87% of Fortune 500 Fall Short in Applying AI and Automation for Job Seekers — Yet Nearly Half of 18 – 34-Year-Olds Want a Personalized TikTok-Like Experience

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 12, 2025--

Phenom, an applied AI company specializing in human resources, recently published its ninth annual State of Candidate Experience: 2025 Benchmarks Report. Based on an analysis and ranking of the Fortune 500’s candidate experiences across 14 industries, the report revealed that while organizations are increasingly investing in optimizing their career sites with AI and automation, many continue to fail to meet job seeker expectations with hyper-personalized experiences that effectively attract, engage and convert talent throughout the talent journey.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250612791614/en/

Nearly half (47%) of American 18 – 34-year-olds say that if they were applying for a job at a company, their career site should be able to learn what jobs they’re interested in the same way the algorithms of their social media platforms (e.g. TikTok and Instagram) learn what videos and posts users might be interested in, according to a recent survey commissioned by Phenom and conducted by The Harris Poll 1. This shows a large disconnect between a population of workers who are expected to make up80% of the advanced economies’ workforce globally by 2034, and what the Fortune 500 are delivering today — with 87% of them failing to use AI and automation to hyper-personalize their career sites according to Phenom’s report.

Today’s candidates not only seek alignment with an organization’s relevant roles and purpose before applying to open jobs, but a career site experience that is intuitive and consumer-grade 2. Leading organizations that recognize this evolution are delivering personalized experiences through segmented candidate journeys across all roles and levels by implementing omnichannel approaches to job discovery, strategically investing in automation and intelligence solutions to scale personalization efficiently, and developing a compelling employer brand narrative that creates sustainable competitive advantages.

Companies Fail to Personalize the Candidate Journey
The State of Candidate Experience: 2025 Benchmarks Report revealed extensive opportunities for the Fortune 500 to enhance personalization throughout the candidate journey:

Strongest Candidate Journey Areas
The report highlighted a few key areas where the Fortune 500 continue to improve, including technical website performance and job descriptions:

Leading Organizations Leverage AI & Automation, Transforming Candidate Experiences
Fortune 500 companies that are gaining a competitive advantage are successfully customizing and enhancing candidate experiences:

“We’ve been able to customize and personalize our candidate experience. For example, we added day-in-the-life videos to all of our manufacturing job pages. Soon after, we noticed an increase in application rates,” said Laura Schmidt, Talent Marketing Consultant for Land O’Lakes, Inc. “We’re also gaining efficiencies through automations, allowing our recruiters to focus on connection with candidates instead of manual tasks. And we’re able to share our brand over time with candidates knowing we may not always have the perfect job for them at the moment, but we’re able to keep them engaged when that perfect job opens up.”

“We created a dynamic career site that empowers candidates to go on their own journeys, highlighting job categories and creating landing pages with content and openings that are most relevant,” said Scott Ewert, SVP, Talent Acquisition at Regions Bank. “We wanted one word to define the process of viewing job openings and scheduling interviews: seamless. Indeed, we have created a seamless experience not only for talent prospects but also for our teams who have a clearer window into the most qualified, most capable candidates for open positions. It’s very specialized, allowing people to get a more authentic view of what it’s like to work in specific departments at Regions. This is an investment that’s yielding solid results.”

“Creating a unified candidate journey with a tailored content strategy has empowered us to proactively answer candidate questions, increase our brand awareness and highlight why TD SYNNEX is a great place to grow a career,” said Grant Smith, Global Recruitment Marketing Specialist at TD SYNNEX. “Companies that prioritize their talent experience strategy are likely to see increases in quality of hire, boosts in recruiter productivity and strengthened brand perception.”

Business-Critical Guidance for Candidate Journey Improvements
Phenom’s 2025 State of Candidate Experience report includes recommendations for organizations seeking to improve how they attract, engage and convert talent with AI and automation.

