How and Why Americans Are Using AI to Apply for Jobs

Artificial intelligence has become a go-to tool to help with job applications in the U.S. Results of a Statista+ survey conducted in January 2026 show that 70 percent of U.S. professionals have used AI at least once while applying for a job in the last 24 months, and that proportion goes up to 78 percent for Millennials.

As our infographic shows, motivations to use AI are pragmatic and strongly performance oriented. Close to half (49 percent) of U.S. respondents said they had used AI to compensate for weaknesses such as bad spelling or a lack of design abilities. 48 percent said AI would improve their overall chances; the same share of respondents used AI tools to better tailor each application to specific positions, and cited AI as a form of professional support. Finally, 46 percent said using AI allowed them to save time.

While LLMs such as ChatGPT were the most often used AI tool (cited by 73 percent of AI users in the United States), the most common use of AI was writing/designing a CV automatically (49 percent), followed by preparing for interviews (44 percent), and searching for or filtering job offers (40 percent).

While these results show a clear enthusiasm for AI use in the application process in the U.S., doubts seem to still exist concerning the technology: 61 percent of respondents said they believed applicants should use AI in such a way that it can't be identified. Furthermore, of the people who hadn't used AI for a job application in the past 24 months, 39 percent said they believed a job application should reflect one's real skills and abilities, which may be distorted by the use of AI.