Write the facts yourself; let AI tidy only the wording. How to spot quiet exaggeration, meet word limits, hide personal data and check before sending.
AI can clearly help with a CV or cover letter: tightening rambling sentences, reordering points so they read more easily, and catching repetition. What it cannot know is what you actually did and learned. Ask for "a great cover letter" without giving it your experience and you get smooth text that could fit anyone. Recruiters see a lot of that, so it rarely stands out.
Before any polishing, write down your material. Rough wording is fine. A short list of when, where, in what role, what you did and what came of it lets the AI polish within those limits. If you include numbers for results, use only figures you can actually verify.
Asked to make text "better", AI often turns up the intensity. Taking part becomes leading; helping becomes driving; a rough number becomes a precise-looking one. Each word seems minor, but when an interviewer asks "how exactly did you lead that?", you are left with a sentence you cannot back up. Inaccurate statements on an application can also cause trouble after you are hired.
Narrow requests such as "only shorten the long sentences" or "only reorder the first paragraph" let you follow what changed, unlike "improve the whole thing". Put the edited version beside your original in a text comparison tool and look at each changed word. If a section has a word or character limit, count it yourself rather than trusting the AI to hit it; it does not count characters one by one, and a version it says fits will often be over or under.
When many applicants give the same tools similar requests, they get similar sentences. Phrases like "passionate about continuous growth" or "proactive problem-solver" tell a reader nothing for that reason. After polishing, keep at least one concrete scene only you could write: the situation, the choice you made and why. That scene should be the centre of the letter.
Polishing only needs the sentences. Strip out your name, ID numbers, address and phone number before pasting. Do not enter a former employer's internal revenue, client names or unannounced project names either. To describe results, look for wording that works without confidential figures, such as "exceeded the quarterly target".
If you ask the AI about the company for your motivation section, it may mix in outdated information or details from another firm. Check what the company does, its recent news and what it looks for in the job advert and the company's own materials. Misspelling the company's name, or leaving another company's name in from a previous application, can be enough to be rejected.
Finally, read it aloud one sentence at a time and check: