The best way to stand out in an AI hiring market may be surprisingly old-fashioned, a recruitment CEO says

AI-generated cover letters may be all the rage, but one recruitment veteran says the best way to get noticed is a far more traditional approach.

James Reed, the CEO of Reed Recruitment, said generative AI has flooded employers with near-identical applications, making it harder for candidates to stand out.

His advice: make a human connection. “Some very old-fashioned things still work,” Reed said this week on the BBC’s “Big Boss Interview” podcast. “If you write to someone and put it in a postbox with a stamp on it, and it lands on their desk, they’ll look at it.” His comments come as generative AI is rapidly reshaping recruitment.

Candidates can tailor CVs and cover letters in seconds using tools like ChatGPT, while employers increasingly rely on AI to screen growing numbers of applications.

The technology has sped up both sides of the hiring process, but Reed suggested it has also upended it. “At the moment, you have very frequently a situation where you have sort of AI talking to AI and no person is any wiser,” he said.

Reed said his recruitment firm is receiving so many applications that they all “pretty much look the same, because people have gone on ChatGPT, said, ‘Help me with my CV,’ and it sort of generates the same thing for everyone.” According to LinkedIn’s Talent Research 2026 survey, the number of applicants per open role in the US has doubled since the spring of 2022.

That flood of applications leaves hiring managers struggling to review every submission, reducing the value of carefully tailoring an application, Reed said. “People just aren’t seeing the benefits of the investment in time of personalizing it, because the companies are so overwhelmed with applications,” he said.

LinkedIn’s research found that 65% of the 19,113 workers surveyed said finding a job had become more challenging over the past year.

Meanwhile, 93% of the 6,554 recruiters surveyed said they planned to increase their use of AI in hiring in 2026.

Daniel Chait, the CEO of hiring software company Greenhouse, previously described the dynamic to Business Insider as an “AI doom loop”: job seekers can apply to more roles more quickly, while recruiters face a growing pile of applications and struggle to find the right person through the noise.

Instead of relying solely on online portals, Reed encouraged applicants to look for ways to establish direct human contact. “It’s an important point that it’s about connecting with people in the end,” he said, adding that technology has “automated things very effectively, but also almost too effectively.” Reed’s advice echoes a broader shift in hiring.

Recruiters and hiring managers previously told Business Insider they are placing less emphasis on AI-polished résumés, with some companies replacing traditional applications with work trials, skills-based assessments, or direct outreach.