How to Know You're Actually Hiring a Human in 2026

Something quietly changed in hiring over the last eighteen months. The signals we spent years learning to trust — a polished resume, a confident async video response, a well-articulated answer about strengths and weaknesses — are no longer reliable indicators of the person sitting on the other side of the process. AI didn't just change how candidates apply. It changed what hiring teams are actually measuring without realising it. Here's what's really happening, where the real risk sits, and what the most rigorous hiring teams are doing differently in 2026.