PHOENIX — Career coach Jeremy Schifeling and Indeed chief economist Svenja Gudell warned at the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit that artificial intelligence is distorting hiring practices and threatening long-term workforce stability. Schifeling and Gudell described a growing mismatch between job seekers and employers driven by AI systems that increasingly filter applicants before human eyes ever see them.
Nearly 90% of companies now use AI to screen job candidates, while more than half of job seekers are using AI to submit applications. Schifeling, who has held roles at LinkedIn, Khan Academy, and Apple, teaches job seekers at more than 350 universities how to navigate these automated screening systems. He advised candidates to avoid using AI to generate cover letters or to mass-apply to jobs, recommending instead that they write heartfelt, human messages to stand out.
“We got into this AI arms race that no one wins. It’s mutually assured destruction,” Schifeling said.
Gudell focused on the downstream effects of current hiring trends, particularly the decline in entry-level hiring. “Employers [are] saying, ‘I don’t hire entry-level anymore,’” she said. She warned that in three to five years, this shift will lead to a shortage of experienced workers, as companies skip over early-career talent and fail to build future pipelines.
Both speakers emphasized the self-reinforcing cycle now underway: as job seekers turn to AI to cope with automated hiring systems, employers respond by tightening filters or abandoning entry-level roles altogether. The result, they argued, is a labor market increasingly detached from human judgment and long-term workforce planning.
Schifeling noted that AI-generated applications often lack the specificity and authenticity that hiring managers seek, reducing candidates’ chances even when they are qualified. Gudell added that without entry-level hiring, industries risk eroding the talent pipeline needed to fill mid- and senior-level roles in the coming years.