Generative AI is everywhere these days. From making art to building websites, this emerging technology can produce surprising results. That’s why a growing number of people have started leveraging AI to help them complete challenging tasks at work and at home.
If you’ve ever struggled with writing a cover letter, you’ll be glad to learn that an AI-generated cover letter might be the answer to your troubles.
In this article, we’ll take a look at a few AI cover letter generators and rank the ones that we consider to be the most useful. With the right tools in your hands, you can leverage AI to build a convincing cover letter faster than ever.
Here we will explore:
- What an AI cover letter generator is.
- How to use a cover letter AI to your advantage.
- Three of the best AI cover letter builder tools on the market.
If you’re excited to try using generative AI for your job search, but you’re not at the cover letter stage yet, take a look at our list of the best AI resume builders to help get you started.
How do AI cover letter generators work?
Before we dive into your options, let’s start by understanding one of the biggest names in AI: ChatGPT — the most widely used AI generator for text content.
The “GPT” in ChatGPT stands for “generative pretrained transformer.” GPT models use a form of machine learning to recognize patterns and produce outputs that match those patterns. The more content it’s exposed to, the more effective it is at mimicking human-made content.
So, what does that mean for your cover letter?
It means that a ChatGPT cover letter can be complex and convincing enough to seem as though a human wrote it. In fact, GPT-3.5 is probably the best completely free AI cover letter generator out there. ChatGPT-4 is even better, but it requires a paid account.
What’s the catch?
Both versions of ChatGPT can produce the foundation for a strong cover letter — if you give them the right prompts. GPT isn’t a mind reader. It tends to take your input very literally and give somewhat simple answers. To make the most of ChatGPT, carefully composing and perfecting prompts is an essential skill. You have to be specific to get results.
For example:
- Ineffective prompt: “Write me a cover letter for a kindergarten teaching job.”
- Effective prompt: “Write a cover letter for a kindergarten teaching role that mentions my passion for early childhood development, experience handling large groups of 20 rowdy children and highlights a track record of student success throughout my 10-year career.”
Even after using a prompt like this one, you’ll have to edit the generated result to include your specific information. Depending on the AI cover letter generator you use, you must add your career details either before or after the letter is generated to ensure you hand in a personable and unique letter that conveys your unique qualifications.
That’s why, to make a great AI-generated cover letter, an AI tool that’s specifically designed to help you produce a strong letter is best.
For this reason, our list of AI cover letter generators includes only tools that were specifically designed to help you produce your best cover letter — without the effort of developing prompt engineering skills.
How to land an interview with an AI cover letter generator
Whether you’re using an AI cover letter tool or trying your hand at prompt engineering for ChatGPT, there are a few things you should keep in mind to ensure you get the best possible result.
- Add your career details: AI isn’t magic. It doesn’t know your career better than you know yourself. Only when you input specific personal details will the AI generator produce strong and specific results. So take the time to gather and input as many details about your career as you can.
- Edit the generated text: The content AI generates tends to be boilerplate, so don’t use it as-is. Trust us, “Why does your cover letter sound like a robot wrote it?” is not an interview question you want to have to answer. For a truly impressive AI-generated cover letter, edit any generic text to add specific details that’ll show your unique personality and accomplishments.
- Tailor it to the role: Make sure that your cover letter isn’t just personal to you — it should feel personal to the role as well. To write a cover letter that stands out to both human eyes and the applicant tracking systems (ATS) that many employers use to screen applications, ensure that your resume and cover letter both include keywords from the job listing.
- Study cover letters from successful candidates: If you’re not sure what your letter should look like, it can be hard to know if the AI cover letter generator you used has done a good job. Study cover letter examples in your field and consider what kinds of skills and experience the candidates choose to highlight. Your letter should be unique to you, but should also measure up to standards for your industry.
With these tips in mind, let’s look at the best options out there for building a cover letter that opens doors.
3 best AI cover letter generators to make your life easier
1. Resume Now
Of course, we truly believe that Resume Now is the best tool to help you build a cover letter that gets the attention of hiring departments. For starters, our AI Cover Letter Builder does more than just generate text: It styles the generated text in a professional and eye-catching template of your choice so you download a final document you can send immediately.
With Resume Now’s AI cover letter generator, you get the full package — unique cover letter content and professional formatting help that takes the guesswork out of building your document.
Features:
- Cover letter templates: Includes an impressive library of cover letter templates — with their own matching resume templates for a cohesive look — to suit a wide range of careers and personalities.
- Customizable, tailored text: You get fully customizable text describing your specific role and industry automatically formatted in your chosen template style.
- Easy generation options: You can choose to upload your resume to make a letter based on your experience or create one from scratch. An easy step-by-step process guides you through the cover letter generation process so that you have a professional cover letter quickly and without stress.
- Flexibility: Once your letter is complete, you can change the style and color of your template and download it in multiple file formats.
Pricing:
- 14-day full access trial: Includes full access to Resume Now’s Cover Letter Builder and templates for $1.85. You can create and download as many resumes and cover letters as you want during that time.
