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The resume is "broken," according to Barb Hyman, London-based founder and CEO of recruitment platform Sapia.ai. "How many people are you missing out on because you're relying on an artefact?" Hyman said, adding that AI can now tailor a resume — or CV, as it's known in the U.K. — to any role.
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 . In a crowded market where candidates can use AI to create endless resumes and cover letters, finding the right person may be harder than ever.
Skills, rather than employment history, will increasingly determine who gets hired, according to Hyman. A hairdresser, for example, might not look like an obvious fit for a contact center job on paper, she told CNBC, but could excel in the role because hairdressers tend to have high levels of empathy, listen to people all day and spend hours solving complex problems.
Assessing skills directly can reveal strengths and weaknesses that a traditional resume hides, according to Hyman — sometimes painting a picture even the candidates themselves weren't sure of.
Hyman isn't alone in seeing hiring move in this direction. Around two-thirds of U.K. organizations have adopted skills-based hiring, according to 2026 research from Michael Page , a recruitment firm headquartered in Surrey, England. Almost 60% of candidates said they were more likely to apply for roles defined by skills rather than traditional qualifications or career history.
It's leading employers to think carefully about which skills they actually value. James Broadhead, the Dublin-based CTO of AI decision-making company Taktile, told CNBC that a prototype that might once have taken an engineer three weeks to build can now be one of 10 generated in a single afternoon, thanks to AI.
"The hard part has become having the judgement to decide which of those are any good," Broadhead said.
Taktile now looks for interpersonal skills — like how well candidates can speak to customers — as well as self-reflection and a willingness to question what they have built, he added. It's also interested in whether candidates are continually experimenting with AI.
"The pace of model releases is so fast that the ceiling of what you can do changes every three months," Broadhead said. "And so the question we're asking is: what have you changed about your AI tools in the last three weeks?"
Other companies are assessing potential hires by throwing them in at the deep end. At digital marketing and advertising agency PMG, graduate candidates are asked to complete practical exercises in person, work in teams and tackle client briefs. Josh Krichefski, PMG's London-based EMEA president, told CNBC this is designed to assess how candidates actually interact and approach work.
"You don't really know whether someone's going to have the skills to do something until you challenge them to do it," Krichefski said. "The past doesn't tell you that." Younger candidates are often well placed for this, he said, because Gen Z has fewer preconceived notions about what a job looks like.
"It's another reason for why we…