“It’s gotten harder and harder for employers to know who can actually do the job anymore,” Dan Shapero recently told the Wall Street Journal. 

Professionals are trying their best to navigate a brutal labor market and new world of hiring. The number of available job openings in the U.S. fell to a five-month low of 7.08 million in August—hundreds of thousands fewer than the month before. Plus, the number of Americans hired each month, excluding the pandemic, is also nearing a 10-year low. So when a new job posting finally hits job sites, candidates quickly jump at the opportunity. Shapero said that job-seekers have sent out 30% more applications than they did pre-pandemic.

But in sending off applications en masse—fine-tuning their resumes and tailoring their cover letters with the help of AI—job-seekers may be causing a talent rut. The LinkedIn CEO says recruiters now have to dig through hundreds or thousands of applicants, making it harder to find the right person for the job.

Now, more hiring managers are confronting the tidal wave of job candidates with their own AI tools. Around 99% of hiring managers say they use AI in the hiring process, according to a 2025 report from consulting company Insight Global, with 98% seeing improvements in scheduling interviews, screening resumes, and assessing skills. LinkedIn even has its own AI Hiring Assistant to help recruiters pinpoint talent matches and filter incoming applications. The tool doesn’t automatically reject anyone, Shapero confirmed, but it helps narrow huge candidate pools to the best match. Job seekers and recruiters alike are using AI to improve their odds of success—creating a feedback loop in which candidates use AI to apply at scale, and employers use it to manage the deluge.

How AI is changing the job hunt for both candidates and recruiters

Shapero is well aware that AI has become a two-way street for both job-seekers and recruiters. Recently at LinkedIn’s Talent Connect conference, the CEO said that many workers—not just young graduates, but talent everywhere—are using AI to “get a leg up” by applying to a ton of jobs and “look great to potential employers” in a tough market.

Job-hunters sent out an average of 45 job applications per month in May of last year, according to data shared with Fortune from employment platform Simplify. That’s more than double 2024’s average of 22 job applications—and the situation has become even more dire for professionals with multiple degrees. Master’s students sent out an average of 32 to 60 job applications per month, while bachelor’s students typically applied to around 15 to 38 open roles. To improve their odds, nearly two-thirds use AI for resume and cover letter writing, interview practice, and career guidance. But in taking “advantage of everything at their disposal,” Shapero explained, there’s a growing bottleneck that’s making it harder for employers to distinguish between candidates.

“It creates a challenge where we are just living in a world where there is a sea of applicants coming in our direction that look pretty similar,” said Shapero onstage at the event. “Because they are using these tools to put their best foot forward, based on what they think you want.” 

Now, hiring has become an all-out AI arms race. 

Most hiring managers use the tech not only to whittle down applicants and schedule interviews, but also as a stand-in interviewer. Around 63% of U.S. job-seekers have been interviewed by AI, according to a report from Greenhouse earlier this year—up 13% from just six months earlier. Sharawn Tipton, chief people officer of Greenhouse, told Fortune that HR professionals are deploying AI interviewers to “filter the flood” of applications trying to stand out in an intensely competitive labor market. But while it eases some of the burden for hiring managers, job-seekers get the short end of the stick. 

“Recruiters are inundated, and they’re worried about being replaced. There’s a trust gap on both sides, and technology is outpacing change management. Nobody’s explaining to candidates that the process looks different now,” Tipton said. “The cost of all of this falls hardest on candidates.”