Artificial intelligence as an aid in job hunting – smart or senseless?

Topics

• Job seeking

Artificial intelligence has also crept into job hunting. When browsing news media and social media channels, it is rare to come across headlines, editorials, and comments about whether artificial intelligence is beneficial or not, or whether it is appropriate or inappropriate to use it in job hunting. Over the years, job search tips seem to have been drowned out. There are plenty of AI tips, but what is the current reality of AI use in job hunting and recruitment, if research is to be believed?

AI scans applications, invites candidates to interviews, and makes selections. According to recent studies, AI is not yet being used to this extent in recruitment.

For example, according to a survey conducted by Jobly* among recruitment professionals, only 8% report that AI is already in regular use. Nearly 70% of respondents to the same survey do not yet use AI or do not even see it as having an impact on recruitment.

In a similar survey** conducted by Duunitori for large employers, nearly 50% do not believe that AI will have much impact on recruitment and job hunting over the next three years. Only 8% believe it will have a revolutionary impact.

The results are startling. The development of AI over the past couple of years has been incredibly rapid. Given this pace, it seems illogical that something truly revolutionary would not happen in recruitment within three years. Considering that we already have a wealth of useful ways to harness artificial intelligence for a wide variety of purposes, 8% is a fairly modest estimate of the proportion of companies that will utilize AI in recruitment.

What about job seekers?

Job seekers, for their part, have been actively experimenting with AI. Of those who responded to Duunitori’s job seeker survey***, 37% have used AI in their job search, and 20% in YTK’s member pulse****. These figures are from 2025, so if the question were asked this spring, the figures would probably be even higher. It should also be noted that in the Duunitori survey, the most important uses were for CV and application writing and for describing one’s own skills. These same themes are also the most popular in YTK Spark, the job search skills tools we offer our members.

To supplement the survey results, I recently started a discussion on LinkedIn about the experiences of recruiters with job seekers’ use of AI. Among the dozens of comments, one message stood out clearly: don’t let AI replace your own thinking. In other words, use AI as a sounding board and challenge your own thinking and output with it. Employers still want real people, not some ideal created by AI. Recruiters also wanted to correct misinformation about the use of AI on the other side of the table. People still work there, and the applications that come in are read by humans.

AI helps find new job opportunities

Whether you think it’s silly or not, AI has also come to the rescue in a new service found on YTK Spark. The tool helps users identify their skills and recommends open positions based on those skills. What makes this interesting is that the recommended jobs may be completely different from what the user might have expected based on their previous work experience. This is intentional. We want to broaden the range of options and help users see the forest for the trees. However, the work is only just beginning. Try it out, be surprised, and give us feedback on the new tool, which you can find in OmaYTK. Was it ridiculous or perhaps exciting? We look forward to your feedback!

Sources:  

*Jobly survey on artificial intelligence and recruitment

** National Recruitment Survey 2025

***Duunitorin National Recruitment Survey: Job Search in Finland 2025

****YTK Unemployment Fund Member Pulse 10/2025

Mirva Puranen

Service manager, YTK Unemployment fund

I work at our unemployment fund developing Spark services that speed up employment. We don’t do this work alone, but build our services by listening to our members and collaborating with other actors in the field of employment. I strongly believe that the best results are achieved together. My mission is to encourage people to take the next step in their career – in a solution-oriented and gentle way.