Is it OK for jobseekers or employers to use AI?

ByDaniel Thomas and Oliver SmithBBC News

Would you use AI to help you write a CV or cover letter? How about during an online assessment or video interview for a job?

We are increasingly using the technology to help us with job applications, graduates, external and recruiters say, with many employers happy for us to do so within reason.

But when does it cross a line from being acceptable to unethical, or even cheating?

Tom, 22, from Maidstone graduated last year with a geography degree and says he applied for over 200 jobs before finally landing a role last month as a restaurant manager.

He says the process was "exhausting" and "demoralising", with employers often not even getting back to him, and he wouldn't have got through it without some help from AI.

"Employers want you to put your absolute best into the application, but if I'm applying for 10 to 20 jobs in a day, the reality is you can't do that."

While Tom says he never used the technology in an assessment or interview, he did use it to help him with cover letters and CVs or to find the right "buzz words" that early stage screening in a recruitment process will pick up on.

He also thinks it's "hypocritical" for companies to ask candidates not to use AI when some are using it themselves to screen candidates.

"That's where it feels like a weird tightrope. You can't use AI too much because otherwise you're not human. But if you don't write like an AI, you may get skipped by the AI screening."

'More competition for students'

This summer, the Institute of Student Employers (ISE) surveyed 155 of the UK's biggest graduate employers and found they were becoming "more accepting" of candidates using AI during recruitment "at some stages of the recruitment process".

According to the trade group, the most commonly accepted use was writing cover letters or CVs, followed by completing online application questions.

However, it also found some 92% of employers had encountered or suspected AI "misconduct" in the job selection process - up from 85% last year. Most commonly this included using AI as a real-time assistant during online video interviews or to complete online assessments.

On top of this, the tech is also helping candidates write multiple applications at the same time - something known in the industry as "spray and pray". And Stephen Isherwood, joint chief executive of the ISE, says it is "driving up the competition and pressure on students" in an already competitive graduate recruitment market.

'It's not a level playing field'

Hollie Moody, head of early careers recruitment at energy giant EDF, says she doesn't blame graduates for using AI in applications given how "brutal" the jobs market is right now. But she does think it's becoming a problem.

EDF opened its graduate recruitment scheme three weeks ago, but took the decision to close it early after receiving 12,000 applications - a 10% increase on last year.

Moody says AI almost certainly contributed to this, adding that the tech is being used "a lot more freely" in the actual selection process.

"What we don't have is a level playing field, because what you'll find is that some candidates will absolutely use AI throughout the whole process, and other candidates won't."

Like many firms, EDF now issues guidance on the appropriate use of AI in job applications, and is trying to make its recruitment process as "AI-proof" as possible.

It only reads CVs in the later stages of the hiring process and uses skills and behaviour-based online assessments and video interviews to better assess candidates' skills.

But Moody says some applicants still try to bend the rules, particularly in video interviews.

"A lot of the answers [we hear] are the same. Or people might pause whilst they wait for AI to come back to them with an answer. It's almost like people are reading a script."

One recently employed trainee accountant, who didn't want us to use his real name, told the BBC he'd applied for 50 graduate jobs and used AI in every application. But he says it was only for researching roles, tidying up his CV and generating mock practise questions for video interviews.

While he says he would never use the tech to cheat on assessments he knows people who would.

"I know people who have applied for 100 jobs and after a while they become desperate. If they see everyone else is using AI, they think how can I compete?"

According to the ISE, the graduate market has stabilised after a sharp fall last year but remains tough. Graduate roles currently attract an average of 141 applications each, it says.

And while only 16% of employers it surveyed are using AI to screen candidates, more than half plan to introduce it due to the large volumes of applications they are receiving.

EDF does not currently use AI screening but Hollie Moody says they may have to in future.

She says the use of AI in job applications is a "moral dilemma" that employers and employees will continue to grapple with. But she stresses it cannot replace what her firm is looking for in new recruits.

"It's about authenticity, but also personality. We want diversity of thought in the business."