Recruiters are almost twice as likely to choose a resume with an AI generated headshot (but only if they don't know)

A survey of over 1,087 recruiters by Ringover, an AI-driven conversation platform for staffing and sales, has made some startling discoveries about the role of AI in job searches and the interview process.

What started out as a bit of fun, has now become the norm, and shockingly 76.5% of recruiters actually prefer AI generated headshots over real photographs .

However, this was only before they were told that the headshots were AI generated.

Recruiters were almost twice as likely to choose a resume with a high-end, AI-generated image (42%) over a real headshot (23.5%).

However, 66% also said they would be put off a candidate if they recognized a headshot was AI-generated.

To test which headshots were most popular, Ringover asked recruiters to choose their favorite headshots from a selection of three, where two were AI generated.

In total, between the five case studies, both male and female, the respondents chose the AI-generated headshots far more often.

The case studies had real headshots taken of them, and then AI headshots were created using A2E, which is free, Remini and PhotoPacks.AI, both mid-range services, and Aragon AI, the most expensive service in the study.

Divided into three parts, the first section asked general questions about the use of headshots in applications, while the second section asked respondents to pick their favorite headshots. In the last part, participants were asked to correctly identify which headshots were the AI generated ones.

Recruiters hugely overestimated their ability to spot AI headshots. They only correctly spotted the AI headshots 39.5% of the time, despite 80% of them believing that they had  been accurate or very accurate at spotting the AI images.

People were best at guessing that the free AI technology was fake, but least likely to guess that the most expensive pictures were AI generated.

Factors that gave the use of AI away were glitching features (54.8%), too flawless (43.6%), too posed (34.3%), and the unrealistic look of the person, (23.3%).

AI is rapidly becoming a part of everyday life, and has some hugely beneficial uses such as detecting wildfires in California , and detecting cancer earlier .

However, there is also evident potential for harm, mis and disinformation.

Despite 88% of recruiters saying that it would be a good idea to use AI headshots at their company, 88% also said they believed that it should be made clear when AI has been used to generate a headshot.

Despite the varied results, 66.7% of recruiters said that they like an application to come with a headshot and put a face to the name. But be warned and give your headshot some thought, as 67.5% of recruiters have been put off by a candidate with a bad headshot.

Recruiters don’t like overly stylized or posed images (40.9%), poor photo quality (39.9%), too informal (35.6%), and the use of filters or obvious editing (32.7%).

So, if you’re thinking of adding a headshot to your application, keep it simple, professional, and maybe leave the AI out of it.

Answers:
Three of  the four headshots were AI generated - only the third is a real photo. But the results depend on how good the AI software is…

1) Top-range AI generation headshot

2) Free AI generation headshot

3) Real headshot

4) Mid-range AI-generated headshot

Take a look at our guides to the best AI image generators , and our guide on how to shoot a professional headshot