Using AI in Job Applications

How Job Applicants Use AI

How are job applicants already using AI to support their job search?

Prospects Luminate surveyed more than 4000 users of prospects.ac.uk in 2025, including people at school, university and college, graduates, apprentices, and people not in education, employment or training. This process gave some interesting insights into how people are already using AI to support their job search. These included:

Almost a fifth of respondents had used generative AI tools to provide careers advice, and 84% of them found these tools helpful or very helpful.
Of people who had applied for a job, almost 40% had used AI to edit a CV or covering letter, and 30% had used it to write a covering letter or CV.
In total, nearly a third of people who had applied for jobs had used AI to help them prepare for interviews.
One important reason for using AI was to speed up the application process. People said that its use allowed them to apply for more jobs.

How Recruiters Use AI

Part of the reason why job hunters have increasingly turned to AI for help is that recruiters are using AI throughout the recruitment process.

Understanding more about this can help you to appreciate where AI may be helpful in your job search.

First, AI tools may be used to help draft job advertisements. This can be great—but it can also mean that the job as advertised is not quite what the recruiting manager specified. Make sure that you discuss the day-to-day details of the job in any interview (in fact, this makes a great question to ask at the end of the interview).

Second, AI tools are used to screen CVs and covering letters, usually before any human sees them. If your CV and covering letter don’t mention all the keywords, your application is likely to be rejected. Using an AI tool to review your application can help to avoid this problem.

Third, AI can be used to analyse interviews, especially video interviews. The idea is to give a bit more information about your answers, but also to evaluate skills like communication skills and building rapport. This is a bit of a double-edged sword. It can help to reduce unconscious bias among interviewers by providing a more objective analysis. However, this only works if the AI tool has no hidden biases of its own. There isn’t much you can do about this as an applicant, except to ensure that you interview well (and our page on Interview Skills may help here).

Fourth, AI may also be used to keep you updated about progress. You may receive texts or emails periodically explaining where you are in the process. This is usually helpful, although it can be frustrating if you can’t reply with questions. On the other hand, you can’t blame recruiters for using AI, because it saves them getting hundreds of emails asking when people might expect to hear—and at least it is better than never hearing back.

Finally, recruiters may also—rather unfairly, some might say—use AI to check for AI-generated content in CVs, covering letters and application forms. The real problem with this is that the checking process may not be very accurate. However, in principle at least, this means that it is better to use AI only to show you how to improve documents you have already created. You should also carefully edit any suggestions to ensure that they reflect your voice.

Appropriate AI Use in Job Applications

Once you understand how recruiters are using AI, it also becomes clearer what use of AI is appropriate.

Appropriate AI use includes:

Brainstorming career choices and options

Forms of generative AI called large language models or LLMs include ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini.

Our page on Using Large Language Models (LLMs) explains that these tools can be a useful ‘partner’ in brainstorming ideas.

That could include career options, ideas for developing particular skills, or where to look for job advertisements. As with any brainstorming process, you will get more useful output if you put in more thought, and take longer over the process. This approach might be a particularly useful first option in a job hunt if you really don’t know where to begin.
Generating a generic first draft CV or covering letter

Let’s be clear here: you would never want to use a generic CV or covering letter in a job application.

These should always be tailored to specific jobs or (for speculative applications) organisations. However, generative AI can help you get started by providing a generic CV based on bullet points you provide. This should include all your skills, experience and education (and for more about what to include, check our page on Writing a CV). This will speed up the tailoring process by giving you a starting point each time.

As much as anything, AI can put your outline into a vaguely elegant form, though you might also get that by using a generic template from a careers advice website.

Top tip! Check for hallucinations

Before you save your generic CV and cover letter, make sure your AI helper has not exaggerated anything, or even downright hallucinated some skills or experience.
Researching companies

Generative AI that is linked to a search engine can be used to help you research industries or particular companies.

It is important that you ask the algorithm to give you links to the original source, and then always check back to that to make sure the information is accurate. However, this can save you a lot of time by pulling together information from across the internet into a single document.
Helping you to tailor an application to the job spec or advertisement

This is where AI becomes really helpful.

Every application should be tailored to the job description, person specification and advertisement. Ideally, you want to namecheck every skill or piece of experience mentioned in each of these, to ensure that you satisfy any AI-based screening process.

