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Hiring Is Broken. AI Didn’t Start It — But It’s Finishing It.
Every day, job seekers pour hours into polishing résumés, tailoring bullet points, and uploading PDFs to company portals, hoping to stand out.
Meanwhile, AI tools are applying to hundreds of jobs per minute. Recruiters are drowning in generic applications. And employers are deploying their own AI just to keep up.
The traditional résumé isn’t working anymore. In fact, it’s actively making hiring worse.
According to a recent piece by Ars Technica “The résumé is dying, and AI is holding the smoking gun”, job applications are now being generated (and submitted) at an unprecedented rate. LinkedIn reports 11,000 applications per minute. You read that right. Per. Minute.
But here's the kicker: many of these résumés aren’t written by people anymore. They’re AI-generated. One click, dozens of applications. Tools are out there right now that will apply to 100 jobs on your behalf while you sip your coffee.
From a job seeker’s perspective? Efficiency.
From an employer’s perspective? Chaos.
So, what happens when thousands of generic, AI-generated résumés hit a hiring system all at once?
Employers start fighting back with their own AI — tools that try to outsmart the bots, flag suspicious applications, and filter the noise. Some are even attempting to detect if a résumé sounds too much like AI.
It’s an algorithmic arms race, and it’s messy.
At Picsume, we’ve been anticipating this moment. We saw how flawed the traditional process had become, how résumés were often more of a performance than a true reflection of someone’s potential. And we knew tech would eventually blow the whole thing wide open.
Here’s what this story really tells us: we’re not just in a new hiring era, we’re in a hiring identity crisis.
AI can write your résumé. AI can screen your résumé. But somewhere in that loop, the human being — the actual person applying for the job — gets lost.
That’s the problem we’ve been working to solve.
It’s not about rejecting tech. It’s about using it the right way.
At Picsume, we believe the future of recruitment isn’t about who can game the system — it’s about who can show up in meaningful, human ways. We’ve built our platform around skills, alignment, transparency, and the belief that hiring should be based on fit, not formatting.
The article touches on this too: the rise of live assessments, skill-based tests, mini projects, and authentic evaluations. That’s where we’re headed. Not just faster, but better.
If you’re a candidate, this is your moment to rethink how you present yourself. Don’t hide behind a résumé — showcase your work, your thinking, your potential. Because more and more, that’s what employers are actually looking for.
If you’re an employer, this is your call to modernize. The flood is coming — if it hasn’t already. Legacy systems and generic filters won’t cut it. It’s time to build pipelines that surface real people, not just perfect documents.
The résumé may not be dead just yet, but it’s definitely on life support.
We highly recommend giving the original piece a read: Ars Technica – “The résumé is dying, and AI is holding the smoking gun.”
It’s a compelling look at a hiring system being rewritten in real time — one we at Picsume have long believed needed to change.
And if you're ready for what's next — we're already there.
Want to Dig Deeper?
Before we wrap, if you’re still wondering how AI is shaping (and sometimes skewing) the hiring experience, this recent article from HR Reporter digs even deeper. As our CEO said in that piece, “when you take the human out of human resources, you have a problem.” It’s a timely reminder that while automation can enhance hiring, it should never replace real connection or critical thinking. This article raises some essential questions about whether AI is solving the right problems — or quietly creating new ones. It’s worth the read.
