Nicky Hancock is an expert in hiring. As the chief growth officer at AMS, she helps 400 clients in 80 countries hire about 300,000 people a year.

But she's started to notice one big red flag from job-seekers in the hiring process: "When you can see their whole application is written by AI," Hancock tells CNBC Make It.

To be fair, she notes, it's crucial today's young applicants demonstrate they have at least a basic command of AI, if not more advanced knowledge for a technical role.

"When any company is hiring graduates, ultimately they want them to be able to use AI, because they will be using AI in their future roles," Hancock says.

However, when applicants over-rely on AI to compile their application materials, it strips their documents of their personality and unique perspectives or experiences that could help them stand out from the pack and ultimately win the role, Hancock says.

Over-use of AI in hiring becomes a problem "when you don't get that sense of personalization," she says. Customizing your results in your own voice is crucial, since many AI tools are trained using existing texts and tend to spit out very repetitive, common phrases.

She's seen it become a bigger issue in the last six to 12 months at a time when it's easier than ever to use AI to mass-apply to job openings, too. These days, Hancock estimates companies only hire between 1% and 5% of applications they receive.

Tailor your resume and interview by highlighting soft skills

Some best practices for using AI to write your resume the "right" way include starting with your own draft, according to career and tech expert Jeremy Schifeling. Then, it can be helpful to turn to a generative AI tool to make sure you're incorporating keywords, quantifying your achievements and demonstrating the results of your previous work.

Hancock encourages job-seekers to tailor their applications themselves to highlight their soft skills, which she says employers are eager to hire for.

Include real-life examples on your resume or in your cover letter of how you've reacted to shifting priorities, dealt with business challenges, or reached measurable goals in a previous role or internship, she says.

Be prepared to highlight these in an interview, she adds. Your conversation with a hiring manager should go beyond the skills, experience and education you've already outlined in your resume, Hancock says.

A few ways to think about this might be to prepare for some of Hancock's favorite interview questions, like:

• What's your proudest moment?
• What's the biggest challenge you've faced, and what did you learn from it?

Hancock likes asking these of candidates to get a sense of what they're like as an employee, a colleague and a person, she says.

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