AI writing tools have made it fast and easy to draft a polished-sounding resume or cover letter. But there's a catch a lot of job seekers miss: recruiters are getting better at spotting generic, AI-written applications — and it can hurt more than help.
AI-generated text tends toward safe, generic phrasing that could apply to almost any candidate for almost any role. Recruiters reading hundreds of applications notice when one reads like it could be copy-pasted for a different job with a find-and-replace.
If you used AI tools to help draft your resume or cover letter, it's worth running it through a detector yourself before you submit — not to game a system, but to see honestly whether your application still sounds like you.
The strongest approach is using AI tools to get past a blank page, then rewriting in your own voice with specific, real details from your actual experience. Specificity is what makes an application memorable — generic polish is what makes it forgettable.
AI tools are useful for structure and speed. But the details that actually get you an interview — specific achievements, genuine voice, real numbers — still have to come from you.