A new wave of Gen Z CVs is coming into the workplace. With so many people in the job pool searching for work, there will undoubtedly be those interested in using available technology to get a competitive advantage.

But what they aren’t banking on is that a lot of jobseekers are thinking about doing the same thing. AI tools that scan CVs can pick up sections or words that need to be replaced with automated recommendations.

While this can be an absolute saver for a lot of people who forget to include a lot of the skills necessary for the role they are applying for, it can also be a tricky path to tread.

Applying for roles has never been more complicated. You may remember a time last year when AI screening assistants were rumoured to have been used by companies which could automatically reject applications based on their suitability when compared to the job description.

It was initially hailed as nothing more than whispers, but it’s actually becoming a reality as 70 per cent of finance professionals use it.

To be in with a chance of having your CV accepted, it’s almost expected that a jobseeker needs to copy and paste keywords from the job advert into their document. According to research, 4 per cent of organisations said they were currently using AI to evaluate applications. This number is likely to increase in future, allowing AI to replace the screening process.

Of course, there are a multitude of rules and regulations that would need to be fine-tuned to allow this to happen, but it’s almost necessary for jobseekers to anticipate their CVs being screened digitally.

So, what can they do? Well, there are many ways to improve on your CV (and we can help you with that at Orange Malone), but for this AI trend: read the job description carefully and write down a list of the most important skills and words that are used.

Giving clear examples of the attributes listed is important but don’t forget, when you get an interview, you’ll need to go into more detail so it has to be true!

But if you want to play the game against itself, you could use AI to customise a CV against specific job descriptions, then manually review it so that it is free of the general jargon that ChatGPT seems to repeat quite often.  There are many tools to choose from, and it could pay off as long as the company doesn’t have speculation about using AI during your application process.

But ideally, putting something unusual and personal in there will differentiate you from others so think long and hard about using AI to do too much!

At Orange Malone, we explore more about topics like this which candidates can read here.