Prepare to have your ego dented – most recruiters prefer headshots created by AI image generators to the real McCoy.
That’s according to a new survey that also discovered that 74% of recruiters are more inclined to grant interviews to job candidates that supply a headshot with their applications.
Ironically, however, the vast majority of respondents would be put off by a candidate if they knew that the headshot was indeed fabricated by AI tools. While, fortunately for candidates, less than two-fifths of those recruiters surveyed managed to recognize AI-generated headshots.
AI vs Real Headshots
The study – carried out by SaaS solutions firm Ringover – found that 76.5% of all respondents preferred AI headshots over the real thing.
That number came from a survey of 1,087 recruiters who were shown a set of headshots from different male and female individuals. Only one of those headshots was real, with the others comprising versions generated by either free, mid-range or top-range AI generation software.
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When the real headshots were solely compared to the images created by top-end tool, the comparison became even more stark; the recruiters were almost twice as likely to favor the AI-generated headshot.
A Good AI for Fakes?
One telling finding from the survey was that recruiters rate their AI identification skills way higher than their actual ability to tell real from augmented.
Fewer than 3 in 10 respondents were able to identify images created by mid-range or top-tier software as AI generated. And over 40% couldn’t even tell that the images created by a free-to-use tool had been created using AI.
That significantly undermines the self-confidence that most recruiters had that they would identify the AI images correctly – 8 in 10 thought that they had guessed correctly.
However, an overwhelming majority (88%) of recruiters said that believe that it should be made clear when a candidate has used an AI-generated headshot.
“Because AI generation can be so hard to distinguish, there is a case being made more broadly for better watermarking for AI, especially to curb disinformation in the news cycle.” – Ringover blog
Getting Ahead With AI Headshots
In addition to the stat that three quarters of recruiters would be more inclined to interview a candidate with a headshot, 67.5% said that they would be actively discouraged by somebody who submitted a bad headshot.
“The main things that would put off a recruiter are the headshot being too stylized or posed (40.9%), poor photo quality (39.9%), too informal (35.6%) and the use of filters or obvious editing (32.7%).” – Ringover blog
But if that has you running for the nearest image generating software, it’s worth heeding a note of caution: two-thirds of respondents said that they would be put off by a candidate if they were able recognize that the headshot was AI-generated.
To ensure that you don’t fall foul of a headshot that harms your chances of landing that dream job, take a look at our guide to the best free AI professional headshot generators.
Once you’ve finessed your CV (or created a killer resume with ChatGPT), generating the perfect headshot is easy. Simply upload an assortment of photos and selfies and then the app will spit out original, professional headshots.
