Resume is broken, says Sapia.ai chief, as skills-based hiring spreads

The pressure on traditional hiring has been building from two directions at once. AI can now tailor a resume or CV to any role, according to Sapia.ai's Barb Hyman, while U.K. graduate employers received an average of 140 applications per vacancy in 2025 — the highest level recorded in three decades, according to data from the Institute of Student Employers. More applications, each more polished, make the resume a weaker signal.

Employers are responding by testing skills directly. Taktile's CTO James Broadhead says a prototype that might once have taken an engineer three weeks to build can now be one of 10 generated in a single afternoon, so the hard part is having the judgement to decide which are any good. PMG's EMEA president Josh Krichefski says practical exercises reveal how candidates interact and approach work, because "the past doesn't tell you that." Hyman argues the same approach can surface candidates a resume would hide — a hairdresser, for instance, might have the empathy and problem-solving for a contact center job that paper credentials miss.

Where this lands depends on whether AI-assisted screening can reduce human bias without removing people from the final call. Hyman says technology is better suited to screening at scale, but that the hiring manager — who will work alongside the new hire — should make the final decision. For HR and recruitment teams at graduate employers, the test is whether skills-based assessment can actually handle the record volume without adding cost or delay.