Try it tonight. Print the last ten applications you received for your open role. Hide the names. Try to guess who is who.
You won’t manage it. Everyone is “rigorous, motivated and a great team player.” Three letters open on the same sentence. Two different backgrounds tell exactly the same story, in the same words.
This isn’t a feeling. It’s the new face of AI and recruitment: in France, half of candidates now use artificial intelligence in their job search, and among those under 30 it’s nearly two in three. The number one use? The cover letter. Quebec is following the same curve.
AI didn’t create the problem, it finished it
Let’s be honest: applications already looked alike before ChatGPT.
The résumé always pushed toward uniformity. The same downloaded templates, the same formulas recommended by the same guides, the same keywords placed to clear the same filters. We asked different people to describe themselves in an identical format, then acted surprised not to see any differences.
Generative AI simply took that logic to its conclusion. It produces the perfectly optimized application: no typos, well structured, tailored to the posting. For everyone. Hence the paradox: every application is better, and the whole pile is worth nothing.
If a machine can write a perfect application in twelve seconds, the written application never measured much.
Why your candidates are right to do it
The reflex, when you suspect a generated letter, is to feel cheated. “They didn’t even take the time to write it themselves.”
Flip the perspective. This candidate faces postings that demand precise keywords, screening systems that eliminate in six seconds, and applications that, nine times out of ten, never get a reply. In that game, spending an hour crafting a handmade letter no one will read is the irrational choice. Optimizing with AI is playing smart by rules they didn’t write.
This is where we are: letters generated by machines, sorted by machines. The bots talk to each other while the candidate and the employer still haven’t met.
AI and recruitment: the race you can’t win
The false good idea is detection. In a Robert Half survey of more than 1,500 hiring managers, 79% say they can spot AI in an application. Detection tools get it wrong regularly, and they mostly penalize people who simply write well, or those for whom the language is a second one.
But suppose detection worked perfectly. What would you actually know? Who used ChatGPT. Not who can handle an upset client. Not who will get along with your team. Not who will still be there in a year.
Detecting isn’t sorting. Even won, this race leads nowhere.
Ask for what can’t be generated
The only lasting answer is to change the field.
Stop asking candidates for a document a machine writes better than they do. Ask them for something no one can do in their place: to introduce themselves. Live, with their voice, their energy, their way of explaining what they’ve done and what they’re looking for.
A letter is generated. A way of being is shown. Thirty seconds of video tell you more than forty perfect letters, precisely because video is the only format where the person can’t be replaced by their tool.
Meet your candidates on video, not on paper
A local platform where candidates introduce themselves on video and where your company shows its team and its culture. The first impression becomes human again, in both directions.
Explore for employers
This is the field Joblinks has chosen: a local platform where candidates introduce themselves on video and where companies show their team and their culture. The first impression becomes human again, in both directions. AI killed text-based sorting? Good. It wasn’t sorting anything.
The question is no longer “how do I know if this letter was generated?”. It’s: what am I asking my candidates that ChatGPT can’t do in their place?
Your next candidates are ready to show up for real
Meet them on Joblinks: video profiles, a team and a culture you can see, a first impression that’s finally human.
Sources and references
The figures cited come from the sources below. We invite our readers to consult them to verify and explore further.
- Hellowork: April to May 2025 survey (2,247 candidates, 486 HR professionals). 50% of candidates use generative AI in their job search; 72% for the cover letter; 63% among 16 to 29 year-olds. helloworkplace.fr
- Robert Half Canada: survey of more than 1,500 hiring managers. 79% say they can detect AI use in an application. roberthalf.com
