Understanding Artificial Intelligence (AI) in your job application – best practise and permitted use
Can I use AI in the British Council application process?
At the British Council, we believe in the power of innovation to unlock opportunity. As a global organisation committed to building connections, understanding, and trust, we’re optimistic about the potential of new technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Generative AI (GenAI) to support people, especially young talent, in shaping a better future.
We understand that tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and Perplexity can support candidates in various stages of the job application process, for example improving grammar, formatting, or helping to articulate skills and experiences.
But we also believe in authenticity. Your application should be a genuine reflection of your personal journey, skills, and aspirations. That’s why we strongly encourage all candidates to review and refine any AI-generated content, ensuring it truthfully represents who you are and what you bring.
Acceptable use of AI
- Ensure your application reflects your own English proficiency, as we're genuinely interested in seeing what you're capable of. We advise against using AI translation tools, since your actual language skills will become clear during the interview process.
- As a writing assistant to help structure and articulate your thoughts – proofreading to check spelling, grammar and conciseness.
- Asking AI for guidance on how to structure a CV e.g. to produce a structured view of your skills, but the content must be based on your actual experience.
- When using AI to refine your CV, be sure to anonymise personal details e.g. name, age, address before inputting them. This helps protect your personal data and maintain privacy.
- Researching the British Council – conducting research on our organisation, insights and industry trends and news available in the public domain. Research profession-related trends to relate to personal experiences.
- Interview preparation – understanding the structure of an interview and common questions.
- Practising responses to improve confidence and communication in an interview setting.
- We may ask during the interview whether you used any AI tools to help with your application. This helps us better understand your skills and how you approached the process.
Unacceptable use of AI
- Do not use AI to generate fictional skills or experiences. Your application should reflect your true abilities and background.
- Do not copy and paste AI-generated responses directly into your application.
- You should be able to recall and elaborate on everything from your CV / application. If you over-rely on AI, you might struggle to answer follow-up questions.
- To maintain fairness in our selection process, candidates are not allowed to use AI tools during assessments or interviews e.g. AI-generated scripts or real-time assistance.
If a candidate is found to have used AI in a way that violates this, the British Council reserves the right to disqualify them from the selection process.
Examples of how the British Council use AI in the recruitment process
Application Stage
- We use an AI enabled tool Eightfold for CV parsing to capture and map candidates’ skills to job requirements. Any decisions on a candidate application e.g. who is invited to interview or made an offer is taken by a qualified talent acquisition consultant or hiring manager.
Assessment Stage
- Currently we are piloting the use of an AI note-taker tool called Metaview. This tool helps us transcribe the interview and summarise the key points into structured notes, so our interview panellists can focus fully on the conversation.
- Candidates are informed in advance and can opt out in a single click at any time without it impacting their interview or selection process.
- We are not using and will not be using AI to make hiring decisions or to reject candidates automatically. Our practices on using AI will evolve as technological advancements progress and we will continue to update our statement accordingly.