Alongside the burgeoning rise in ID fraud and candidate use of AI, 90% of businesses find candidate discrepancies during the screening process. A comprehensive report* draws from the survey responses of more than 1,000 HR, risk, and talent acquisition professionals from organisations worldwide using employment background screening to help mitigate possible risks to their employees, customers, corporate reputation, and commercial success.

One of the key findings this year is the fact that a staggering 90% of businesses in EMEA have found candidate discrepancies during their pre-employment screening process. Most commonly, these inconsistencies were found when verifying their candidates’ past employment details (64%) and education credentials (47%). Additionally, 22% discovered undisclosed convictions while conducting criminal record checks on their candidates.

ID Fraud

Worryingly, many businesses are still not conducting identity checks despite the global rise in ID fraud. According to the UK’s largest not-for profit fraud prevention service, Cifas, identity fraud costs the UK an estimated £1.8bn every year and there were more than 237,000 cases of identity fraud reported in 2023. And it’s not getting any better. A recent blog from them on the outlook for 2025 reported that there are “early indications of increased fraud levels”. In EMEA, almost one-fifth (19%) of respondents in the HireRight latest survey admitted that they had experienced ID fraud—and a further 19% were unsure if they had or hadn’t.

Using AI in the Recruitment Process

Despite the hype, almost half of respondents globally said they were unsure if they would be using AI tools to support core HR functions in 2025. With a broad menu of potential applications of AI within HR, it is surprising that so many businesses are uncertain about whether such AI tools will be utilised this year. In EMEA, just 36% of respondents said they plan to either start or continue using AI in 2025, 33% were unsure, and 31% said they are not planning to use AI this year.

Respondents already using AI tools to support their company’s HR activities are mostly doing so to assist with candidate selection/resume filtering as part of their talent acquisition process, employee onboarding, and training/development. These three areas are also the ones most cited by respondents who plan to start using AI in 2025.

When it comes to candidates using AI in the recruitment process, it appears most businesses have limited confidence in their ability to identify when candidates have used AI tools on their job applications/CVs. In fact, only 4% of EMEA respondents were very confident they could identify if AI tools have been used by a candidate and 29% said they had little or no confidence in their ability to recognise usage.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, when it comes to how comfortable those same employers are with candidates using AI tools to assist with their job applications/CVs, the EMEA-based respondents of our survey were mostly still undecided. In fact, whilst 72% of respondents responded “neutral/not sure”, the rest were equally split between believing it has a positive impact—given that it can help them find the best-matched talent more quickly—and feeling negatively about it, thinking that it could be being used to embellish the candidate’s genuine experience to mislead the prospective employer.

“With nine out of 10 businesses in EMEA identifying discrepancies during the candidate screening process, it’s clear that the challenges facing employers are intensifying —particularly as both identity fraud and AI-assisted job applications become more prevalent,” said Peter Cleverton, EVP of International at HireRight. “Our latest Global Benchmark Report highlights the urgent need for organisations to review their screening processes and packages to thoughtfully evaluate how AI is used in both hiring practices and candidate applications. As the landscape evolves, trust, transparency and vigilance will be key to building effective and secure workforces.”

*HireRight’s 2025 Global Benchmark Report, please visit www.hireright.com/benchmark2025.