The Rise of AI Usage by Candidates and the Impact on Employer Brand

In the rapidly evolving world of talent attraction, the rise of AI tools has become one of the major game-changing developments in our industry.

We’ve pulled together the following statistics which speak volumes about this rapid growth in AI usage and the rising popularity of AI amongst candidates.

Widespread adoption of AI in 2025

According to a recent TechCrunch article, the total weekly active users for market leading chatbot, ChatGPT, doubled in early 2025. This number skyrocketed from 200 million global users in August to 400 million in February.

In the UK alone ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot together boast a huge 18 million users (Deloitte, 2024).

The widespread adoption of these tools extends across demographics but is being embraced most notably by Gen Z’s digital natives.

Nearly 88% of students and graduates are now regularly using AI tools — a significant jump from the 72% recorded the previous year (Arctic Shores, October 2024).

And it’s not just younger people who are adopting this technology — six out of ten experienced professionals with 10-20 years of work under their belt also use AI tools regularly (Arctic Shores, October 2024).

Growth of AI as a job-hunting tool

The job search process is being transformed by AI in 2025, with candidates using chatbots to research companies and roles and help them prepare for interviews.

A March 2025 survey of 1,200 candidates by Adzuna found that 65% have used AI in their job search, with half of those using it specifically to research jobs or companies.

Leading job site, Indeed, now ranks among the top 20 websites receiving traffic from ChatGPT. This makes job seeking activity one of the platform’s most common applications (Datos, January 2025).

Our own research in March of this year revealed the impact this is also having on traffic to career websites.

We found that visits from AI tools to major employer brand websites have surged by an astounding 1,300% in the last six months.

Despite the dramatic rise in chatbot referred visits, it’s worth bearing in mind that this level of traffic is still dwarfed by organic search channels. Nine out of ten candidates still use Google to search for jobs or research employers.

The difference in 2025 is that candidates are now starting to see a much-evolved set of search results.

In a recent announcement, Google declared that all search results will be influenced by AI in 2025 and beyond, as they continue to react to the growth of popularity for tools like ChatGPT.

With a rising number of AI overviews and AI-organised results pages, it’s imperative that employers also optimise their sites for these new AI features in search engines.

AI breeds trust and confidence

Another, perhaps surprising revelation to come out of recent surveys is the level of trust users have for AI-generated information:

A joint survey by KPMG and the University of Queensland revealed that between 67% and 75% of respondents trust answers given by AI systems. That’s twice the number of people who trust online media.

According to Adzuna’s 2025 survey, 75% of jobseekers report feeling more confident when using AI tools in their search.
 
 

How candidates are using AI tools

Today’s candidates are making use of AI tools at all stages of their job hunt and career journey.

• Career development: Choosing a new career and seeking personalised advice on skill development and progression in their field.
• Employer discovery: Identifying potential employers that match their values and career aspirations
• Employer profiling: Deep-diving into key points of interest about an employer, such as their benefits offering and values.
• Comparative analysis: Evaluating multiple employers side-by-side on key factors to decide which fits them best.
• Cultural assessment: Gauging the working culture of an employer, as well as its reputation, employee benefits, values and sustainability initiatives.
• Job search: Finding relevant openings and determining if they’re suitable matches.

The Critical Impact on Your Employer Brand

This AI revolution creates both opportunities and challenges for talent attraction professionals.

As candidates increasingly form their first impressions through AI-mediated interactions, it’s crucial to understand how your employer brand is being presented.

Are you visible in these tools for questions relating to your key hiring areas? How is your working culture being perceived by AI and summarised to interested candidates?

The information AI tools provide about your organisation comes from your digital footprint — largely the content of your careers website but also information may come from:

• Social media accounts
• Review platforms
• News articles
• Discussion boards and forums

If your content isn’t optimised correctly, you could find that your employer brand misinterpreted by AI tools.

However, AI doesn’t simply repeat information; it interprets, summarises and prioritises, based on complex algorithms.

This means your carefully crafted employer value proposition may be filtered, condensed, or even misrepresented by AI tools before reaching potential candidates.

Without proper optimisation, critical aspects of your employer brand might be overlooked while less relevant or outdated information could be emphasised.