AI and apps, the tools used in 2026 to apply for work #
20 August 2026
I can’t remember the last time I applied for a permanent full-time job, but it was in the years soon after I left school. I held a couple of these sorts of jobs, but have pretty much worked freelance since. Leads there have come through people I know, or even disassociated.
It’s fair to say I have no idea what the — for want of a better word — formal process is today.
The last time I had what most people would probably consider to a be a “normal” job interview, I sat before a three-person panel. Needless to say things are quite different in 2026, as Millie Muroi writes (in a pay-walled article) for The Sydney Morning Herald.
One-third of Australian companies are said to use AI in their recruiting today. And if the experience of applying for work, in this instance a casual role at a large Australian discount department store chain, is anything to go by, it seems you don’t encounter a single person. At least initially.
The process, which Muroi partly filmed (not pay-walled), involves typing responses to questions posed by an AI chatbot, from wherever you happen to be. No need to show up in person anymore. She later received an email offering some “personalised” insights, which was AI generated.
It is claimed this practice means everyone’s applications are “seen”, and responded to. Is that a plus?
I expect the recruiting stage conducted by the AI chatbot results in a shortlist of candidates, who, following vetting by a person in HR, would then go in for a face-to-face meeting.
I doubt white-collar recruitment occurs in the quite the same fashion, though AI no doubt sifts through applications, which probably have to be lodged through LinkedIn. Fingers crossed my current line of work holds up, as job hunting using LinkedIn is not something I would relish.
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