The Role of Agentic AI in Candidate Journeys
AI agents built to meet specific business, personas and industry needs will continue to transform talent attraction and engagement strategies. Experience Agents designed for the candidate journey transform how job seekers find and apply for the right work, and Persona Agents augment how talent acquisition teams attract and engage best-fit talent to:

“There is a clear divide between companies experimenting with AI and those truly harnessing its power to accelerate talent acquisition processes and transform candidate engagement through hyper-personalization,” said John Harrington, Sr. Director, Product Marketing at Phenom. “In today’s economy, AI-powered recruitment isn’t just an advantage — it’s survival. Organizations can automate up to 90% of hiring workflows while improving candidate experience. Those who resist this evolution won’t just fall behind; they’ll become irrelevant in a market where efficiency and speed directly determine viability.”

Phenom’s AI, Generative AI and AI agents empower organizations to hire and onboard faster, develop better and retain longer through augmented work — while ensuring responsible AI adoption and utilization. Phenom’s award-winning AI technology innovations fuel productivity and efficiency for recruiters, talent marketers, talent leaders, hiring managers, HR and HRIT.

To read the full 2025 report and Fortune 500 company rankings, and industry breakdowns across 14 industries including Healthcare & Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing & Materials, Retail, Restaurant & Hospitality, and Transportation & Distribution, download here.

Organizations not featured in the report can request their own complimentary career site audit here.

About Phenom
Phenom has a purpose of helping a billion people find the right work. Through AI-powered talent experiences, employers use Phenom to hire and onboard employees faster, develop them to their full potential, and retain them longer. The Phenom Intelligent Talent Experience platform seamlessly connects candidates, employees, recruiters, talent marketers, talent leaders, hiring managers, HR and HRIT — empowering diverse and global enterprises with innovative products including Phenom X+ Agentic AI and Generative AI, Career Site, Chatbot, CMS, Talent CRM, X+ Screening, Automated Interview Scheduling, Interview Intelligence, Talent Experience Engine, Campaigns, University Recruiting, Contingent Talent Hiring, Onboarding, Talent Marketplace, Workforce Intelligence, Career Pathing, Gigs, Mentoring, and Referrals.

Phenom has earned accolades including: Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing companies (5 consecutive years), Deloitte Technology's Fast 500 (4 consecutive years), 11 Brandon Hall ‘Excellence in Technology’ awards including Gold for ‘Best Advance in Generative AI for Business Impact,’ Business Intelligence Group’s Artificial Intelligence Excellence Awards (3 consecutive years), The Cloud Awards 2025/2024, The A.I. Awards 2024, and a regional Timmy Award for launching and optimizing HelpOneBillion.com (2020).

Headquartered in Greater Philadelphia, Phenom also has offices in India, Israel, the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom.

For more information, please visit www.phenom.com. Connect with Phenom on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

Phenom’s ninth annual State of Candidate Experience: 2025 Benchmarks Report revealed that while organizations are increasingly investing in optimizing their career sites with AI and automation, many continue to fail to meet job seeker expectations with hyper-personalized experiences that effectively attract, engage and convert talent throughout the talent journey.

U.S. forces have boarded another oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea. The announcement was made Friday by the U.S. military. The Trump administration has been targeting sanctioned tankers traveling to and from Venezuela.

The pre-dawn action was carried out by U.S. Marines and Navy, taking part in the monthslong buildup of forces in the Caribbean, according to U.S. Southern Command, which declared “there is no safe haven for criminals” as it announced the seizure of the vessel called the Olina.

Navy officials couldn’t immediately provide details about whether the Coast Guard was part of the force that took control of the vessel as has been the case in the previous seizures. A spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard said there was no immediate comment on the seizure.

The Olina is the fifth tanker that has been seized by U.S. forces as part of a broader effort by Trump’s administration to control the distribution of Venezuela’s oil products globally following the U.S. ouster of President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid.

The latest:

Richard Grenell, president of the Kennedy Center, says a documentary film about first lady Melania Trump will make its premiere later this month, posting a trailer on X.

As the Trumps prepared to return to the White House last year, Amazon Prime Video announced a year ago that it had obtained exclusive licensing rights for a streaming and theatrical release directed by Brett Ratner.

Melania Trump also released a self-titled memoir in late 2024.

Some artists have canceled scheduled Kennedy Center performances after a newly installed board voted to add President Donald Trump’s to the facility, prompting Grenell to accuse the performers of making their decisions because of politics.

