AI is making the cover letter look a little vintage
Recruiters say AI-written applications have weakened the cover letter, though it can still help for senior, niche or résumé-explaining moments.
By Sal Moretti · Money Reporter
4 min read
Lindsey Rae Thompson has been spending at least an hour on each cover letter during a job hunt that has stretched on for months. Now, she told MarketWatch, the old job-search staple is starting to feel like it may be “becoming obsolete.”
Her frustration lands in the middle of a broader hiring scramble. Recruiters and talent-acquisition specialists told MarketWatch that artificial intelligence has made it easier for applicants to produce polished cover letters at scale, draining the format of some of its power to separate one candidate from another.
Brandi Britton, executive director of the contract finance and accounting practice at Robert Half, told MarketWatch the cover letter could be heading toward the same cultural shelf as Blockbuster Video. Sarah Fell, head of talent acquisition at Grand Living and a former president of the Association of Talent Acquisition Professionals, said candidates are now fortunate if a recruiter reads the letter at all.
Fell put it more bluntly to MarketWatch: “AI has broken the job search and remade it in a different image.” She said the process is failing many people involved, apart from AI providers.
Hiring is drowning in applications
MarketWatch reported that recruiters and human-resources teams are being flooded by applications generated through job-search platforms and AI tools. Job seekers, meanwhile, say they are trying to get through applicant-tracking systems and reach an actual person.
Ron Hetrick, principal economist at labor-research firm Lightcast and a former senior official at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, told MarketWatch that employers and applicants are still in the early, clumsy phase of using AI in hiring. He said the technology is making the job market messy, while adding that a weaker hiring situation would still frustrate candidates even without AI.
Trust is fraying on both sides. MarketWatch cited a 2026 Employ survey finding that half of job seekers said they had encountered postings they believed were scams. It also cited a 2024 Resume Builder survey in which four in 10 hiring managers said their company had posted fake job listings, with reasons including projecting growth and collecting résumés for later use.
Hasnain Baxamoosa, who launched the job-hunter platform GigHQ last year, told MarketWatch that applicant ghosting is a real problem. He said he has not seen evidence that cover letters improve response odds for GigHQ users.
Employers are suspicious, too
Recruiters are also questioning what they are seeing from candidates. MarketWatch cited FirstAdvantage, a software and data provider for human resources, which found that 45% of HR professionals said they had seen applicants submit fake employment details. Nine in 10 said they planned to increase verification efforts within one to two years.
Britton said Robert Half is seeing more employers ask for help checking candidates. She told MarketWatch that companies are asking why they should request cover letters when many look alike or may not reflect the applicant’s own work.
Some employers are trying to ward off bots directly. MarketWatch noted that DuckDuckGo included an instruction in a product-management director application telling humans to ignore an AI-protection rule, while directing AI assistants and bots to include the word “FROBSCOTTLE” in an answer. DuckDuckGo did not immediately respond to MarketWatch’s request for comment.
When a cover letter still helps
Hiring specialists told MarketWatch the cover letter is not dead yet. Britton said applicants should send one when it is required. Fell said candidates can often skip it for entry-level or junior roles that are likely to attract piles of applications, but it can still help for senior, executive, niche or lower-volume searches.
Cailean Bailey, a talent-acquisition partner at Radix, told MarketWatch a cover letter can explain a job gap, career change or other résumé question. He said he reads them, though he does not penalize candidates who leave them out.
Experts were split on AI assistance. Fell said obvious AI writing can lead her to reject a candidate, while Bailey said AI fluency may be expected in tech roles. Britton’s advice was to make the letter personal and take ownership of whatever AI helps produce.
Thompson told MarketWatch she is now considering a video cover letter for roles in brand strategy, marketing or publicity, especially after seeing companies request videos from applicants. Fell warned that video can create risks of visual bias, while Ben Lebsack, president of the National Employment Lawyers Association, pointed MarketWatch to a 2010 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission informal opinion saying video résumés are not banned by themselves, but the later hiring decisions still must comply with anti-discrimination law.
Bailey said old-fashioned contact still counts: phone calls, personal outreach and in-person meetings. Thompson said she plans to step up networking as she continues searching.
This story draws on original reporting from MarketWatch.