV for a specific job offer. A candidate may have real experience only partially related to the role, but a well-prepared prompt will make the application appear perfectly matched.

For a recruiter, this means one thing: the initial signal, which is the CV, is no longer as reliable as it used to be.

Not because candidates suddenly started lying more frequently. Rather because tools allow experience to be 'packaged' in a way that is much more attractive to recruitment systems.

Companies respond with technology

On the other side of the process, organisations are also increasingly turning to AI-driven tools. Systems that analyse applications, candidate matching algorithms, and automated scoring help manage the increasing number of applications.

In many firms, the number of applications for a single role has grown significantly. Partly because applying has become very simple. Partly because candidates can prepare tailored documents much faster than before.

AI on the company side thus has one main goal: to separate the signal from the noise.

But when both sides use similar technologies to optimise the process, an intriguing paradox arises.

AI helps the candidate better pass through the filter. AI helps the company better create this filter.

Where is the human in all this?

This question is beginning to appear more frequently in discussions about the future of recruitment.

If AI helps candidates write applications and companies analyse them, does the process not start to resemble a situation where algorithms talk to each other before a human is even allowed into the conversation?

In practice, of course, people are still making hiring decisions. But the initial selection phase is increasingly occurring at the technological level.

This changes the nature of screening.

A recruiter no longer analyses only the genuine document prepared by the candidate. Increasingly, they analyse a document co-created by AI.

This is not necessarily a problem

It's easy to fall into the narrative that AI is ruining the recruitment process. In reality, the technology is changing its dynamics.

AI can help candidates better communicate their experience. It can also help companies quickly identify interesting profiles in large volumes of applications.

The problem arises only when both sides begin to treat technology as the main component of the process, rather than support for it.

Because ultimately, recruitment is still about understanding people: their skills, motivations, and ways of thinking.

No algorithm can fully capture these elements.

A new balance in the recruitment process

So perhaps it's not about whether AI is good or bad for recruitment. More about how it changes the initial stage of the process.

The CV ceases to be a document that can be treated as direct evidence of competence. Increasingly, it becomes a starting point for conversation, not its foundation.

Recruiters will increasingly have to ask questions that allow them to distinguish a well-written application from genuine experience.

And organisations will have to consider how to design processes in which technology supports decisions but does not replace them.

Because if recruitment truly begins to resemble an AI vs AI battle, it's easy to forget that there are still people on both sides of the process.

And they ultimately decide if the collaboration makes sense.

If you're interested in similar topics related to the future of recruitment, HR technology, and the real challenges that recruitment teams face today, we also invite you to our blog. We regularly publish articles, analyses, and practical observations from the market that show how the work of recruiters is changing in the era of data, automation, and AI.