Gen Z job seekers rewrite CVs to avoid sounding like AI, survey finds

Younger job hunters are reworking their CVs because they worry about coming across as machine-written, according to TechRadar. A survey by hiring platform Greenhouse of more than 1,100 applicants in the UK and Ireland found that Gen Z candidates understand the difficulties of AI screening better than people over 60.

The findings appear in the 2026 Greenhouse Future of Hiring Report. They also show that 81% of applicants are turned down before they speak to anyone at the company.

The central problem in 2026 is getting an application seen by a person. To reach that stage, a CV has to stand out enough for an AI system to flag it, with such tools usually set up to score CVs and applications and surface the strongest candidates.

Greenhouse found that 97% of job seekers want a way to show something their application cannot capture. That figure may point toward a different approach to hiring.

Passing AI screening is the biggest worry, whether through a written application or an AI interview. In the past 12 months, 42% of candidates have taken part in an AI interview, and 57% said the process let them show their skills.

AI is now widely used to sharpen CVs, but employers are finding little to separate applicants because the polished documents lack individuality. Sharawn Tipton, Chief People Officer at Greenhouse, said both sides of the market now see hiring as broken, with candidates sending applications into a void while employers sort through CVs that look alike.

Tipton said the application once worked as a front door but is now often a dead end. She argued that candidates need a system that gives them a fair chance, and that adding poor AI on top only harms both applicants and employers.

Ophir Samson of Greenhouse suggested that trust should be built into the process from the beginning. His remarks imply that applicants need to know how they will be screened before they submit a CV.