Department of Work and Pensions' answer to AI job fears is a bot to polish your CV

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Whitehall says Work Assistant will help jobseekers apply around the clock – provided employers don't mind machine-written applications

The UK government is about to unleash an AI-powered CV writer on jobseekers in the hope that the technology taking jobs can also help people to find them.

Prime minister Keir Starmer used London Tech Week to announce a three-month trial of an "AI Work Assistant" that officials say will put "a job centre in your pocket," offering around-the-clock help with CV writing, applications, job searches, and career advice.

The service is already live online, though the government would like users to keep a few things in mind before handing the keyboard to a large language model: check whether the employer allows AI-assisted applications, make sure the generated content is accurate, and perhaps most challenging of all, rewrite it so it still sounds like you.

The government, in effect, is encouraging job seekers to use AI while reminding them not to make it obvious.

The service appears to be the latest step in Whitehall's growing enthusiasm for AI-powered public services. Earlier this year, the government confirmed it was working with Anthropic on a chatbot for job seekers, and more recently it launched "GOV.UK Chat," a generative AI assistant bolted into the GOV.UK app that it is boldly pitching as the "most comprehensive government-built chat tool in the world."

Whitehall's latest experiment arrives as young workers face the toughest jobs market in years. Official figures show youth unemployment has climbed to 16.2 percent, the highest level in more than a decade, while business groups have repeatedly warned that rising employment costs are making firms more cautious about hiring.

"No one doubts the huge potential of tech to change lives," Starmer is expected to say. "But we have to decide who that change is for. This government's choice is clear: the tech revolution must work for everyone, not just a privileged few. We're backing British businesses to lead the way, driving growth and investment that turns into more jobs and stronger communities."

He added that ministers were using technology to "bring opportunity to every corner of the country" by helping people into work, boosting skills, and tackling inequality.

Alongside the AI assistant, ministers announced AI and technology training for up to 400,000 pupils in disadvantaged schools and a new AI bootcamp program for young people at risk of falling out of education, employment, or training.

The announcement comes as ministers are simultaneously grappling with growing concern about AI's impact on the labor market. A recent survey found that almost one in five Britons believe widespread AI-driven layoffs could trigger civil unrest, while more than half expect the technology to reduce the number of available jobs.

Those concerns are unlikely to disappear any time soon. The same technology companies building AI systems to automate workplace tasks are increasingly pitching those tools as replacements for at least some human work, particularly the administrative and entry-level roles that traditionally provide a route into employment.

Whether employers are eager to receive applications drafted by the same technology they are increasingly deploying to screen candidates remains to be seen. The labor market may yet become an arms race between applicants using AI and recruiters using AI to filter out applicants using AI. 

Somewhere in the middle, a human being is presumably still expected to get hired. ®