Contractors, AI is making the CV’s death knell louder

Amid quite a bit of evidence that the UK’s recruitment processes aren’t always working tremendously for everyone, and in the interests of new ways of working, a UK Hiring Taskforce has set out to reconfigure the rules of hiring.

The aim is to make UK recruitment faster, fairer, and safer, writes Keith Rosser, a director of Reed Screening.

In fact, the Better Hiring Institute, of which I am the chair, is now working with government to make UK hiring the fastest globally, the fairest in the world, and the safest it can be.

Squaring up to an A4-size problem: the (outdated) CV

I’m confident that the gains won't be marginal. Indeed, early calculations imply that successfully creating fast, fair, and safe hiring will deliver millions into the Treasury through increased taxes and business performance, reduced waiting lists, improved productivity, and large social benefits from more people being able to get into work.

However, to reprogram hiring for the digital age -- and here’s the rub for some, the old and traditional must be swept away, and that includes the CV.  

The CV is a medieval invention, alive and kicking candidates and employers in 2025 

Once upon a time, CVs had a need. To the Middle Ages craftsmen (they were normally men back then), to the artists of the Renaissance, to the underdeveloped recruitment practices of the Industrial Revolution and, later, the post-war periods, a document outlining what you say you’ve achieved was universal.

Next, the old proverb "If it isn't broken…" served to keep the CV at the heart of hiring, but also served, in my view, to block innovation.

Fast-forward to today, and CVs are a problem -- 60% contain errors, and out of those, 20% contain malicious errors, according to Reed.

Broken promises...

I don’t look at the CV as an isolated issue.

Broken promises, and surely some untruthfulness somewhere along the line have led to an astonishing 41% of new hires quitting in their first 12 weeks (CIPD, 2024), and 46% of hires don’t work out in their first 18 months (LeadershipIQ).

At the same time, 27% of employers say new hires don't show up on their first day. And what a waste, because the time suckage from job application to formal acceptance totals 44 days (based on a global average hiring time).

Unfortunately, the typical hiring process is long, lacks trust, and often ends with the wrong results.

Other than that, sure, UK hiring is working well!

AI is scaling CV use and abuse

But back to CVs as I know that’s where the resistance to change is strongest.

Artificial Intelligence is now exposing the fragility of the CV system, scaling the use and abuse of the Curriculum Vitae.

How do I mean? Well, so many CVs are now produced by AI -- even those that will right now be on some company’s hard-fought candidate shortlist, which seems to reduce the whole process to a largely pointless exercise.

Hiscox found in May 2025 that one in two job applicants used AI to create or enhance their CV in the last 12 months, and Reboot claims it’s actually as high as 61%.

With more employers adopting AI to check CVs (with mixed success), it's fast becoming a battle of the AI bots and far removed from the original concept of a CV to find a job. 

CVs have heard the death knell before…

There have been many well-intentioned moves against the CV in the past. We’ve had the competency-based system -- well used in the civil service, the skills-based hiring school of thought, and others.

What is missing is the strategic solution to fully consign the CV to history, and with it, usher in a new dawn of effective and fast hiring.

Hiring questions of national importance

To the nay-sayers, I say, imagine if hiring could be completed (from application to acceptance) in just 10 days.

And what if hiring was a better candidate experience?

And what if hiring led to better outcomes? That would be a competitive advantage for the country. 

As digital wallets and credentials emerge fast on the heels of digital hiring, there is a greater opportunity than ever to fix hiring and take it from mediocrity to world-leading.

Rewriting the CV just won’t cut it; we need to turn the page

But I want to end where I started -- whether the CV needs a rewrite, or something greater.

Indeed, when people originally demanded faster transport, they asked for faster horses, rather than asking for the motorcar. So when given the choice of an improvement, people tend to focus on something slightly better rather than an entirely innovative solution. Attributed to industrialist Henry Ford, it's the problem of user feedback often focusing on a small desired change instead of an innovative solution. 

Well, as hiring modernises, with the use of HMRC checks to confirm employment history and LinkedIn showing the person's profile, the CV is already fast becoming redundant.

With so many CVs containing inaccuracies and so many CVs now AI-generated, the usefulness of a resume in today's hiring process is quickly diminishing.

CV alternatives are already here, so it’s just a matter of time…

Alternatives to the CV exist and are increasingly being used, such as online application forms, competency-based processes, skills assessments, and a number of other tools -- even conceptual stand-ins like using blockchain technology to create a transferable ledger of a person’s credentials.

Take your pick; the point is that these are all tools that are more objective, stand up to better scrutiny, and actually reflect the applicant.