Some job seekers could get an edge in this labor market by actually writing their own resumes

Which resumes perform better with employers: AI or human-written ones? A new study may have the answer.

As tempting as it is, you might want to skip letting artificial intelligence write your resume.

New research suggests that resumes written by humans drew more interview requests and positive responses from potential employers than those that were completely written by AI large language models.

AI career platform Kickresume carried out an experiment to see which resumes got the best responses, using a sample of over 200 resumes between April and June 2026. They sent out candidate resumes, with half being AI-generated and the other half written exclusively by humans. Positive responses were defined as receiving interview requests, a mix of phone and video screenings, positive email responses or assessments to be completed.

They found that the strongest resumes (31% positive response) were human-written, while the weakest resumes (just 10% positive response) were completely AI-generated without human editing.

Employment experts say that part of that discrepancy may be due to the personal touch a real person can add to their resume that AI just can't provide on its own.

"One likely contributor is the addition of specific details, such as key metrics, achievements and details about your professional career," Peter Duris, CEO and co-founder of Kickresume, told MarketWatch. "This can look like adding measurable numbers to show your impact, and including any achievements you've earned like awards or certifications."

Jim Link, from the SHRM human-resources organization, agreed. "You can generate more volume and more applications by utilizing AI, but volume in the marketplace is not necessarily what gets you hired," Link, SHRM's chief human-resources officer, told MarketWatch. "Make sure you actually have a story to tell."

These types of specific accomplishments can be game changers on your resume, because they help show your positive impact on a company during your time there. And as the Indeed job site's career guide notes, they can show a future employer how you could add value to their company.

For example, you could list a professional accomplishment like: "Boosted sales by $1.5 million during the second quarter by adding 100 new clients."

Another 2026 survey by HR site Resume Genius showed that 76% of hiring managers said AI-written resumes make it harder to understand what a candidate actually did in their careers, while 72% of them said overreliance on AI in a resume can make candidates seem less skilled.

And a recent Reddit thread that drew over 300 comments featured someone who claimed to be a hiring manager complaining that "every resume is written by AI and looks exactly the same" - adding that "it's a bit infuriating sifting through multiple copies of the same slop." So differentiating yourself with a personal touch can help set you apart.

Still, using AI to write resumes is on the rise. Canva's Global Job Seeker Survey showed that approximately 57% of job seekers used AI to create their resumes in 2024, while another survey from data firm Clutch put that number at 84% in 2026.

But the choice between a human-written versus an AI-made resume doesn't have to be binary - especially if using an LLM can help you get the attention of AI job screeners, which may actually prefer AI-generated resumes.

When to use AI - and when not to

"Given we have access to AI, it is optimal to use it - the question is how much and how," Andres Lares, a career expert and CEO at Shapiro Negotiations Institute, told MarketWatch.

His advice: Draw on AI early in the process to draft ideas - but actually write most of the resume yourself, filling in your personal and professional achievements. Then bring AI back in, to review and polish what you have put together, and check over the final version yourself one last time before hitting submit.

"[AI] helps you brainstorm what to focus on, so you can decide what fits with the opening," Lares said. "And then it reviews your output for typos, mistakes and better ways to frame your experience."

Duris, from Kickresume, agrees that if you're going to use AI for writing your resume, you shouldn't let it write your entire first draft.

Besides adding polish and looking for typos, you can also use AI to create multiple versions of the same resume and tweak them for different roles - something Duris and others refer to as "tailoring" - which can help job seekers apply to multiple roles.

"While the strongest resume was human-written, a little [AI] tailoring of resumes to fit a job description can boost its performance, too," Duris said. "Pulling in the language from the posting shows recruiters and hiring managers you're a genuine fit for the role - and helps your resume read cleanly to an applicant-tracking system along the way."

Finding a job these days may require using AI for more than just resume writing.

Some other ways that job seekers are increasingly harnessing AI in their search, include as a role-playing simulator in salary negotiations or as a mock interview partner - another sign that human, person-to-person moments in the hiring process may be as important as ever. And adding that human touch could even give you an edge.

"Thank-you notes, thank-you emails, in-person interviews ... uniquely human activities are now more of a differentiator than they were before," Link said.

-Weston Blasi