Featured in People Management
Why More Applicants Isn’t Making Hiring Easier
At first glance, the recruitment market appears flooded with opportunity. Applicant numbers per role have more than doubled since 2022, unemployment has risen, and AI tools promise faster, smarter hiring decisions.
Yet, as reported in People Management, four in five recruiters say finding genuinely qualified talent has become harder over the past year. This apparent contradiction points to a deeper issue; volume has increased, but clarity has not.
According to HR coach and consultant Gemma Bullivant, this is a predictable outcome of how recruitment processes are evolving.
“Higher application volumes create additional noise,” Gemma explains. “One-click apply and AI-assisted applications mean candidates can apply at scale, often for roles they’re only loosely suited to. Recruiters then spend more time filtering and sense checking, rather than engaging meaningfully with the right people.”
The result is friction on both sides of the hiring process.
The Three Forces Making Talent Harder to Find
Gemma points to three interconnected shifts reshaping recruitment effectiveness.
- Volume without intent
AI has lowered the cost of applying, but not raised the quality of fit. High volume, low intent applications slow decision making and dilute recruiter focus. Instead of deep assessment, teams are pushed into triage mode.
- Skills pressure and shrinking tolerance for gaps
Managers are being asked to deliver more with fewer resources. As a result, they want very specific skills, immediate impact, and high adaptability. These capabilities are difficult to evidence on a CV alone especially when applications are increasingly templated or AI-generated.
- A growing gap between CVs and interviews
“If AI helps candidates craft the perfect application, the process often falls down at interview,” Gemma warns. “At that point, the candidate has to evidence experience without the AI wordsmith.”
This mismatch creates frustration for hiring managers and undermines confidence in the process itself.
AI is Part of the Problem and the Solution
The data suggests AI will play a growing role in recruitment. Most recruiters plan to increase their use of AI in 2026, particularly for screening and sourcing. But candidates remain wary, with many concerned about fairness and the loss of human interaction.
AI can help, but only if it’s deployed with intent.
“AI should support better screening, skills matching and candidate engagement,” she says. “But the time it frees up must be reinvested into judgement, relationship building and assessment, not removed entirely.”
This applies equally to candidates and employers.
For candidates, AI can be a powerful preparation tool, helping to refine applications, anticipate interview questions and rehearse responses. But Gemma advises candidates to pressure test everything they submit, can you genuinely stand behind what’s written?
For employers, AI should enhance decision-making, not replace it. Without clear role definitions and human-centred assessment, automation risks amplifying confusion rather than solving it.
Gemma’s Advice to HR Teams is to Redesign Recruitment, Not Just Automate It
This isn’t simply a recruitment efficiency problem, it’s a design challenge.
“We need to see smart technology combined with clearer role definition and more human-centred recruitment processes,” Gemma says.
To move forward, HR leaders should focus on:
- Clarifying roles around skills, capability and contribution, not just credentials
- Designing assessment processes that test real-world judgement and adaptability
- Using AI to reduce admin, not human connection
- Being transparent with candidates about where and how AI is used
- Equipping recruiters and hiring managers with the confidence to interpret, not defer to, technology
“Recruitment is still a relationship business. AI can support that, but it can’t replace it.”
Explore More on This Topic
The intersection of AI, trust and judgement is a recurring theme on The Strategic Leader Podcast. These episodes go deeper into how HR can lead AI adoption without losing the human core of work.
- How Can HR Lead the AI Revolution? (Series 4, Episode 4): Why governance, ethics and trust must sit alongside efficiency in AI enabled people processes.
- What Skills Will Your Workforce Need by 2030? (Series 4, Episode 5): A practical look at why adaptability, systems thinking and judgement matter more than ever.
Together, they reinforce the same message – AI changes the tools, but leadership still shapes the outcome.
