Marist grad Samantha Kehler says automated screening tools reject applicants before a recruiter sees a resume. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan defends campus hiring as AI fears mount.
Samantha Kehler graduated from Marist College this year. She has learned to use AI to write cover letters, synthesize research and tailor her resume. She also knows AI is probably the only thing reading those documents.
"I know that AI is pretty much the one who is reading my application," Kehler told FOX Business' Maria Bartiromo. "I don't feel like my resume and my cover letters are being read by human eyes. I know I'm just getting filtered out if I don't have a specific keyword."
Kehler's experience reflects a growing frustration. Employer use of applicant tracking systems – software that scans resumes for keywords before a recruiter sees them – has expanded. For many applicants, the first human review never comes. Automated rejection emails that arrive "at two in the morning," as Kehler described them, reinforce the sense that a machine decided their fate.
The shift is reshaping how graduates approach the job hunt. Kehler said she has used AI training to learn "how to work the AI in your favor rather than just getting kind of a short answer from AI." That means treating the technology as a research tool, not a shortcut. Even the most optimized resume hits a wall when the system itself is the gatekeeper.
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, speaking on "Fox & Friends," pushed back against the broader panic over AI and employment. He pointed to the bank's commitment to hiring 4,000 campus recruits. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has urged calm, telling critics to "stop being breathless over it."
For graduates like Kehler, the concern is not that AI will eliminate all jobs. It is that the hiring process itself is becoming less personal at the entry level. A resume built for a human reader and a resume built for a keyword scanner are different documents. The applicant who understands the difference gets through. The one who does not is filtered out before anyone sees their name.
Kehler has adapted. She has learned to use AI to get past the AI. The question, she said, is whether that is a skill set that should be necessary at all.
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