AI Is Killing the Cover Letter. Should We Care?

The cover letter is dead. Or at least, it's dying fast. Thanks to AI—software that can write, analyze, and learn from human language—job applicants can now generate a personalized cover letter in seconds. The problem? Everyone's doing it. Employers are flooded with cover letters that all sound the same: polished, generic, and completely forgettable.

When AI writes thousands of nearly identical applications, hiring managers can't tell one candidate from another anymore. It's like everyone walked into the room wearing the same outfit. The cover letter, once a way for applicants to show personality and stand out, has become what the Dutch call an "eenheidsworst"—a bland, mass-produced sausage that all tastes the same.

So companies are getting creative. Some now ask candidates to make videos instead of writing letters. Others use games or interactive challenges to test how people think. Some even hold open houses where job seekers meet the team in person. A few brave employers are even hiring people without any formal application process at all—just a conversation.

The real shift? The old gatekeepers—the cover letter, the resume template, the formal application—are becoming less useful. Companies are learning that the best way to understand a candidate isn't through polished prose. It's through conversation, creativity, and showing what you can actually do. For job hunters, that means the rulebook is changing fast.