The debate over whether cover letters had become an outdated ritual was already in full swing before the proliferation of artificial intelligence.
An increasing number of job postings had stopped requiring cover letters altogether, and surveys offered wildly conflicting accounts of whether hiring managers bothered to read the cover letters they received.
Now, with so many job seekers relying on AI to help with their applications, a well-written cover letter has ceased to be a reliable signal of a serious applicant, said Judd Kessler, professor of business economics and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
“It’s not just easier to write a cover letter, it’s easier to write a phenomenal cover letter,” Kessler said. “That’s become more of a prerequisite and less of a differentiator.”
At the same time, the use of AI has contributed to an explosion of applications. For every open role in 2026 there are twice as many applicants as there would have been for similar roles in 2022, according to a recent study from LinkedIn Research.
That makes hiring managers and recruiters less likely to give cover letters even a perfunctory glance. They have too much else to handle during a busy job search, said Johnny C. Taylor, president and chief executive officer of the Society for Human Resource Management.
“The cover letter is literally dead, never to be resuscitated,” he said. “There’s too much volume for this beautiful piece of prose.”
In some cases, to handle the volume, recruiters are tasking AI to do the prescreening. That puts AI bots in the position of assessing cover letters written by AI bots — in some cases, responding to job postings that were originally written with the help of AI.
Pelumi Ogunlana, a 36-year-old corporate banking professional based in the greater Chicago area, said he’s heard of some horror stories, like people uploading résumés and cover letters in which chatbot edits were visible.
But what’s a responsible, rational job candidate to do? When a posting says cover letter optional, should you submit one? And if you do send one with your application, how much emphasis should you put on it?
“It’s tough when no one can give you a right answer,” Ogunlana said. “You have some recruiters saying ‘It’s worth it’ and others saying ‘No.’”
If there is any consensus, it’s that cover letters with a “human element” still can help an applicant stand out.
They need to sound different from all the ones written with AI, said Jason Baker, vice president of talent acquisition at Arctic Wolf, a security operations firm.
Baker recalled one applicant who didn’t land the job they originally applied for, but because their cover letter made such an impression, Baker invited them back when the company was hiring again for a similar position.
Vicki Salemi, a career expert at the jobsite Monster, said the necessity of a cover letter tends to vary from firm to firm and manager to manager. Some have told her over the years that they only cared about seeing a résumé; others insisted on reviewing every single cover letter before making a hiring decision.
But having a solid cover letter on hand — and carefully tailoring it to each position — could make a difference to even one manager, which in turn could make a difference to an applicant’s future at that company.
“Whether or not the company looks at it is another story,” she said. “But you want to put your best foot forward.”
In the future, as AI tools continue to make it increasingly easy to apply for jobs, Kessler said he expects employers to rely more on other materials in an application package. These could be personalized letters of recommendation from trusted sources or even attendance at in-person networking events — anything that indicates you gave individualized attention to this particular position.
“These are things an AI agent cannot do on your behalf,” Kessler said. “These are not things you can do for every firm.”
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