What you’ll be able to do

By the end of this you’ll have a CV that actually reads well, and, more importantly, one that survives the software a recruiter uses before a human ever sees it. That second part matters more than people think. You can write the best CV in the world, but if it’s a scanned PDF or has your work history hidden in a fancy table, it might never make it past the first filter. AI can help with both problems, the writing and the surviving.

Before you start

A few basics first, because AI won’t know your CV needs to follow UK conventions unless you tell it.

UK CVs are two pages. Not three, not one. No photo, no date of birth, none of that stuff you might see on CVs from other countries. Keep it simple.

The other thing worth knowing is that a lot of employers, especially bigger companies, use applicant-tracking software (ATS) to filter CVs before anyone reads them. This software parses text, it doesn’t “look” at your CV the way a person does. So plain headings matter. Standard section names matter, things like “Work Experience” and “Education” rather than something clever like “My Journey”. And no text inside images, because the software genuinely can’t read it. If your CV has a slick graphic with your skills listed inside it, that’s invisible to an ATS. Gone.

One more thing, and this one’s important: never let AI invent qualifications, dates or employers. It will happily fill gaps if you let it, guessing at dates or padding out a job title to sound better. Don’t let it. Every fact on your CV has to be true and checkable, because someone eventually will check.

And before you paste anything into a chatbot, strip out other people’s names and any reference contact details. You don’t need AI seeing your old manager’s mobile number.

Get set up

There’s no single right tool here, but a few options work well depending on what you want.

If you’ve already got a CV, even a rough one, ChatGPT or Claude are good starting points. You paste in your old CV and the job advert you’re applying for, and ask for help. Both are free to use at a basic level, and both can hold a decent amount of text in one go.

If you’re already working in Word or Google Docs, Copilot (in Word) and Gemini (in Google Docs) let you edit in place, which is handy if you don’t want to keep copying text back and forth. You just ask it questions or give it instructions directly inside the document.

There are also specialist CV builders with AI baked in, things like Kickresume, Teal or Rezi. These tend to have templates already designed to be ATS-friendly, which takes some of the guesswork out. Worth a look if you want more structure and less faffing about with formatting yourself. Check their current pricing before committing to anything, it changes.

Whichever you pick, get two things ready before you start: your existing CV (even a messy one) and the job advert you’re applying to. Copy the advert as plain text somewhere. You’ll need it for the next bit.

Try it yourself

Here are three prompts that each do a different job. Use your old CV and the job advert as the raw material.

The first one is for pulling out achievements you’ve probably underselling. A lot of people list duties rather than results, and this fixes that.

Here is my current CV: [paste your CV]

Go through my work history and turn my listed duties into achievement-focused bullet points. Where possible, add measurable outcomes (numbers, percentages, timeframes) but only if I've given you that information, don't invent anything. Ask me questions if you need more detail to make a bullet point stronger.

The second is about matching the job advert’s language, which really does help with ATS scanning because a lot of these systems are just looking for keyword matches.

Here is the job advert I'm applying to: [paste advert]

Here is my current CV: [paste your CV]

Compare the language in the advert with my CV. Tell me which of my genuine skills and experience I should rephrase to match the advert's wording more closely. Don't suggest I claim skills I don't have, just point out where I already have the skill but I'm describing it differently to the advert.

The third is for restructuring, which is useful if your CV has grown messy over the years or was written for a different type of role.

Here is my CV: [paste your CV]

Restructure this into a clean two-page UK CV format with standard section headings (Personal Statement, Work Experience, Education, Skills). Keep all the factual content the same, don't add or remove any real information, just reorganise it for clarity and ATS readability.

Run these one at a time rather than all at once. It’s easier to check the output as you go, and easier to spot if something’s crept in that shouldn’t be there.

Check the result

Once you’ve got a new draft, don’t just trust it. Check it properly.

First, read every single fact against your original CV or your memory. Every date, every job title, every qualification. If anything’s been rephrased in a way that changes the meaning, even slightly, flag it. AI tools are good at rewording but they can drift from the truth without meaning to.

Second, copy your CV text and paste it into a plain text file, no formatting. Read it there. If it looks like nonsense, jumbled or missing chunks, that’s often a sign an ATS would struggle with it too, especially if you’re working from a document with tables or columns.

Third, check the headings are standard. “Work Experience”, “Education”, “Skills”. If AI’s given you something creative like “Where I’ve Been” or “My Toolkit”, change it back. Nice for a personal website, bad for a CV.

Fourth, count the pages. Two, not three. If it’s crept over, ask the AI to cut it down, or do it yourself by trimming older or less relevant roles.

Finally, read it aloud. Does it sound like you? A CV that reads like a robot wrote it (because one did) is worth editing by hand until it sounds like something you’d actually say in an interview.

If it doesn’t work

A few things to watch for.

Privacy first. Don’t paste in anything you wouldn’t want stored somewhere, like your National Insurance number, your full home address, or a reference’s personal phone number and email. Most AI tools don’t need that information to help you write a CV, so just leave it out. If you’re using a free tool, assume what you type could be used to improve the model unless you’ve checked the settings, so keep sensitive details out entirely.

Never paste in someone else’s CV either, even as an example “to copy the style”, if it contains their personal details. Strip anything identifying first.

If the AI keeps inventing details, numbers you didn’t give it, job titles that sound impressive but aren’t accurate, stop and tell it directly: don’t add anything I haven’t confirmed. Most tools will correct course when you push back, but you have to actually check, every time, not just once.

If the output feels bland or generic, that’s usually because you haven’t given it enough raw material. Go back and add more detail about what you actually did in each role, then ask it to try again. The more specific you are, the less generic the result.

And if none of it’s landing, sometimes it’s simpler to use AI for just one job, say, rewording bullet points, and do the rest yourself. You don’t have to hand over the whole thing.

Keep exploring

Once your CV’s in good shape, the natural next step is a cover letter to go with it. There’s a guide on this site called How to get AI to write a cover letter that covers that.

After that, if you’re not sure where to actually send your new CV, How to get AI to find and apply for jobs walks through using AI to search and shortlist roles.

And once you’re getting interviews, there’s How to get AI to help me practise for an interview, which is worth reading before anything’s booked in, not after.

Sources and review notes

Review date: 15 September 2026 — every source above was opened and checked against the text on that date.