Three years ago, Andrew Stockwell had his hiring routine down to a science.

As head of people for the software-buying company Vendr, he posted a listing, waited a few days and then reviewed a few dozen applications—up to 100 if he was lucky. Recruiters identified other potential candidates, adding a few more applicants to the mix. Stockwell read résumés, conducted interviews, and passed along sterling candidates to hiring managers.

“It was really about finding that great talent, sussing out that talent, speaking with that talent, and identifying the best possible people,” he says of his pre-pandemic process.

Now, however, everything has changed. The process started off the same way, but within a day or two, Stockwell wasn’t looking at 100 candidates; instead, he was flooded with hundreds of applications. Sometimes, the incoming topped a thousand. A good chunk were “total bogus,” he says—fake candidates. Many more appeared to have been written using artificial intelligence, stretching the truth and making it difficult to distinguish one applicant from another.

“The sheer quantity is overwhelming,” Stockwell explains. “I find myself ‘paying my talent-acquisition professionals—who are high-paid, high-quality individuals—just to look through applications all day long.’”