Can you use AI to write a cover letter?

A cover letter, according to the National Careers Service, introduces you to an employer and asks them to consider your application. It’s usually three to five paragraphs, and you should always include one when you apply with a CV. Nothing in that says you have to type every word yourself. What it does say is that the letter has to be tailored, researched and backed up with facts, and the facts have to come from you.

Employers know where AI goes wrong. NHS Employers guidance, written for the people doing the hiring, warns that AI-generated applications can be generic and impersonal, may not accurately reflect a candidate’s qualifications, and can contain false or misleading information. Recruiters also notice when several applicants hand in the same or very similar answers. Imagine your “unique” letter sitting in a pile next to five clones.

The Civil Service Careers candidate guide draws the line clearly. You can use AI to refine and clarify your ideas, to research public information about the organisation and to check spelling, grammar and clarity. You can’t use it to inflate or invent skills and experience, to create generic responses and copy them in, or to hand over sensitive information about your organisation, like figures or personal details. Before you submit, you confirm the information is true and accurate, and applications where AI is used inappropriately may be rejected. Anthropic, as one employer example, puts it simply: write your first draft yourself, then use AI to refine it.

So AI as a drafting and editing aid, yes. AI as a way to become a more impressive person than you are, absolutely not.

How to do it well

Start with your own material before you open any chatbot: the job advert, your CV, and two or three true examples with results. Real ones, where you can say what the problem was, what you did and what happened afterwards. That’s the STAR method the National Careers Service recommends for backing up what you claim.

Then use AI for the dull sorting job. Ask it to pull the key requirements out of the advert and map them to your examples. You choose which examples go in, because you’re the only one who knows which story you can tell well at interview.

Here is the job advert and my notes. List the five requirements that matter most and, for each, tell me which of my examples fits best. Do not invent anything I haven't written.

That last sentence is doing a lot of work. Leave it in.

Next, the draft. Write it yourself, or ask for a draft built from your own notes only. Either way, edit until it sounds like you. Read it out loud if you can stand it, and change any sentence that sounds like a stranger wrote it. The National Careers Service wants a fresh letter for every job, tailored to the company and the role, using the keywords from the advert and showing you’ve looked at the company’s website, recent news or the people who work there.

Then check every sentence. Names, the company name, dates, numbers. Is the person’s name spelt right? Is it the right company, with no trace of the last application left in? Remove anything you couldn’t talk about in an interview. Keep a copy of what you send, as the National Careers Service suggests, because they may ask about it later.

A few formatting points. Address the letter to a named person where you can. If you can’t, use “Dear Sir or Madam” and finish with “Yours faithfully”; with a name, it’s “Yours sincerely”. Spelling and grammar checks are where AI is genuinely handy, and openly allowed.

Finally, don’t paste a current employer’s confidential figures, or other people’s personal details, into an AI tool. The Civil Service guidance lists sensitive organisational information as off limits.

Rules and risks

Employer rules vary. Some say nothing about AI at all and some are quite specific, so read the advert and the application form for an AI statement before you start.

You may be asked to confirm that your application is true and accurate, which is the Civil Service approach. NHS Employers suggests employers could also ask applicants to declare whether they used AI and which tools. If that question is there, answer it honestly.

On spotting AI text, NHS Employers tells employers there is currently no official marketed technology to detect AI and advises against relying on anything unproven. Recruiters do notice generic, samey answers, whatever produced them.

The biggest risk is lying about experience. Inflate a skill or invent a project and your application can be rejected; the Civil Service guide says so outright for inappropriate AI use. And if it slipped through, you’d be sitting in an interview trying to explain something that never happened.

Keep it true, keep it about you, and follow the employer’s own rules.

This is general information, not legal advice.