At first glance, the hiring market looks busy again.
Many businesses are receiving large volumes of applications for roles across marketing, creative, digital and operational teams. On paper, that sounds positive. More applicants should mean more choice and, ultimately, easier hiring.
But interestingly, a lot of hiring managers are telling us the same thing.
"We're getting applications, but finding genuinely strong candidates still feels difficult."
And honestly, that reflects what we're seeing across the market too.
While application volume has increased significantly, identifying the right people has arguably become more complicated.
Applying for jobs has never been easier
One major factor is simply how easy applying for jobs has become.
Candidates now have access to:
• AI-assisted CV writing
• AI-generated cover letters
• automated application tools
• AI interview preparation
• faster application processes
As a result, businesses are often receiving far higher numbers of applications than they were a few years ago. We're seeing roles attract dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of applicants within a matter of days.
The challenge is that higher volume doesn't necessarily mean higher quality.
In many cases, hiring teams are spending more time filtering applications while still struggling to identify the people who are genuinely the best fit for the role. This is particularly true in specialist areas where communication skills, commercial awareness and cultural fit are just as important as technical capability.
Strong candidates are becoming harder to identify quickly
One thing AI has done very effectively is help candidates present themselves more professionally.
CVs are becoming increasingly polished. Cover letters are becoming more structured. Applications are often better written than ever before.
That's not necessarily a bad thing.
However, it does make differentiation harder.
Hiring managers are increasingly trying to distinguish between:
• strong communicators
• commercially-minded professionals
• adaptable problem-solvers
• confident interviewees
• well-presented applications
And those things do not always mean the same thing.
Particularly across marketing, creative and digital recruitment, some of the strongest candidates aren't always the people with the most polished CVs. Often, what makes somebody successful becomes clearer through conversation than through an application alone.
Qualities such as:
• curiosity
• self-awareness
• collaboration
• commercial thinking
• leadership potential
• adaptability
are often much easier to assess once meaningful conversations begin.
Businesses are becoming more selective
At the same time, many organisations are still hiring cautiously.
Hiring activity certainly hasn't stopped, but many teams remain lean, budgets are under pressure and expectations around new hires are often higher than they were a few years ago.
Businesses increasingly want people who can:
• contribute quickly
• work across multiple areas
• communicate confidently
• embrace new technology
• adapt to change
• think commercially
Rather than simply execute a narrow set of responsibilities.
As a result, many employers are becoming more selective, even while candidate availability appears higher on the surface.
Human judgement is becoming more important, not less
There has been a lot of discussion about how AI might change recruitment.
And it undoubtedly will.
But one of the more interesting trends we're noticing is that AI may actually be increasing the importance of human judgement rather than reducing it.
When applications become easier to create and harder to differentiate, conversations matter more.
The strongest hiring decisions are increasingly being supported by:
• deeper screening conversations
• behavioural interviewing
• understanding motivations
• assessing communication styles
• exploring adaptability
• evaluating long-term fit
rather than simply matching keywords against a job description.
This is often where experienced recruiters continue to add real value.
Not by forwarding CVs.
But by helping businesses understand the people behind them.
Final thoughts
The hiring market isn't necessarily becoming easier.
In many ways, it's becoming noisier.
Businesses are seeing more applications, more automation and more AI-generated content than ever before. Yet despite all of this, the fundamentals of good hiring haven't really changed.
The strongest hiring decisions still come from understanding how somebody thinks, how they communicate, how they solve problems and how they fit within a team.
Technology will continue to shape recruitment and improve parts of the process. But ultimately, businesses are still hiring people.
And that's why human judgement remains such an important part of finding the right candidate.
If you're finding that application numbers are increasing but identifying the right people still feels challenging, you're certainly not alone. It's a conversation we're having with many businesses at the moment, particularly across marketing, creative and digital teams.
