AI Is Shaping the Workforce. What Happens If You Don’t Fit Its Pattern?
AI is quietly reshaping the workforce—not just how we work and who gets hired, but who gets seen as valuable.
If your career is nonlinear, hybrid, or multidimensional, you may already be feeling the consequences.
So, how well does AI see us as professionals? And more importantly—does it truly understand who we are in our work?
The Rise of the AI Gatekeeper
According to ResumeGenius (2025):
48% of hiring managers use AI to screen resumes before a human reviews them.
Gen Z hiring managers are 3x more likely than Boomer hiring managers to use AI for video interviews.
79% of Millennial hiring managers believe AI can help reduce hiring bias, while Gen X is the least convinced (64%).
A new analysis by the Burning Glass Institute and the Harvard Business School Project on Managing the Future of Work "estimates AI could affect nearly 50 million US jobs in the coming years."
In other words:
AI is now the grand master of career fit.
And it’s playing by outdated rules.
This is a crucial realization.
As someone who helps people define their hybrid identities—people with layered, nonlinear, multidimensional careers that defy traditional titles and categories—I see the consequences firsthand.
I define hybrid professionals as those whose value comes not from a single role, but from the integration of multiple professional identities.
Algorithms are quietly becoming arbiters of our visibility. And the problem is, AI hasn’t learned how to see and value multidimensionality—yet.
The Problem with Pattern Recognition
Recently, Moderna merged its tech and HR departments—creating the hybrid role of Chief People and Digital Technology Officer—this is the kind of bold integration AI would never have predicted on its own because it doesn't match existing industry standards or historic hiring patterns!
Moderna shows us what happens when business needs and human potential collide in unexpected ways: entirely new roles get invented—fusing domains once kept separate.
But AI, especially in recruiting, hiring, and workforce platforms, is built to spot patterns, not invent them. It looks for patterns in legacy definitions of success:
Linear paths (intern → manager → director → exec)
Singular identities (“software engineer,” “marketing director”)
Standardized credentials (Ivy League degrees, Big 4, FAANG)
These are not inherently bad—but they’re deeply incomplete. They overlook polymaths, the hybrid professionals, the portfolio careerists. The people whose power is in the integration of multiple identities, not the specialization of one.
Even the Nobel Prize committee is grappling with this.
A 2024 article by the New York Times reported:
Rare is the pure biologist or chemist; increasingly common is the geochemist, the paleogenomicist, the computational evolutionary theorist, the astrobiologist.
AI will only further blur these boundaries. If the world’s highest accolades are struggling to define today’s experts, imagine how poorly a résumé parser is handling it.
Who Gets Overlooked?
People with layered, multifaceted careers—those who fuse creativity with strategy, or education with innovation, or hold multiple disparate degrees—are often misread or ignored by current systems built for clarity and simplicity over complexity.
It’s not that these individuals don’t have value. It’s that the systems haven't been trained to recognize it.
In my work and research on hybrid professional identity and as founder of More Than My Title, the question I keep circling back to is this: Why are so many highly capable, multidimensional professionals being overlooked?
People aren’t being filtered out for lack of talent—they’re being filtered out because AI and applicant tracking systems are still trained to look through yesterday’s lens.
Which leads to a critical question:
How exactly are people being found and hired in today’s AI-shaped job market—and what determines who gets surfaced or skipped?
How People Are Being Found and Hired Using AI
Over the past few weeks, I spoke with job seekers, career coaches, and examined the platforms shaping visibility. Here’s what I learned. AI isn't just scanning résumés. It's deciding who gets seen, surfaced, and selected.
Today’s hiring landscape is shaped by five key AI-powered discovery methods—and together, they determine how visible you are for job opportunities, consulting roles, speaking gigs, and beyond:
Resumes Get Parsed—and Flattened: Applicant Tracking Systems like Greenhouse and Workday use AI to scan, score, and filter résumés long before a human reviews them. They match keyword patterns to job descriptions, favoring linear paths and standardized language.
Algorithms Favor the Familiar: Platforms like LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter, Upwork, and AngelList use AI to recommend candidates based on profile similarity, activity, and inferred relevance. These systems favor those who speak the language of the algorithm.
LLMs Are Rewriting Reputation (e.g., ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini): People are now using large language models to ask questions like, “Who are the top executive coaches in healthcare?” or “What’s an innovative framework for founder burnout?” Those who’ve built semantic visibility—distinct language, coined frameworks, cited ideas—are more likely to be mentioned.
Freelancers Are Filtered by Code: Emerging platforms like A.Team, Catalant, and Braintrust use AI to match freelancers and consultants to project-based work. The better structured and more distinct your digital footprint, the more likely you are to get matched.
Internal Talent Systems See—and Miss: Companies are increasingly using AI to surface internal talent for stretch roles or promotions. Tools like Gloat and Eightfold scan internal systems to identify who’s ready for what’s next—often favoring those with clean, skill-tagged digital profiles.
LinkedIn Is the Central Nervous System of AI Hiring
LinkedIn isn’t just one of the tools—it’s the connective tissue for all five methods above. It plays a role in nearly every AI-driven discovery process. Here’s how:
Parsing: LinkedIn profiles are scanned by ATS tools and recruiter platforms using Natural Language Processing (NLP) to determine fit.
Recommendations: Its algorithm actively suggests candidates based on behavior, activity, and profile content.
LLMs: Public LinkedIn posts, articles, and profiles are indexed by tools like ChatGPT and Gemini—especially if your content is distinctive and repeated.
Match Platforms: Many freelance and executive talent sites pull directly from LinkedIn or let you sync your profile to build visibility.
Internal Tools: Many corporate HR systems model their data structure after LinkedIn, borrowing its taxonomy for roles, skills, and career paths.
But if the systems shaping who gets discovered are modeled on outdated templates, then it’s not just individuals who need to adapt—it’s the infrastructure itself that needs reimagining.
So What Needs to Change?
To build a workforce that sees and values all its talent, we need to evolve the systems shaping it. Here’s where to start:
1. Feed AI Better Data
Introduce datasets that include hybrid, nonlinear, and interdisciplinary paths
Showcase success stories that emphasize where integration drove innovation (books like Rebel Talent, The Opposable Mind and Serial Innovators are full of examples)
2. Redesign How We Describe Ourselves
Use language that reflects intersections, not just roles
Propose identity fields that go beyond job titles—like a “Hybrid Identity Index”
3. Change the Questions AI Asks
Prioritize potential, adaptability, and multidimensional thinking
Match based on how people synthesize, not just replicate
4. Collaborate With Platforms
Partner with LinkedIn, ATS providers, and HR tech to build new taxonomies
Embed hybrid frameworks into algorithmic design
5. Educate the Ecosystem
Help recruiters, coaches, and hiring managers understand:
“AI sees what we show it. If we describe ourselves in traditional terms, our multidimensional value stays invisible.”
For Career Coaches and Job Seekers, Here's What You Can Do Right Now
I'm committed to researching and creating new tools around this issue, and while we work to evolve the greater system, there are ways to make yourself more visible today.
If you're a job seeker with a hybrid, nonlinear, or multidimensional background, focus on articulating the unique value you create at the intersection of your identities. Use that language consistently across your LinkedIn, résumé, and portfolio.
Career coaches can support clients by helping them coin distinct phrases, highlight synthesis (not just skill sets), and show up in both human and AI searches with clarity and originality. You don’t need to flatten who you are to fit the system—but you do need to make your complexity legible.