A job application has always been a meaningful signal. Someone found an opportunity, decided it was worth pursuing and took the step of putting themselves forward. What is changing is how easily employers can interpret that signal.
AI and automation are making it easier for candidates to find opportunities, prepare application materials and apply to more jobs in less time. At the same time, employers are dealing with growing application volumes and fewer recruiters available to review them. Indeed CEO Hisayuki Idekoba recently described this as a “vicious cycle” in hiring. Business Insider reports that applicants per job have doubled since 2022, while the number of recruiters has fallen 56%.
None of that makes more applications a bad thing. A larger applicant pool gives employers more people to consider, and lower barriers can give candidates more opportunities to get in front of employers. The issue is that the same application can now represent very different levels of intent.
Consider two qualified candidates applying for the same position. One has spent time researching the organization, reading about the role and deciding that it fits what they are looking for. The other saw the position during a broad search, used AI to tailor existing materials and applied because it seemed close enough. Both applications are legitimate. Both candidates may be interested. But the application alone does not necessarily tell an employer much about the difference.
That distinction matters because the amount of effort required to apply continues to fall. One-click applications, saved resumes and autofill have already made the process faster. AI takes that further by helping candidates identify opportunities and produce application materials at a scale that would have been difficult to manage manually.
For candidates, applying broadly can be a perfectly reasonable strategy. When the cost of submitting an application is low, there is little reason not to pursue multiple opportunities. For employers, however, that can create a different problem. The challenge is not simply managing more applications. It is finding the candidate whose application reflects genuine interest when that intent is buried among hundreds of other submissions.
That makes the signals surrounding an application more important. A candidate who spends time learning about an organization before applying is giving one signal. Someone who returns to a position, explores other information on the careers site or engages with content about the actual work is giving another. How someone responds to outreach, engages with a recruiter and explains their interest later in the process can provide even more context.
None of these behaviors proves that someone is the right candidate, and there is no single signal that can reliably reveal intent. The point is that employers may need to get better at reading the collection of signals around an application rather than treating the application itself as the complete picture.
That does not mean adding friction to the hiring process. A complicated application can discourage interested candidates without telling an employer much about the people who remain. It means giving candidates more opportunities to understand the organization and the role before they apply, then paying attention to what they do with that information.
This is also why recruitment marketing matters beyond simply generating applications. A strong careers site, useful recruitment content and a clear picture of the work give candidates more information to act on. They can help someone decide that a particular opportunity is worth pursuing, and they give employers more context for understanding the people who ultimately apply.
The application itself is still meaningful. It is simply becoming harder to read in isolation.
And that is likely to keep changing. As AI continues to change how candidates search, apply and communicate, and as employers adjust to changing volumes and recruiting resources, the ability to recognize genuine intent will need to keep evolving too. The needle is still there. It is just getting harder to find in the haystack.
As these changes continue to reshape the hiring market, our team at Harger Howe keeps developing new ways to understand candidate intent and help employers cut through the noise.