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Table of contents

What Is AI and How Can It Be Used for a Cover Letter?
How to Use AI for a Cover Letter (With Sample Prompts)
Key Takeaways
Resources to Help With Your Job Search

Generative AI is an exciting development that can make tedious tasks easier, but can you really use it to write a cover letter? Let's discuss what it can and can't do so that you understand its limitations. Armed with a strong understanding of AI's strengths and weaknesses, you can put it to work to make your job search easier.

Our guide will cover:

A quick summary of what generative AI is good for and where it falls short.
A list of tips with sample prompts to help you use AI to make your cover letter shine.
Key takeaways to keep in mind as you get to work on your letter.

Want to make a cover letter without worrying about prompts or models? Our Cover Letter Builder does so much more than just generate text. It uses your career history to suggest content that tells your story, formats your letter, and even provides ready-to-use templates so your letter is application-ready in minutes.

What Is AI and How Can It Be Used for a Cover Letter?

It's easy to hear about AI and think it sounds too good to be true. That kind of skepticism is exactly what you need to make the best possible use of AI. Generative AI models are trained on human data and use the data they've been given to predict the best answer for the prompts you give them. Everything an AI does is an educated guess based on what you're asking it to do and the data it's seen in the past. AI models aren't magic, and they have limitations. But with a firm understanding of what they're good at, you can use AI to level up your cover letter or even speed up your writing process. Let's examine what AI is good at:

Generating ideas: Tired of writer's block? AI is a technology that's trained on enormous sets of data. A lot of that data is words! That means that coming up with the right way to phrase your thoughts is something AI excels at.
Providing feedback: Sometimes, you just need an extra set of eyes and ears. And while AI might not have those things, it's a surprisingly good active listener! Task ChatGPT with acting as an audience and critiquing your work; you'll receive all kinds of valuable feedback.
Getting organized: If outlining your essays in school was always the hardest part, generative AI can help you. Models like ChatGPT are fantastic at sorting text and organizing ideas. Ask your chosen AI model to draft a cover letter outline or feed it your stream of consciousness and let it help you make sense of your concepts.

There are so many things that AI can do, but it's important to know its limits. Here are some of AI's weaknesses:

AI can't create new ideas: This is a complicated one because AI can combine things it's heard before to create ideas that sound new. But ultimately, it's only using the data it's seen before to do this. That means that a lot of AI-generated material sounds generic and similar. You'll need to inject some of your own voice into the materials it generates if you want your letter to feel personable and unique.
AI can't read minds: ChatGPT might feel like a super genius when you ask it questions, but it still can't read your mind. If you ask it to do a simple task without adding specific requests or details, it will interpret this literally and provide a simple and generic response. Most importantly, it doesn't know anything about you. You should write a cover letter that tells your story. An AI can't do that without a lot of help from you.

Pro tip

AI is more useful when you use the right prompts. To receive focused outputs that improve your resume, try Resume Now's Custom GPT for resume writing. This tool includes prompts that are designed to help make your resume stronger.

How to Use AI for a Cover Letter (With Sample Prompts)

Now that you understand what AI is good for, let's talk about how people use AI for their cover letters.

First, there are models like ChatGPT or Gemini. These are generative AIs with simple interfaces that allow you to input prompts and receive responses. There are so many ways to use these models that many users get overwhelmed with the possibilities.

That's why some users look for targeted AI tools instead. AI cover letter builders, for example, are built on the same technologies as ChatGPT and Gemini but often feature cover letter formatting and premade templates. They may also prompt you to provide your information, so you don't need to create the perfect prompt. To use a targeted cover letter AI, research the AI products that interest you and decide which suits your needs best.

To use a basic AI model to write your cover letter, you'll need to use some clever prompts to ensure that the AI understands what you want. Here are some options to help you get started:

Option 1

Give the AI a description of your career and ask it to write you a cover letter: This is the simplest way to get a usable result. Just describe your career in specific terms and indicate the kind of role you're applying to. Make sure to be detailed. A prompt like "Write a cover letter for a teacher with three years of experience" is bound to yield a generic result. Try something like this:

Sample prompt:

"Write a cover letter for a 7th-grade algebra teacher with three years of experience. Mention my track record of improving students' standard assessment scores by 33% and my passion for fostering a nurturing learning environment."

Providing the AI with specific accomplishments and metrics from your career will ensure that the response touches on these key points.

Option 2

Give the AI the job description and ask it to give you cover letter pointers: A cover letter that's completely AI-generated will be unlikely to make a strong impression on employers. Instead, use AI to help inform your writing process. Provide the AI with your job description, and it will identify important keywords and skills that your letter should highlight.

Sample prompt:

"Use the following job description to create a list of skills and focus areas that a candidate's cover letter should emphasize."

Many employers use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to screen candidates based on whether their cover letters feature keywords representing the skills that the role requires. Fight bots with bots by letting ChatGPT identify those keywords for you.

Option 3

Let the AI critique your letter: AI can't replace your voice, so writing a letter yourself is a good starting point. Even if it isn't perfect, if you have a cover letter handy, you can make the most of AI's strengths to improve it without creating a letter that feels like AI. Provide the AI with your cover letter to help you hone your materials. You can even provide the job description at this phase to get a sense of how well you align with the role.

Sample prompt:

"Read the following cover letter and identify areas for improvement. Compare it with the job description below and point out opportunities for the candidate to improve their chances."

A prompt like this really highlights the best of AI's abilities. We don't always have an army of human helpers nearby ready to read our work and help us work through the kinks. AI is perfect for helping us see issues we might not have noticed before to create an improved final result that blows recruiters away.

Pro tip

AI is bound to make mistakes, and not every prompt works the way we want it to the first time. If the AI isn't returning the desired results, spend some time tweaking your prompts or breaking them into smaller tasks.

Option 4

Take it step by step: Instead of asking the AI to write you a cover letter or critique your finished letter, you can always work through each section of your cover letter with the help of your AI assistant. No matter the format of your cover letter, it will include basic parts like an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion. Provide the AI with your career details and work through your sections one by one, perfecting them as you go.

Sample prompt:

"Write an introductory paragraph for a retail manager with nine years of experience. Emphasize my leadership skills and mention my 14% improvement in store revenue through loss prevention initiatives."

Just like before, you can even provide the job description for this method too. A modern AI like ChatGPT should be able to remember information from a previous prompt — to a point — so you can input the job description once and ask for each section to align with it.

Pro tip

Don't let AI assistance pad the length of your cover letter. A cover letter should never be longer than two pages. Whether the length of your cover letter is a full page or half of a page, every sentence should be concise and purposeful.

Key Takeaways

Know the limits of AI.
ChatGPT can't make you a perfect cover letter on its own. If you approach an AI with sky-high expectations, you'll end up frustrated. Instead, treat it like the tool it is and combine it with your creative thinking skills to produce an excellent AI-assisted cover letter.
Try an AI cover letter builder.
If choosing the perfect prompt and tinkering with the response seems tedious or difficult, you might be better off trying an AI cover letter builder. These services use similar technologies to your classic generative AI, but they typically walk you through inputting your information and can even format your letter.
Get specific.
AI can only use its data set and the information you provide. Use specific details from your career or even the actual job description to give it context and generate a cover letter that's detailed and specific to your needs.
Take advantage of AI's listening skills.
AI is especially great at reading content and generating points. Use this power to your advantage by having the AI critique your letter and help you understand the strengths and weaknesses of your writing. This will also help you see if you're making the best use of the keywords the role seeks.