An AI Trust Crisis: 70% of Hiring Managers Trust AI to Make Faster and Better Hiring Decisions, Only 8% of Job Seekers Call it Fair

Career Climbers / 19th November 2025

A new report by Greenhouse, a leading hiring platform, reveals new levels of hiring dysfunction. Candidates are hacking AI filters with prompt injections, recruiters are drowning in application volume, and companies are posting ghost jobs, eroding trust all around. The Greenhouse 2025 AI in Hiring Report, which surveyed over 4,100 job seekers, recruiters, and hiring managers across the U.S., U.K., Ireland, and Germany, shows an escalating AI arms race where authenticity and trust have become the first casualties.

“Our latest data shows that neither side is happy with the hiring process right now,” said Daniel Chait, CEO and co-founder of Greenhouse. “Trust is at an all-time low for both job seekers and recruiters. Candidates are doing whatever they can to break through the noise, while talent acquisition teams are drowning in so many applications they’re looking for ways to sort through what’s real and what’s not.”

“Unfortunately, although all sides are just trying to do their best, our survey shows that the collective result is worse for everyone,” added Chait. “Jobseekers use AI to apply to more and more jobs, while employers use it to filter candidates back out again. It’s an AI doom loop that’s getting worse, not better. Our vision is to build AI for hiring that is more human and that helps solve systemic problems on both sides.”

Job Seekers Are Fighting the “AI Doom Loop” with Hacks
Candidate desperation is evident in the U.S., with 69% encountering fake job postings and nearly half (49%) submitting more applications than a year ago; many feel forced to game the system. Over half (54%) have encountered an AI-led interview. In the midst of what they see as opaque AI screening they believe they can’t beat, candidates are taking matters into their own hands. Of the 1,200 U.S. job seekers surveyed, 41% admit to using prompt injections, hidden text designed to bypass AI filters, and of those who don’t use this tactic, 52% say they are considering it.

Candidate Fraud Fears Are Escalating
While U.S. job seekers consider the use of AI as “leveling the playing field,” companies in the U.S. cite an integrity crisis. Over nine in every ten (91%) recruiters have spotted candidate deception, and 34% spend up to half their week filtering spam and junk applications. Two in every three (65%) hiring managers have caught applicants using AI deceptively, like reading from AI-generated scripts (32%), hiding prompt injections in resumes (22%), or showing up as deepfakes (18%). The fraud fears are escalating: 74% of hiring managers say they’re more concerned about fake credentials, deepfakes, or misrepresented experience than they were a year ago.

Candidates Lose Faith in Hiring as Bot Bias Concerns Grow; Trust Is Collapsing, Especially for Gen-Z
The numbers tell a stark story. Almost one in every two (46%) job seekers in the U.S. say their trust in hiring has decreased over the past year, with 42% blaming AI directly. AI bias is increasingly becoming a concern. Thirty-five percent of job seekers in the U.S. think AI has shifted bias from humans to algorithms, and close to one in five (18%) say it’s amplified bias by learning from historical patterns. Only 8% of candidates believe AI makes hiring more fair. Among U.S. Gen-Z entry-level workers, 62% have lost trust. 

Recruiters and Hiring Managers Out of Sync 
The data reveals that recruiters and hiring managers in the U.S. are not on the same page. Seven in every ten (70%) hiring managers say AI helps them make faster and better hiring decisions with fewer recruiter resources. Recruiters are more ambivalent. While one in every two (50%) say AI has improved hiring overall, mainly by saving time on screening and scheduling, 25% admit they’re not confident in their AI systems at all, and 8% say they have no idea what their algorithms prioritize. Only 21% are very confident that their systems aren’t rejecting qualified candidates.

What Comes Next?
The findings raise uncomfortable questions: If candidates can’t tell what’s real, who’s evaluating them, or how to succeed, has the hiring market fundamentally broken down? When is optimization actually hurting the system? Can trust ever be rebuilt as long as AI exists? Greenhouse’s data suggests the answer won’t come from better AI. Instead, it will result from re-establishing transparency, introducing “good friction” like identity verification, and improving the quality of hiring signals. We must rethink the hiring process to ensure that humanity is not lost at the altar of algorithmic supremacy. Hiring is ultimately about human fit, not algorithms.

Additional U.S. Findings from Greenhouse’s 2025 AI in Hiring include:

• Despite three in every four (74%) U.S. job seekers personally using AI, the vast majority (87%) say it’s important for employers to be transparent about their own AI use, which is largely missing.
• Over a third of job seekers (36%) in the U.S. have used AI to alter their appearance, voice, or background during video interviews, with 59% doing so to appear more professional and 37% to hide physical appearance and identity traits.
• The majority (68%) of hiring managers in the U.S. are more involved in hiring than they were last year.
• To verify authenticity, 39% of hiring managers in the U.S. are conducting more in-person interviews, suggesting they’re trying to separate real talent from the fakes and spending more time doing so, not less.

View Greenhouse’s complete set of findings here.

Survey Methodology
Greenhouse conducted a multi-market survey of 4,136 respondents, which included 2,900 job seekers and 1,236 recruiters and hiring managers across the U.S., U.K., Ireland, and Germany. Among the respondents from the U.S., there were 1,200 job seekers and 665 recruiters and hiring managers.