By Roger Lear
With over 20 years of experience in resume writing, I have been impressed by how artificial intelligence can assist job seekers in creating a document that is often superior to anything they can produce on their own. Trust me, I have seen thousands of resumes and it isn’t even close.
Today, all I hear is “Just have ChatGPT write your resume!”. But will an AI-generated resume get you hired? That’s where things get interesting.
THE PROBLEM: AI Resumes Look Smart… But Read Dumb at the Same Time
If you’ve ever seen an AI-generated resume, you know the vibe with a lot of predictable verbiage. “Results-driven professional with a documented passion for excellence in dynamic cross-functional environments.”
This is cool. Except that thousands of other people are sending that exact sentence to the same employer. AI resumes tend to sound generic, robotic, and predictable, and recruiters and employers can spot them instantly.
Worse yet, many job seekers paste AI-generated text into fancy Canva or multi-column templates, which look gorgeous to humans but may get corrupted in the employer’s Applicant Tracking System (ATS) at the same time. You may be surprised by the limitations of ATS systems, as upgrading to more robust systems can be expensive so many employers have outdated systems. If the ATS can’t read your resume, you don’t exist.
Real-Life Implications for Job Seekers
Given what the evidence does show, here are meaningful practical risks if you rely on ChatGPT or other AI to generate your resume if you don’t do any careful customization:
- Generic output lower differentiation. If your AI-generated resume resembles or reads like hundreds of others (mainly if many people used the same prompts), it may fail to stand out. That means you may pass the ATS but still not get a call.
- Mislabeled or vague bullets. Suppose the AI generates generic statements (“Collaborated with cross-functional teams to drive business growth”) without specifics. In that case, the ATS may still parse the text accurately, but a human reader may discard it for lacking substance.
- Formatting issues still matter. Even if the content is AI-generated, it is still considered original if it is built on a template with text boxes, columns, and graphics. It could fail ATS parsing, regardless of whether AI generated the wording.
- Employer detection / human screening filters. Even if the ATS parses it, recruiters are increasingly trained to spot AI-written documents (e.g., repetitive phrasing, lack of personalization) and may reject them. Make no mistake, using AI-generated content without personal tailoring can be detrimental.
- Misrepresentation risk. Some AI-generated resumes may inadvertently include inaccurate or exaggerated information (called in the AI world “hallucinations”). This happens all the time.
Yes, use AI, but do it this way.
- Use AI for ideas, not for copy-paste resumes
- Add your own voice, metrics, stories, and real wins. AI has no idea you’re the employee of the month seven months straight!
- Keep it simple – one column, no graphics, no text boxes, no cute AI icons. Boring, personalized resumes win with both humans and robots.
- Export as .docx or clean PDF. Do not send as a Canva image, PDF, or Apple .pages.
- Run it through an ATS checker like Jobscan before applying.
- Ask yourself, “Does this sound like me, or like a robot who read a LinkedIn article?”
Bottom line. AI is your superpower. I would recommend using ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini 100% to write your resume. After generating initial content with AI, tailor it to match the specific requirements of the job application.