- Full access subscription: After 14 days, you’ll get billed $23.85 a month, but if you pay for a yearly subscription, this is reduced by 70% to just $5.85 per month.
Pros:
- Get unlimited cover letters and resumes: Access to Resume Now’s AI Cover Letter Builder also includes access to the AI resume generator as well.
- Helpful resources: Resume Now offers lots of additional resources for your job search, including cover letter examples to help inspire your creative process and how-to guides on cover letter formatting, not to mention plenty of resume-building resources and examples.
- Simple, guided process: Resume Now’s AI cover letter generator asks you questions and guides you through the generating process. This means that you don’t have to be great at coming up with AI cover letter prompts to make the most of this tool. By the time you’ve answered its questions, it has all the information it needs to build a cover letter that’s unique and specific to you.
Cons:
- Paid subscription: So, it’s a paid service. However, Resume Now offers several different subscription plans for users with different needs. For full access to Resume Now’s resume and cover letter tools, the best deal available is an upfront annual subscription. If this is too much of a commitment, you can always try a 14-day trial.
2. Grammarly
Grammarly offers an AI-powered cover letter generator that reads your resume and builds a cover letter that represents your skills. Grammarly is a trusted product that many users rely on for writing help, so it’s only natural that it would offer resume and cover letter help too.
Features:
- Writing help: Grammarly is best known for their plugin that helps correct the spelling, grammar and word choice of your documents. However, its robust cover letter builder uses AI to produce text as well.
- Uses your resume details: Grammarly scans your resume and prompts you to describe your targeted role. It then combines the responsibilities of the role and the information on your resume to generate an AI cover letter.
Pricing:
- Free account: Grammarly’s AI cover letter builder is currently completely free to use.
- Premium account: For $12/ month with a yearly subscription and $30/month with a monthly subscription, you can purchase complete access to Grammarly’s wider features.
Pros:
- It’s free: The basic features of Grammarly’s cover letter generator are free, allowing you to easily experiment with this tool and decide for yourself if this builder is for you.
- Scans your resume: The Grammarly AI cover letter generator scans your resume, allowing it to grab specific information from your skills and experience and incorporate it into your cover letter, reducing the need for you to write a prompt and edit the text to be specific to you.
Cons:
- Must have a resume: The Grammarly generator requires you to upload or input a resume, meaning that you are unable to proceed without one. If you haven’t written your resume yet, you’ll need to start there.
- Text only: The current beta version of this AI cover letter generator does not provide any design elements or templates. It simply generates text. If you need help formatting your AI-generated cover letter, you may need to look elsewhere.
3. LazyApply
LazyApply lets you build a cover letter just by inputting the basic details of your career and skills. It’s a simple tool that provides basic letters but is undeniably fast and easy to use.
Features:
- Tone selection: It has options to select a tone, which lets you instruct the AI to build a cover letter that sounds friendly, casual, professional or anything in between. This helps your letter feel personable and appropriate for the specific role you’re seeking.
- Quick process: LazyApply asks for very little input from the user, meaning that generating a cover letter takes only a few minutes of work.
Pricing:
- Free option: LazyApply gives you five free AI cover letters to work on per day.
- Membership tiers: After you exhaust your freebies, there are three membership tiers available, ranging from $99 to $249, all for lifetime access.
Pros:
- Fast and easy: LazyApply is fast and very easy to use. If you want a free AI-generated cover letter as fast as possible — and quality isn’t a major concern — LazyApply is a speedy answer to your prayers.
- Fully free trial: This AI cover letter generator is free for your first several attempts, allowing you to tweak your results until you’re happy with them.
Cons:
- Short and generic content: Because this generator doesn’t prompt you to include very much information, the cover letters that it generates are fairly short and generic. It doesn’t produce much detail and would need significant fine-tuning to work well.
- Costly payment: Because all three membership tiers are for lifetime access, once you’ve used up your free attempts, LazyApply requires a pretty significant payment.
Key Takeaways
Customize It’s not a good idea to rely on AI to generate a cover letter for you without being prepared to provide your own input. AI isn’t magic and should be supplemented with personal details.
Edit Remember that once your AI-assisted cover letter is complete, you can edit it extensively. The best AI cover letter is one that uses AI as a launchpad for ideas instead of accepting its output as the final product.
Style Some AI cover letter generators include a cover letter template, while others just provide text. If you’re sending your cover letter as an email, text is enough, but for a complete document, make sure to pick a cover letter template style that represents your personal brand.
Pick the right builder Choose an AI cover letter generator that fits your needs. From using builders that will format and style your cover letter for you to getting creative with GPT-generated text and styling it yourself, the possibilities are endless. Try out a few tools and see what feels best to you.
Target the role Make sure to include details from the specific role so that your cover letter doesn’t read like repetitive boilerplate. Include specific details from the job listing in your prompt for your AI-generated cover letter to target it to the job you’re after.
Was this information about Three Best AI Cover Letter Generators For 2024 helpful? Let us know!
Hailey Brophy is an experienced writer with a diverse career in digital publication. She is passionate about using her unique skills and experiences to help job seekers find the information that they need to succeed.
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