Is AI making the CV obsolete?
Tue, October 20, 2026
AI is changing the way candidates apply for jobs and how employers assess them. But with applications becoming increasingly polished and tailored, are CVs becoming less useful? Leanne Boddy, Associate Director at Macmillan Davies, explores how AI is reshaping recruitment, what it means for employers and why understanding the person behind the application matters more than ever.
A CV has never told the whole story, but AI is making that increasingly apparent. Candidates can now tailor their applications to individual job descriptions in minutes, using technology to highlight relevant experience, refine their language and present their careers in the best possible light.
For employers, this creates an interesting challenge. When applications are carefully written to reflect the requirements of a role, identifying candidates who appear suitable is relatively straightforward. Understanding who genuinely has the experience, judgement and motivation to succeed is another matter entirely.
At Macmillan Davies, we see AI as an opportunity to improve how we recruit. We're continually researching new technologies, exploring how they can support our consultants and investing in tools that help us deliver a better service. But we're equally conscious that recruitment is about people, and that the quality of an appointment depends on far more than the information contained in a CV.
More applications, but are they better applications?
Recent research from Morgan McKinley, reported by TechRadar, highlights the challenges employers are experiencing as AI becomes more widely used in recruitment.
The findings revealed that 55% of UK employers surveyed were not using AI in recruitment, while two in five believed AI had made applicants' skills harder to verify. Meanwhile, 28% of candidates said AI-based assessment would make them less likely to apply for a role.
The research also highlighted increasing application volumes without a corresponding improvement in quality.
It's a situation we're seeing reflected in the wider recruitment market. Candidates have more tools available to help them apply for roles, but an application that closely matches a job description doesn't necessarily indicate that someone is right for the position.
This is particularly relevant in senior HR recruitment, where experience can be difficult to assess from a CV alone. Two candidates might describe leading organisational transformation, managing complex employee relations or partnering with executive teams, but the scale of their responsibilities, the challenges they've navigated and their personal contribution can be very different.
For employers, the challenge is understanding what sits behind those descriptions and how that experience translates into the needs of their organisation.
200 applications. One People Director role.
A recent People Director assignment at Macmillan Davies attracted more than 200 applications.
Managing that level of interest efficiently is important, both for our clients and for the candidates who have taken the time to apply. AI-supported technology helped us work through the applications, identify relevant experience and establish which candidates appeared to meet the requirements of the brief.
But that was only the starting point.
Every CV is reviewed by a person, and every candidate we put forward to a client has a conversation with one of our consultants. It's through those conversations that we can begin to understand the experience behind the application.
We want to know what someone has personally delivered, the scale and complexity of the organisations they've worked in, how they've approached difficult situations and what they've learned along the way. We also want to understand why they're interested in the opportunity, what they're looking for in their next move and whether the role genuinely aligns with their ambitions.
Someone can have an impressive CV and all the experience a client is looking for, but that doesn't automatically make them the right appointment. Understanding the individual, their motivations and the environment in which they'll be most successful is an essential part of the recruitment process.
Technology helps us manage the volume of applications and identify relevant experience. Our consultants provide the understanding and judgement needed to turn those applications into a credible shortlist.
What a CV can't tell you
One of the greatest strengths of specialist recruitment is the knowledge that comes from building relationships over time.
At Macmillan Davies, our consultants work closely with HR professionals throughout their careers, often developing relationships that extend well beyond a single recruitment process. We get to know their experience, ambitions and the types of organisations and opportunities that interest them.
That understanding is equally important on the client side. Knowing the job description is one thing, but understanding the business, its culture, the leadership team and the challenges facing the organisation allows us to assess candidates with much greater context.
It's also why a strong shortlist shouldn't be limited to people who have responded to an advert. Our established network of HR professionals, proactive search activity and carefully reviewed applications allow us to consider talent from across the market.
The conversations we have with candidates are central to this approach. They help us explore areas that might not be obvious from a CV, challenge assumptions and provide clients with a more complete picture of the people we're recommending.
As applications become increasingly sophisticated, we believe this level of personal assessment will become even more important.
Nearly 50 years of recruitment, and still evolving
Recruitment today looks very different from when Macmillan Davies was established nearly 50 years ago. The technology available to recruiters, the way candidates search for opportunities and the expectations of employers have all changed considerably.
We've evolved with those changes, continually reviewing how we work and embracing developments that help us provide a better service.
AI is an important part of that evolution. We're actively researching the latest recruitment technologies and considering where they can make a meaningful difference, whether that's improving efficiency, supporting candidate identification or giving our consultants more time to focus on their relationships with clients and candidates.
We're not interested in using technology simply because it's new. We're interested in what it can help us do better.
Throughout that evolution, our commitment to personal relationships has remained central to the business. It's part of our values, shapes the way we work and has helped Macmillan Davies remain a trusted specialist in HR recruitment for almost five decades.
For us, technology and personal service aren't competing priorities. The right technology should support our consultants in delivering the knowledgeable, considered and personal approach our clients and candidates expect.
So, will AI replace the CV?
We don't believe CVs are disappearing anytime soon. They remain a useful way to understand someone's career history, experience and progression, but their role in recruitment is changing.
As AI makes it easier to create highly tailored applications, employers will need to think carefully about how they assess candidates and whether their recruitment processes provide enough opportunity to understand the person behind the CV.
A well-written application can help someone secure an interview, but it doesn't tell you everything about how they'll perform, the relationships they'll build or the contribution they'll make to an organisation.
For Macmillan Davies, the future of recruitment is about making the most of the technology available while continuing to invest in the relationships, expertise and specialist knowledge that have shaped our business for nearly 50 years.
AI will continue to influence how we identify and assess talent, and we're excited about the opportunities it presents. But finding the right person has always involved much more than finding the right CV.
Get in touch
If you would like to discuss the above, or your search for work/recruiting into your team, please contact Leanne Boddy directly at lboddy@mdhr.co.uk
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