How to write a job advert that attracts the right people, with AI
A dull job advert attracts dull applications. Here is how to write one that draws the right people and still sounds like you.
You write the advert, you post it, and the wrong people apply.
A flood of mismatched CVs, and not a sign of the person you actually wanted. It is dispiriting, and it makes sense that it is.
Most adverts read the same. A bland list of duties, a wishlist of requirements, a closing line about being "a fast-paced team." Nothing in them speaks to a real person, so no real person leans in. Hiring is hard enough without starting from a forgettable advert.
AI can help you write something much better, and quickly, as long as you bring the things only you know. Who you really want. What the job is really like. What makes your business worth joining. I work alongside these tools every day, and the briefing is where the whole thing is won or lost.
Start with the person, not the duties
Before a word gets written, tell the AI who you are actually trying to reach. Not just the skills. The kind of person. Someone who likes ownership, who stays calm when it gets busy, who wants to learn.
An advert written to a real person reads completely differently from one written to a job spec. The right people feel the difference, even if they could not name it.
Be honest about the role
Tell it the truth about the job, the good and the realistic. Vague, over-polished adverts pull in people who are disappointed on day one.
Ask AI for something appealing but honest, so the people who apply want this job, not a fantasy version of it.
Feed it: who you want, what the role really involves, what is genuinely good about working with you, and what kind of person would not enjoy it. That last one quietly filters out the wrong applicants.
Sell what makes you different
A small business cannot always out-pay a big one. But it has things the big one does not: closeness to the work, real impact, flexibility, an actual say in things.
Tell AI what those are for you and have it weave them in. This is often the bit that wins the right candidate, and the bit generic adverts forget entirely.
Let it filter for you
A clever advert does some of the sifting before anyone applies. Ask AI to add a simple, specific instruction for applicants. A question to answer. A thing to mention.
The right people follow it. The spray-and-pray applicants do not. You have saved yourself a stack of CVs to wade through.
A language model writes by predicting plausible text from its training data, and job adverts are one of the most templated things on the internet. Left to its own devices it reaches for the average: the clichés, and the gendered, age-coded phrasing ("rockstar", "young and dynamic") that quietly narrows who applies. That tendency is bias in generation, and you manage it with the brief. A clear, structured prompt, your real values, your tone, the kind of person you want, and an explicit instruction to avoid coded language, steers it off the generic default. The same idea runs into screening. If you ever ask AI to help sift applications, the model can inherit bias from whatever it was trained on, so it belongs as an assistant that flags and organises, never the thing that decides who gets rejected. A person makes that call.
Keep your voice, drop the clichés
Tell it to bin the tired phrases. The "rockstar," the "fast-paced," the "wear many hats." Ask it to write the way your business actually talks.
The advert is often a candidate's first taste of you. Make it sound like a real place run by real people, because that is exactly who you want to attract.
Do the final pass yourself, add the genuine human line, and you have an advert that does real work. Pulling in the right people, quietly turning away the wrong ones, in a fraction of the time it usually takes to write.
If hiring well is something your business needs to get right, getting the whole process sharper, from advert to shortlist, is the kind of thing we can help set up.
Book a quick chat →Related: How to use AI without it sounding like a robot wrote it.
Common questions
Can AI write a job advert for me?
Yes, and a far better one than the usual template, if you brief it well. Tell it who you actually want, what the role is really like, and what makes your business worth joining, then let it draft and you sharpen.
How do I attract the right candidates with a job ad?
Write to the person, not the duties, be honest about the role, and sell what makes you different, impact, flexibility, closeness to the work. Add a simple instruction for applicants to follow, which filters out the spray-and-pray applications.
What should I avoid in a job advert?
The tired clichés, rockstar, fast-paced, wear many hats, and vague over-polish that attracts people who are disappointed on day one. Ask AI to drop them and write the way your business actually talks.