A new survey shows that HR professionals sense applicants are using AI to create or polish their resumes. The giveaway? How similar and unnatural applications are becoming. 

By Gillian Manning 

For TA leaders, when reviewing applications, resumes may start blurring together, and for good reason. Resume Genius surveyed 1,000 U.S. hiring managers in their 2026 Hiring Insights Report and found that 77% say many resumes appear to be AI-generated. 

The majority also say: 

• overall resume quality has gone up (76%); 

• resumes are more polished and visually appealing than five years ago (79%); and 

• resumes are better tailored to specific job postings (78%). 

These improvements aren’t necessarily indicative of better resume writing, though, according to hiring managers. Most professionals (80%) report being able to tell when resumes are written by AI.  

“The problem isn’t that AI-generated resumes are worse, it’s that many of them now sound a little too similar or slightly off, like they’re missing a real person behind the words,” says Eva Chan, a career expert at Resume Genius. “As AI has raised the overall quality of resumes, it’s also made them more uniform. In 2026, the candidates who stand out are the ones whose resumes feel specific and grounded in real experience.” 

The biggest giveaways a resume is written by AI include the following, according to hiring managers. 

• Unnatural phrasing or tone (51%) 

• Repetitive or overly generic language (44%) 

• Vague or inflated descriptions (41%) 

• Buzzword-heavy writing (41%) 

• Perfect grammar with no variation (39%) 

• Specific formatting habits, like em dashes (32%) 

• Incorrect or irrelevant details (27%) 

Most hiring managers (72%) indicate that an overreliance on AI makes a candidate seem less skilled, but not everyone feels that way. Nearly six in 10 say that it signals a candidate’s adaptability, and 51% say it signals efficiency—demonstrating how opinions on AI-use continue to vary per person.