Hiring in 2025 has become a minefield. Many environmental factors, including the macroeconomy, the rise of AI and remote work, have led to both a rise in legitimate applications and fraud, spam, cheating and misrepresentation. Just as technology has supercharged how we find and connect with candidates, it’s also created new challenges that cost teams time, money, and trust – including a surge in fake job applicants trying to game the system.

At Greenhouse, we believe recruiters deserve better tools to meet the moment. That’s why we’re excited to introduce Greenhouse Real Talent™, a new solution designed to help recruiting teams cut through the noise quickly, surface qualified candidates faster and stay ahead of rising fraud risks in the hiring process.

The candidate chaos is real

Let’s face it – recruiters are overwhelmed. With economic shifts and AI making it easier than ever to mass-apply, it’s not unheard of to receive thousands of applications for a single role. Many are spammy, irrelevant, or outright deceptive. And while overwhelmed teams try to keep up, great candidates get lost in the pile – or worse, ghosted.

The problem has evolved far beyond high volumes. Applicants are now using AI co-pilot tools during interviews, impersonating identities with deepfake videos and cloned voices and even coordinating elaborate schemes. According to Gartner, by 2028, 25% of job applicants will be fake job applicants. And the U.S. Department of Justice has already reported that over 300 U.S. companies have been targeted by fake job seekers, including members of the Fortune 500.

This is no longer just an inconvenience – it’s a security and quality issue for organizations.

Meet Real Talent: Smart filtering, fraud defense, better hiring

Greenhouse Real Talent is built to restore trust and efficiency to the hiring process by helping recruiters do three things:

1. Filter for fit. Real Talent uses advanced AI to compare applications with job criteria – automatically highlighting candidates who actually match the role’s requirements.
   
   
2. Stop spam and fraud. Sophisticated algorithms detect bots, fake job applicants, mass applications and patterns that suggest deception or impersonation.
   
   
3. Catch cheating and misrepresentation. Real Talent flags inconsistencies and unusual behaviors during the hiring process, so teams can be confident they’re hiring real, qualified people – not fake job seekers or digital imposters.
   
   

The result? A tiered applicant inbox that gives hiring teams visibility and control, making it easy to spot top candidates and ignore the noise. It’s seamlessly integrated into your existing Greenhouse workflow, so there’s no disruption – just dramatically better filtering and peace of mind.
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What this means for recruiters

• More time for real candidates. By automating the sorting process, Real Talent helps you focus on humans – not bots, frauds or fake job applicants.
  
  
• Lower risk. Catch threats before they reach sensitive interview stages or systems.
  
  
• Better hires, faster. With less time wasted, your team can make more confident, data-informed decisions.
  

While final hiring decisions will always rely on human judgment, Real Talent ensures recruiters aren’t left to fight fraud alone – especially as the presence of fake job seekers continues to rise.

With Real Talent, we are moving fast to give recruiters a competitive edge in identifying best-fit candidates, while enhancing security against new and growing threats.

_{– Daniel Chait, Greenhouse CEO}
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Coming soon

Real Talent begins a phased rollout to Greenhouse customers in Q3 2025, with early access details and packaging options coming soon.

The future of hiring will demand both heart and horsepower. With Greenhouse Real Talent, we’re helping teams bring both – cutting through complexity to find the people who truly fit and filtering out fake job applicants from the start.

Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting launch.
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Ready to make hiring feel human again? Join the waitlist for Greenhouse Real Talent to be one of the first customers in line.