Job recruiters like AI headshots best, but not when you lie about it

A new study reveals what job recruiters reality think of applicants using AI to generate professional headshots – and the results may surprise you.

More than three-quarters of job recruiters say they liked AI-generated headshots for applicants best when used for online resumes and social media profiles.

But, according to a new study by Ringover – an AI-driven cloud-based communications platform for staffing, recruiting, and sales solutions – only if the job seekers were upfront about it.

In fact, 90% of recruiters surveyed said if an AI-generated headshot was being used for a job application, it should be clearly labeled as such.

Only 10% of the recruiters thought it was OK for applicants to not disclose when AI was used to create a resume headshot.

The Ringover study, titled “Who is more hireable? You or your doppelganger?” showed roughly two-thirds of recruiters said they’d be put off if they “recognized” a candidate’s headshot was AI-generated, but it was not mentioned.

Still, that doesn't necessarily mean job seekers should be revealing their AI use right off the bat.

Ironically, less than 40% of those same recruiters were able to pick out an AI-generated headshot from a lineup of both real and created images, even though the majority of them (80%) believed they had identified them correctly.

The recruiters were asked to pick their favorite out of five different images for the same candidates, not realizing that some of the images were AI-generated.

Interestingly, for those who did identify which images were made with the help of AI, recruiters cited the appearance of “glitching features " and whether the candidate looked ‘too flawless, too posed, or unlike a real person’ as giveaways.

“More and more providers are offering AI headshot generation services for resumes, websites and LinkedIn profiles,” Ringover said, prompting the study.

The London-based business solutions company said the cost of AI-generative headshot services can range from “free to bespoke offerings charging upwards of $129 per image pack.”

The quality of the headshots also varied in range, depending on how much the candidate could afford.

For example, Ringover listed three headshot quality ranges, which tier the recruiters thought looked the best, and the average cost:

• Top-range AI headshot: 42.0% | $35
• Mid-range AI headshot: 34.4% | $9.99
• Real: 23.5%

And for those job seekers wondering when putting headshots on resumes became a thing, the answer is it hasn’t – at least not yet.

Ringover said professional headshots are most often used for online resumes and social media profiles, especially for LinkedIn, a favorite of recruiters to look at.

The study found that at least 66% of recruiters admit to checking out an applicant's social media profiles, either to put a face to the name, get a general feel for a candidate’s character, and/or see if the candidate seemed a good fit for a company.

Not surprisingly, a poor quality headshot won’t do you any favors, with two-thirds of recruiters stating they had been “actively put off by a bad picture.”

After all is said and done, 84% of recruiters said they would use or consider using an AI headshot themselves, Ringover noted.

Over 1000 recruiters participated in the study.

Curious about which headshots in our feature picture were real and which were AI-generated? Headshot #2 on the top row and Headshot #3 on the bottom row are undoctored photos of real people, all others are AI-generated images of fake people.