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum says that she has asked her foreign affairs secretary to reach out directly to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio or Trump regarding comments by the American leader that the U.S. cold begin ground attacks against drug cartels.

In a wide-ranging interview with Fox News aired Thursday night, Trump said, “We’ve knocked out 97% of the drugs coming in by water and we are going to start now hitting land, with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico. It’s very sad to watch.”

As she has on previous occasions, Sheinbaum downplayed the remarks, saying “it is part of his way of communicating.” She said she asked her Foreign Affairs Secretary Juan Ramón de la Fuente to strengthen coordination with the U.S.

Sheinbaum has repeatedly rebuffed Trump’s offer to send U.S. troops after Mexican drug cartels. She emphasizes that there will be no violation of Mexico’s sovereignty, but the two governments will continue to collaborate closely.

Analysts do not see a U.S. incursion in Mexico as a real possibility, in part because Sheinbaum’s administration has been doing nearly everything Trump has asked and Mexico is a critical trade partner.

Trump says he wants to secure $100 billion to remake Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, a lofty goal going into a 2:30 meeting on Friday with executives from leading oil companies. His plan rides on oil producers being comfortable in making commitments in a country plagued by instability, inflation and uncertainty.

The president has said that the U.S. will control distribution worldwide of Venezuela’s oil and will share some of the proceeds with the country’s population from accounts that it controls.

“At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House,” Trump said Friday in a pre-dawn social media post.

Trump is banking on the idea that he can tap more of Venezuela’s petroleum reserves to keep oil prices and gasoline costs low.

At a time when many Americans are concerned about affordability, the incursion in Venezuela melds Trump’s assertive use of presidential powers with an optical spectacle meant to convince Americans that he can bring down energy prices.

Trump is expected to meet with oil executives at the White House on Friday.

He hopes to secure $100 billion in investments to revive Venezuela’s oil industry. The goal rides on the executives’ comfort with investing in a country facing instability and inflation.

Since a U.S. military raid captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, Trump has said there’s a new opportunity to use the country’s oil to keep gasoline prices low.

The full list of executives invited to the meeting has not been disclosed, but Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips are expected to attend.

Attorneys general in five Democratic-led states have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration after it said it would freeze money for several public benefit programs.

The Trump administration has cited concerns about fraud in the programs designed to help low-income families and their children. California, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois and New York states filed the lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The lawsuit asks the courts to order the administration to release the funds. The attorneys general have called the funding freeze an unconstitutional abuse of power.

Iran’s judiciary chief has vowed decisive punishment for protesters, signaling a coming crackdown against demonstrations.

Iranian state television reported the comments from Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei on Friday. They came after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticized Trump’s support for the protesters, calling Trump’s hands “stained with the blood of Iranians.”

The government has shut down the internet and is blocking international calls. State media has labeled the demonstrators as “terrorists.”

The protests began over Iran’s struggling economy and have become a significant challenge to the government. Violence has killed at least 50 people, and more than 2,270 have been detained.

Trump questions why a president’s party often loses in midterm elections and suggests voters “want, maybe a check or something”

Trump suggested voters want to check a president’s power and that’s why they often deliver wins for an opposing party in midterm elections, which he’s facing this year.

“There’s something down, deep psychologically with the voters that they want, maybe a check or something. I don’t know what it is, exactly,” he said.

He said that one would expect that after winning an election and having “a great, successful presidency, it would be an automatic win, but it’s never been a win.”

Hiring likely remained subdued last month as many companies have sought to avoid expanding their workforces, though the job gains may be enough to bring down the unemployment rate.

December’s jobs report, to be released Friday, is likely to show that employers added a modest 55,000 jobs, economists forecast. That figure would be below November’s 64,000 but an improvement after the economy lost jobs in October. The unemployment rate is expected to slip to 4.5%, according to data provider FactSet, from a four-year high of 4.6% in November.

The figures will be closely watched on Wall Street and in Washington because they will be the first clean readings on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.

FILE - President Donald Trump dances as he walks off stage after speaking to House Republican lawmakers during their annual policy retreat, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)