I can't believe it's come to THIS.
After writing a book on cover letters.
After coaching people to write great ones for two decades.
After reading every single cover letter as a recruiter and hiring manager.
I come not to PRAISE the cover letter...
...but to BURY it. 🪦
Because here's the real deal:
The whole point of the cover letter was to SIGNAL quality. 🎯
Specifically, if you wrote a really great cover letter in 2016, that was a clear signal that you:
✅ Were more ALIGNED than other candidates
✅ Were more INTERESTED than other candidates
✅ Were more INTERVIEW-WORTHY than other candidates
And yet here in 2026, is that signal still so CLEAR? 🤔
I had hoped that the rise of Awful AI-Generated Letters ("Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing to express my interest in X role at Y company...") would preserve the signal being sent by truly high-quality candidates.
And yet, new research from economists at Yale University shows that:
1️⃣ Recruiters got fooled initially - using AI in cover letters in 2023 led to a 50% rise in interviews... 🤦♂️
2️⃣ ...Which is now making them wary of cover letters completely - the impact of a tailored cover letter (i.e., the SIGNAL of fit) has now dropped by 51%! 😭
So bottom line:
📈 I still think that a truly personalized cover letter may produce better results with SOME recruiters SOME of the time...
📉 ...But I think the number of recruiters willing to play Cover Letter Roulette (i.e., is this a true signal of quality or just AI-assisted?) will diminish while other signals that AI can't touch become even more important (e.g., referrals now drive a 20X increase in hiring vs. 10X pre-AI).
What do YOU think?
🚪 Are cover letters truly on their way out for good?
👻 Or as Mark Twain once said, are rumors of their demise greatly exaggerated??? :)
Let us know in the Comments! 🙌
The Cover Letter Is Dying