February 11, 2026
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How Will AI-Embellished Resumes Affect Retail Hiring Practices?
In something of a follow-up to a previous RetailWire discussion surrounding the nature of automated hiring processes in the retail sphere, a related topic — the growing prevalence of AI-embellished resumes coming from applicants.
A new Express Employment Professionals-Harris poll indicates that four-fifths (80%) of hiring managers stated that submitted resumes aren’t matching applicants’ real-world skills when it comes time to perform. More than one-third (34%) indicated that the frequency of this mismatch between stated skills or ability versus concrete outcomes occurs “all the time” or “often.”
And while the poll includes a broad swathe of employment sectors, a few retail and service examples were brought to the fore as representative, including a chef who was unable to cut onions; a new hire proclaiming proficiency with a particular POS system, only to display complete inability to perform basic navigation (this candidate was fired the same day); and a jobseeker who bragged of exceptional negotiation skills, only to fold immediately during role-play around the task, immediately offering a full refund without any attempt to problem-solve.
According to CV Genius survey results reported on by Forbes in October 2024, 80% of hiring managers actively dislike AI-enhanced resumes (whether the contents are accurate or no), with 74% of respondents indicating they can easily spot such resumes, and 57% stating they are significantly less likely to hire applicants with obvious AI fingerprints on their resumes.
AI-Embellished Resumes on the Rise
With a late January report from Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic of the Harvard Business Review describing the proliferation of AI-driven hiring, and job application, as a mixed bag, the downfalls are thrust into relief: Trust issues abound, speed has come at the cost of accuracy, and ethical concerns are mounting.
The Express Employment Professionals-Harris poll drew a further bifurcation from the data. A vast majority (86%) of respondents responsible for hiring suggested that AI tools are making it far too easy to embellish resumes, and nearly half (42%) strongly agreed with the premise that this stretching of the truth coming from jobseekers is presenting a substantial hiring risk. On the other hand, only 22% of would-be workers copped to including skills on their resume which they actually didn’t possess.
Bob Funk Jr., CEO, president and chairman of Express Employment International, summed up his position.
“In today’s market, you don’t need a perfect resume; you need a truthful one. When job seekers exaggerate their abilities, they set themselves up for stress, failure and lost opportunities,” he began.
“But when they’re transparent about their skills and what they know, and eager to learn what they don’t, employers take notice. Integrity is still a competitive advantage,” he added.
BrainTrust
Nicholas Morine
Recent Discussions
Discussion Questions
How might the proliferation of AI-embellished resumes affect the retail hiring process, particularly in tandem with an uptick in AI-curated hiring? What ideal balance needs to be struck, in your opinion?
Do you believe that retail job-seekers are more, or less, likely to embellish their resumes via AI tools than applicants in other sectors? What’s your reasoning?
Poll
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Given that some resumes are already works of fiction – some folks lie and exaggerate – I don’t see AI-enhanced resumes as some kind of existential threat to retail hiring. What I think it is more of a threat to is people’s ability to think and reason. If you outsource your thinking – for resume construction or anything else – to AI, then you’re opting to make yourself dumber. The brain is a ‘muscle.’ It gets flabby if not used.
AI-powered fraud detection in hiring software should become part of the conversation for Retailers looking to ensure the integrity of their candidates and hiring processes. This should not be a replacement for human judgment but an essential defense layer.
The leading HR tech providers are training their AI to:
- Analyze speech patterns and metadata to flag suspicious resumes
- Correlate identity signals
- Detect deepfakes or impersonation attempts during video or phone interviews
In these cases they are using AI not only to screen but to validate authenticity, combing these tools with validation checks and humans in the lead.
So an AI enhanced resume, will be screened by an Agentic AI Resume Reviewer, who will pass the best candidates onto an AI Candidate Job Screener. In the end the candidate selected will likely be a digital twin, or an Agentic AI program. I believe if asked, Chat GPT would call this the new circle of life.
Amen!
You mean pople lie on their resumes??
O
M
G
But a solution may be at at hand: just as homeopathy believes “like cures like”, perhaps a similar effect can be at work here… AI can more readily spot one of their own.
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Given that some resumes are already works of fiction – some folks lie and exaggerate – I don’t see AI-enhanced resumes as some kind of existential threat to retail hiring. What I think it is more of a threat to is people’s ability to think and reason. If you outsource your thinking – for resume construction or anything else – to AI, then you’re opting to make yourself dumber. The brain is a ‘muscle.’ It gets flabby if not used.
AI-powered fraud detection in hiring software should become part of the conversation for Retailers looking to ensure the integrity of their candidates and hiring processes. This should not be a replacement for human judgment but an essential defense layer.
The leading HR tech providers are training their AI to:
In these cases they are using AI not only to screen but to validate authenticity, combing these tools with validation checks and humans in the lead.
So an AI enhanced resume, will be screened by an Agentic AI Resume Reviewer, who will pass the best candidates onto an AI Candidate Job Screener. In the end the candidate selected will likely be a digital twin, or an Agentic AI program. I believe if asked, Chat GPT would call this the new circle of life.
Amen!
You mean pople lie on their resumes??
O
M
G
But a solution may be at at hand: just as homeopathy believes “like cures like”, perhaps a similar effect can be at work here… AI can more readily spot one of their own.