New Study: 42% of Americans Used AI on Their Last Resume, and the Lies Followed

Novoresume's survey of 2,000 U.S. workers reveals 42.6% used AI on their last resume. Those who let AI write it are 3x more likely to lie and risk their jobs.

NEW YORK CITY, NY, UNITED STATES, June 15, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- A survey of 2,000 U.S. adults conducted by Novoresume found that 42.6% of Americans used AI tools the last time they updated their resume, with 7.5% letting AI write most or all of it. More than 1 in 4 workers (27.1%) say they have submitted a fully AI-generated resume to a real job without making a single edit.

The findings, published today in The Resume Report 2026, point to a clear and uncomfortable pattern: the more a worker hands their resume over to AI, the more likely that resume is to contain something untrue, and the more likely it is to backfire.

Overall, 1 in 3 Americans (37.3%) admit to putting something inaccurate on their resume. But among people who let AI write most or all of it, that figure jumps to 74.8%, roughly three times the rate of workers who used no AI at all (24.6%). The same group is 6.5 times more likely to admit to three or more separate fabrications.

The consequences track the same line. Across all American workers, 3.1% say a resume lie has cost them a job. Among those who let AI do most of the writing, 1 in 4 (25.2%) have lost a job over something on their resume, a rate dramatically higher than non-AI users. That group is also eight times more likely to have been confronted by a recruiter or employer about what they submitted.

Automation is spreading beyond the writing itself. Nearly a quarter of Americans (23.5%) have used an auto-apply bot or AI agent to fire their resume at job postings on their behalf, and 71.7% of those bot users also admit to a resume lie.

The generational divide is stark. Gen Z is more than twice as likely as Boomers to have used AI to generate a resume, applies to far more jobs per search (an average of 21.9 versus 8.9 for Boomers), and is ten times more likely to claim a degree they do not hold.

Not all of the data is a warning. The report also surfaced one of the most reliable levers job seekers control: customization. Workers who send the same resume to every job are roughly three times more likely to finish a search with zero interview invitations than those who tailor each application. People who maintain four or more versions of their resume receive more than double the interview invites of those who keep a single version (4.2 versus 2.0).

"AI can absolutely help you write a stronger resume, but it cannot be trusted to decide what is true about your career," said Andrei Kurtuy, Co-founder and CMO of Novoresume. "The workers getting burned are the ones who paste in whatever the tool produces and hit submit."

Kurtuy added that the takeaway is not to avoid AI, but to stay in the driver's seat. "Tailor the resume to the role, verify every line, and treat AI as an assistant rather than a ghostwriter. The data is blunt about what happens when you don't."

The full report includes more than 60 statistics covering resume length, AI adoption by generation and gender, auto-apply bots, the use of AI-generated headshots, and the link between long job searches and dishonesty.

Methodology: Novoresume surveyed 2,000 U.S. adults aged 18 to 64 in May 2026 using Pollfish. Responses were weighted to be representative of the U.S. population by age and gender, with a margin of error of approximately ±2.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
About Novoresume

Novoresume is a resume and career platform that has helped more than 18 million people worldwide build job-ready resumes, CVs, and cover letters. Founded in Copenhagen and built around HR-approved, designer-made resume templates, Novoresume combines easy-to-use tools with research and guidance that help job seekers stand out. Learn more at Novoresume.

Media Contact
Andrei Kurtuy, Co-founder and CMO
andrei@novoresume.com

Andrei Kurtuy
Novorésumé ApS
+45 91 94 20 69
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