Once you have prepared a first draft tailored CV and cover letter (or application form), it is worth asking a generative AI to review it against the job description. You should ask it to identify any obvious gaps, and also make suggestions for how it could be improved.
Top tip! Be careful with your prompts

Checking your CV against a job description using an AI algorithm is likely to be a multi-stage process. Use several different prompts to get slightly different results, and draw the results together.

You might, for example, try:
- “Summarise the key skills in this job description.” This will help you to ensure that you have the necessary skills, and also show you how you might structure your application.
- “Compare this job description to my CV and identify any skills or experience that are not included.” This will allow you to see gaps.
- “Compare this job description to my CV and suggest how my CV could be improved to better match the job description.” This will provide a slightly different take on the gaps, and may surface new ideas.
- “Rewrite this bullet point from my CV to include the keywords [x and y] in a natural way”. This will provide drafting suggestions where you are having trouble incorporating particular keywords.
You can do the same process for your cover letter or supporting statement, to ensure that all the key skills and experiences are mentioned.
It is important to check the output carefully, and not just incorporate it blindly. Your CV and cover letter need to reflect you and your skills and experience—and not just put words together nicely.
Helping you to prepare for interviews

It is always helpful to practise for interviews by thinking about what questions might be asked, and how you might answer them.

AI algorithms can help you to do this. There are some specific algorithms available, but you can also start with the more generic options such as ChatGPT, give them the job description, and ask them to generate sample interview questions with strong replies.

You can also give a generative AI sample interview questions of your own, and ask it to suggest strong answers based on your CV. However, don’t be tempted to learn the answers off by heart. Instead, use them as a starting point for your own possible answers—and prepare your answers in brief bullet points setting out the main points you want to make, not beautiful prose. You want to come across as genuine, not rehearsed.

Inappropriate AI Use in Job Applications

It is worth setting out when use of AI in job applications would be considered inappropriate.

You should NOT:

Exaggerate your own abilities or experience, even if you think it makes you look better. Make sure that you recognise yourself in your CV and covering letter. Better still, ask a friend if they recognise you.
Make anything up. Our page on Writing a CV or résumé is clear that you should never lie on your CV or covering letter. A lie that gets you a job can also lose it for you.
Use AI to help you with any kind of personality or aptitude test. These are about your fit for the job. If you use AI to complete the test, it won’t be a good reflection of you. That could mean that you are rejected when you are a good fit—or, and this might actually be worse, you get the job and you hate it.
Use AI to the point of losing your own voice. It’s fine to ask AI to help you write your CV more strongly, or to tailor your cover letter. However, an AI-generated CV and cover letter will often be obvious, partly because of the bland language and style. Probably the best option is to prepare a first draft yourself then ask AI to touch it up in light of the job spec or advert. Then—and this is important—edit it again to ensure that it comes across as you.

Do I want a “dynamic, go-getting professional who is always keen to improve systems and practices”? I’m not sure I do, actually. They might drive me mad.

Business owner, talking about the pitfalls of the language used in AI-generated CVs.

Learn answers off by heart and use them in an interview. It’s fine to ask AI to suggest interview questions and suitable answers, to give you an idea of what might be asked. It’s NOT fine to get so lost in the script that you lose sight of yourself. Remember that interviewers want to know if you’ll be a good fit with the job and the organisation. If you come across as giving scripted answers, that fit is called into doubt. Be yourself.

It is also always worth checking the recruiting organisation’s policy on the use of AI in job applications.

Some require it to be disclosed as part of the application process. If you fail to comply, and your use later emerges, that may be enough to lose you the job.

WARNING! Don’t give AI any sensitive information

When you are preparing a CV or cover letter, be careful not to give any AI tool access to sensitive personal or commercial information.

Remember that AI learns from what it sees—so don’t show it anything you don’t want the world to know.

The Bottom Line

AI is a useful tool for job hunters. You can use it to help you understand job advertisements, tailor your applications to the job, check for gaps in your CV, and even prepare for interviews.

However, it is important that your use of AI remains appropriate and ethical.

That means that what you submit, and how you present at interview and in any tests, must be an accurate reflection of you, your skills and your experience. Don’t exaggerate or lie about your experience and skills, and don’t let AI-generated words hide your own voice.

Continue to:
Writing a CV or Resume
Applying for a Job