Your employer brand is invisible to 70% of job seekers

Your careers page looks great. Your EVP is nailed down. Your job descriptions are clean.

And none of it matters if the right candidates never find you.

Here's what's happening: 70% of job seekers now use AI tools during their job search, according to recent data from Indeed. They're typing questions into ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity before they ever visit a job board: "Who's hiring software engineers in Seattle?" or "What's the culture like at [your competitor]?"

If your company doesn't show up in those results — or worse, if the AI gives incorrect or outdated info about you — you've got a visibility problem with the candidates you actually want.

And I know what some of you are thinking: "We're not struggling to get candidates. We're drowning in applications."

You are. But here's the issue: you're flooded with the wrong ones.

The mass applications filling your ATS? Those are coming from people using AI tools to blast resumes across hundreds of companies. They're not researching you. They're not being intentional. They're automating volume.

According to Greenhouse, 38% of job seekers are mass-applying to roles, and some employers are seeing application volumes surge by 45% or more. But the candidates you actually want — the ones with the right skills, the right experience, the right fit — they're doing something different.

They're asking AI for recommendations. They're researching companies before they apply. They're being deliberate about where they spend their time.

And here's what makes this shift so critical: these AI systems know a lot about the people using them. They know their background, their skills, their career goals, their preferences. The questions candidates are asking LLMs aren't generic. They're personal.

When AI answers those questions, it's making recommendations based on what it knows about that specific person. And if your company isn't showing up in those personalized results, you're invisible to the exact candidates you're trying to reach.

You'll hear people talk about Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) or Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). They're related but different — some focus on showing up in the answer itself, others on appearing in citations or influencing how responses are generated.

We'll break down those differences next week. For now, what matters is this: If you're not monitoring where and how you appear in AI search, you're flying blind.

Here are three actional steps to fix it.

Hold up the mirror. You can't improve what you don't measure.

Start by running 10-20 prompts tied to your key roles, locations, and competitors across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overview. Ask questions like candidates would: "Best companies for data scientists in Austin" or "What's the culture like at [competitor]?"

Document where you show up. Where you don't. What's being said about you. Which competitors dominate the responses and why.

Do this weekly. Treat it like you'd treat Google rankings five years ago. This is your baseline. Without it, you're guessing.

AI systems pull from XML feeds, career pages, and website content. If that infrastructure is messy or outdated, you're feeding AI bad information.

Audit your job feeds. Are titles standardized? Are locations consistent? Is the data clean and machine-readable? AI models rely on structured data — if your job description says "Ninja Rockstar Coder" but candidates are asking about "Software Engineer" roles, you're not showing up.

Audit your website. Is your careers page structured with clear headings, metadata, and relevant keywords? Is your site organized in a way that makes it easy for AI to parse and understand?

This isn't about gaming algorithms. It's about making sure the systems that power discovery can actually read and understand what you're offering.

AI models prioritize trusted, high-authority sources. If your content only lives on your careers page, it's not getting picked up. You need to get your brand, your jobs, and your thought leadership into the sources AI systems trust.

Start with owned content. Launch a newsletter. Publish blog posts about what makes your team different. Create thought leadership that positions your company as a destination.

Then build your distribution strategy. Get featured or your jobs included in industry newsletters. Contribute to vertical publications. Build relationships with the communities and platforms where your candidates already spend time — and where AI systems pull information.

This is how you build the digital footprint that shows up when intentional candidates ask AI where to work.

Pick your 10 core prompts. Run them. See where you stand.

Then decide: are you going to wait until your competitors own this space, or are you going to start building visibility now?

We're opening our Employer AI Visibility product — pairing monitoring, XML feed optimization and community distribution — for talent teams who want clarity on where they stand. If you want to see how your company ranks or where you're not showing up at all — reply to this email.

Because the first step isn't fixing it. It's seeing it.

Best,
Summer Delaney | Founder and CEO, CollabWORK

• Muck Rack's "What Is AI Reading?" Report — Analysis of which sources ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI models cite most frequently and best practices

• Is AISO the New PESO? — Great breakdown from Craig Fisher on the evolution of digital visibility in 2026

• AEO for Media Companies Webinar — Coming from the lens of publishers, Joel Hughes breaks down how to approach AEO with strong content