Your VP of marketing walks into your next recruiting strategy meeting with a printout. Someone sent them an article about AI search optimization. Another one about showing up in ChatGPT before the competition. They slide it across the table and say, “We need to be doing this.”
And look, it’s not a crazy thing to say. AI really is changing how people find things and interact with technology in general. The instinct to pay attention makes sense.
So your team starts talking about it. Someone brings up AI Overviews in Google. Someone else asks about putting a chatbot on the careers page. The whole conversation builds momentum, and by the end of the meeting you’ve got a plan of action on the whiteboard.
The only question nobody thought to ask: are drivers actually using any of this stuff to find jobs?
We asked. They aren’t.
Drivers are barely using these tools
When we asked drivers about some of the major AI platforms, the familiarity gap was hard to ignore:
- Nearly 30% had never heard of ChatGPT.
- 35% said they would never use it.
- Grok and Claude were unknown to more than 65% of drivers.
Yes, 53% of drivers have used at least one AI tool at some point, but most of them only tried it once or twice. Only 10% qualify as real power users (daily or almost daily users).
The number that really matters here: only 4% of drivers have ever used AI to look for a driving job. In a separate Truckers News poll, 75% said they hadn’t used AI for job search and wouldn’t.
That’s the foundation a lot of these AI recruiting plans are being built on. Not exactly firm footing.
Most drivers scroll right past AI search results
When drivers see an AI Overview at the top of a Google results page, they don’t treat it as the main event.
- 77% of drivers skip AI Overviews to get to the classic results.
- 42% scroll past without reading them at all.
- Another 35% skim a little, then drop down to the regular links anyway.
So while everyone is talking about how to “win” in AI search, drivers’ behavior points toward traditional search still being preferred.
Classic search results, CDL job boards, and word of mouth are still doing most of the heavy lifting.
"Drivers are older" doesn’t explain the trend away
It’s true that drivers skew older than the average U.S. worker. According to ATRI’s 2025 research, the average truck driver is 47 years old, five years older than the U.S. workforce average of 42. For long-haul and owner-operator populations, that average climbs closer to 56.
Breaking it down by generation:
- Generation X makes up 40.8% of drivers.
- Baby Boomers account for another 20.7%.
- Millennials represent 30.7% of drivers.
- Gen Z makes up just 7.5%.
So yes, the workforce is older, but job search via AI is low even among drivers who use AI regularly for other things. Even among drivers under 45, only 8% had ever used AI to look for a trucking job.
This isn’t a generational problem. Drivers of all ages are still using the same, time-tested tools to find work.
What are drivers actually saying?
Drivers obviously don’t all fall in the same camp. Some hate the entire concept of AI. Some think it’s useful. And some are just trying to figure it out like the rest of us.
A few of the comments from our survey:
“I watched the Terminator movies. So I don’t trust any AI at all!”
“AI is like a truck GPS. It’s a great tool. However, you can’t live by it, because it’s sometimes wrong.”
It’s not that drivers are scared of learning new technology. They’re just tired of tools that they think do more harm than good.
Where AI actually helps in driver recruiting
Now we get to the part that actually matters.
Drivers will use AI when it does something useful for them. We know that because they already are.
Over seven months, Stratas® Agent took calls from real drivers across fleets:
- 68,586 total calls handled.
- Call volume grew more than 7x from pilot to scale.
- Average call duration held at 1 minute and 53 seconds the whole time.
Drivers weren’t hanging up. They were staying on the line and getting answers.
And when they do, fleets hire:
- Covenant Logistics: 58 drivers hired in the first 90 days.
- Gulf Relay: 15 drivers hired in 75 days, more than half of them brand new to their system.
The same group who told us they were skeptical of AI in surveys were completing nearly two-minute conversations with an AI agent at scale and turning into hires.
Ranking higher in AI search results won’t hire more drivers, at least not yet.
But an AI that answers every call, fields basic driver questions, and captures the details your recruiters need in your ATS is the form of AI that’s actually putting drivers in seats right now.
Grab the full report
This article is just the appetizer to our latest research.
The full Drivers & AI Report 2026 walks through:
- The full breakdown of AI familiarity and usage across the driver workforce.
- Why driver behavior during AI calls tells a different story than survey responses.
- How “invisible AI” works in practice for driver recruiting.
- Case studies from Covenant Logistics and Gulf Relay after adding an AI voice agent.
- Four specific points to bring to your next recruiting strategy conversation.
Fill out the form below and download the full report to see exactly how drivers are using AI and where the real opportunities are for your recruiting team.