As AI continues to reshape the hiring landscape, job seekers are becoming increasingly wary.  According to Gartner’s first-quarter survey of 2,918 job candidates, only 26% of the job candidates surveyed trusted AI to evaluate them fairly. While 32% of candidates fear AI might reject their applications, 25% said they trust employers less if AI is used to evaluate their information. In fact only half of the candidates surveyed believed the jobs they were applying for were legitimate.

Despite concerns, candidates are using more and more AI functionalities themselves. In a late 2024 survey, 39% of the candidates surveyed reported using AI during the application process – generating resumes, cover letters, creating work samples, answering questions on assessments.

Employers also are becoming increasingly concerned about candidate fraud that might more bad hires, even increased cybersecurity risk. In a recent 2025 survey, 6% of the candidates surveyed admitted to participating in interview fraud — either posing as someone else or having someone else impersonate them in an interview. Some statisticians have gone on record to predict that by 2028, one in four candidate profiles will be considered “fully fake”. 

Look for some ideas on how to avoid AI fraud in future blogs from the PACE team!