Vladimir Lagutinskiy on Why Hiring Today Is a Battle of Algorithms

On the latest episode of the Objective Hiring podcast, Tim Freestone, founder of Alooba, sat down with Vladimir Lagutinskiy, Head of Data, to talk about how artificial intelligence is reshaping the hiring process—and not always for the better.

The conversation revealed a frustrating but increasingly common reality: hiring today feels less like a conversation between people and more like a technological arms race between bots.

“You're not writing your CV. You're asking ChatGPT to write your CV. You're asking ChatGPT to write your cover letter.”

Job seekers are now using AI tools like ChatGPT to craft applications en masse, while employers use AI to filter and screen them at scale. It's automation fighting automation—with humans often left out of the loop.

The Rise of AI on Both Sides of the Hiring Table

Vladimir talked about a dramatic shift in how people apply for jobs. With the help of AI tools, candidates can now submit dozens—sometimes hundreds—of job applications with minimal effort.

“It’s not one person applying to 10 jobs. It’s one person applying to 100 jobs using tools to generate CVs and cover letters.”

And hiring teams are responding in kind. Rather than sifting through these inflated submissions manually, employers are increasingly using automation to filter candidates, relying on keyword matchers, bots, and machine learning models to do the heavy lifting.

“Companies now are just using tools to go through all those CVs and do that preliminary screening.”

This mutual dependence on automation leads to a cold, impersonal hiring process where no one really knows what’s working.

When Bots Review Bot-Written CVs

The problem isn’t just automation—it’s automation without oversight or context. Vladimir discussed how AI-written resumes are often indistinguishable from human ones, but they don’t necessarily reflect real skills.

“You can ask ChatGPT to write you a CV for a role you’ve never worked in. It’ll do it perfectly. That’s not a real signal of anything.”

As a result, hiring managers are seeing inflated resumes, and it’s becoming harder to trust what they’re reading. In some cases, people make it to the interview stage despite having no real experience in the role they applied for.

This creates a high failure rate in interviews and erodes trust in the system.

The Black Hole of Applications

Even after going through the effort of applying, candidates often receive no feedback. They’re rejected—sometimes instantly—and never learn why. This creates frustration and fuels the cycle of mass applications.

“You're being rejected by a bot. It just says: Thank you. We’ll keep your CV on file. But you know it’s not true.”

Vladimir argued that this lack of transparency damages the employer brand and the candidate experience. It also makes it harder to build a relationship with potential future hires.

Who Even Reads CVs Now?

Tim and Vladimir both questioned how many CVs are actually read by a human anymore.

“Nobody reads them. At some point, there's just too many applications.”

Instead of evaluating candidates on their actual abilities, companies are often filtering based on arbitrary signals or surface-level cues. This makes it easy for people who know how to game the system to get through—and hard for skilled candidates without polished documents to stand out.

Rebalancing the Process with Data

All of this points to a need for more objective ways of assessing candidates. That’s exactly what Alooba is built for. Rather than relying on guesswork or polished CVs, Alooba lets hiring managers evaluate real skills with purpose-built assessments.

“The signal in the CVs is getting worse, not better. We need to find better ways to figure out who can actually do the job.”

By focusing on practical skills, companies can cut through the noise of AI-generated fluff and identify candidates based on what they can do—not how well they can write a CV.

It’s Time to Humanise Hiring Again

Despite all the automation, Vladimir’s message was clear: hiring needs to feel human again. Candidates deserve real feedback. Hiring managers need real signals. And the process shouldn’t feel like two bots fighting each other to the death.

“It’s a battle of algorithms now. You just hope your bot is smarter than theirs.”

There’s a better way. Tools like Alooba offer a way to make hiring more data-driven and fair—while still keeping it grounded in real human judgment.

If you're looking for a fairer, faster way to hire technical talent, sign up for Alooba today.