Speaking from experience, I get hundreds of of applications per month. 90%+ of them are either templated or less than 20 words. 50%+ of them have no indication they even read the job post, applying for technologies or positions not included in the job posting, or containing no indication of who or what they’re applying for, let alone why they are interested or would be a good fit.

I write all my responses by hand, that’s just how I like to do things. If it is going to take me longer to write the rejection than the applicant spent on the application, I’m not going to do it. It would be unmaintainable to keep up with, and it’s hard to feel that someone deserves a few minutes of my time because they copy pasted an email address (if that).

I can’t speak for everyone’s practices, but genuine applications with effort put in are met with the same level of effort in the response. I’ve interviewed dozens of people solely on their level of effort put into the application (as opposed to the content of their resume). I’d rather spend an hour interviewing a bad fit that cares than responding to 20 people who couldn’t even name the company they applied to.

I think those struggling would find better luck with quality over quantity wrt applications. It takes shockingly little to stand out from the flood of applications you get on here. Including things like the name of the company, why you’re interested, and why you’d be a good fit are exceedingly rare (and imho the bare minimum for an application). If you can convey even a modicum of excitement or competence, it basically guarantees you at least a response, if not an interview.

Also, I’ve never responded to an AI generated application. That is not a solution, as it’s impossible to tell whether you’ve even seen the job ad or just signed up for some service. If you’re a non-native speaker, don’t worry about grammatical errors. If you’re really concerned and must use it, disclose your use of it if you want any hopes of a response

Just my two cents from the other side of the conversation.