Artificial intelligence is becoming more prevalent in many areas of life. However, one growing concern of employers is the use of AI during virtual job interviews. Specifically, some applicants will covertly set up an AI system to listen during the interview and supply real-time responses, which the applicants then repeat as their own. Most employers would agree that this is an ethical problem. However, modern communication is saturated with assistive technology, such as spell- and grammar-checking systems, that are considered acceptable. Word prediction is everywhere from texting to word processing software. AI use in every field – including the job search process – exists on a spectrum, and ethical judgments may vary across industries and evolve over time. However, it is worth examining this issue more closely, because the process of reflecting on these questions helps us understand our own expectations, values, and professional norms.

Each phase of the job search process has a purpose. A résumé provides a list of your skills and experience. A cover letter conveys your understanding of the role, your ability to relate the role to your experiences, your motivation, and your ability to communicate all of these points in a clear and compelling manner. An interview demonstrates your listening skills, your ability to synthesize information and break down questions in real time, your interpersonal skills and situational awareness, and your verbal communication proficiency. Any time an applicant misrepresents themselves or subverts the purpose underlying any stage of this process, an ethical line has been crossed. Tools such as autocorrect are considered ethically neutral because they support clarity without altering the substance of what you are saying. They polish your expression; they don’t generate content. Using AI to organize your résumé is fine; using AI to generate responses to interviewer questions is clearly not. And even if using AI generated content in application materials (such as cover letters) was acceptable, it’s strategically unwise, as the results typically sound generic and flat – a predictable consequence of the way large language model technology works.

There are many practical and ethical ways AI can be used during the job search process. It can be used to gather and summarize information about a company – although you should always use services that provide references that can be verified. It can be used to create explanations of technical concepts or glossaries of industry terms for you to reference and study from before an interview, thus enhancing your actual knowledge. AI can be used as a general job coach, responding to questions like “What do hiring managers look for in a cover letter?”, or tailored more specifically to your situation by suggesting connections between your background and new industries, or alternative job titles that match your abilities. Voice-driven AI systems can be particularly valuable by providing interactive mock interviews, which can help you practice answering common questions, present hypothetical scenarios for you to consider, and improve the clarity of your responses by providing constructive criticism, thus helping you build confidence that will shine through in an actual interview. 

However, even these practical uses of AI come with drawbacks worth considering. The act of gathering and summarizing company information requires you to search effectively, assess the credibility of sources, reconcile conflicting details, weigh the relative importance of information, and synthesize everything into a coherent understanding. These are valuable skills across nearly every profession, and doing this work yourself is what strengthens them. AI may give you a temporary boost in efficiency, but over-reliance will lead to the gradual erosion of these skills. These tasks take time and effort, but that difficulty is precisely why the process has value: actively engaging with complex issues is the only way we can develop genuine critical thinking skills. As AI becomes more deeply woven into the job search process, the challenge is not simply deciding what it can do for us, but deciding what we should still do for ourselves. Striking the right balance will shape our professional growth and provide an enduring foundation of skills that will remain relevant even as technology continues to evolve.