Employability skills and AI

AI is playing an increasingly significant role in many aspects of careers and employability. This guidance from our Careers and Enterprise team highlights some of the issues and approaches you can take:

• New careers are developing, focused on AI use, such as AI Engineer, Prompt Operations Specialist and AI Content Trainer.
• Employers understand that AI is here to stay, and many want new employees to be confident and competent using AI effectively, to streamline productivity and to be able to utilise it alongside a set of more traditional skills including critical thinking, problem-solving, communications and teamwork.
• Employers are having to rethink recruitment strategies; to take account of the increased number of applications they receive as a consequence of applicants using AI.
• Recruitment portals are offering candidates opportunities to use AI to make quick applications, speeding-up the application process.
• A range of tools utilising AI are available to candidates to check applications you have created, including Studiosity and CareerSet (requires UWE login).
• Candidates are using AI to respond to different stages of the recruitment which they are supposed to be responding to, including creating CVs and cover letters, completing psychometric tests and even answering interview questions in real time.

Some of these may be perceived positively, some less so. Some aspects are within your control to develop – for example, you could use the UWE LinkedIn Learning resource to understand how you can enhance your AI skill set to make yourself appealing to employers. However, some, such as the volume of applications employers are now receiving, are outside of your control.

An interesting snapshot of the current situation (October 2025) from the Institute of Student Employers’ Student Recruitment Survey 2025 [PDF] identifies:

AI adoption is likely to increase, particularly as students make greater use of technology in the application process. There is some evidence of an arms race underway: only 15% of employers said they never suspected or identified candidates cheating in assessments; and 79% of employers are now either redesigning or reviewing their recruitment processes because of AI developments… 70% anticipate increasing their use of automation in selection over the next five years. This indicates that AI is set to play a growing role in early careers recruitment.

However, the same report also mentioned that 67% worried about the potential for bias in AI decision-making.

To understand how employers are adapting their recruitment practices to accommodate and adapt to the challenges of AI, refer to information including the Graduates First guide to recruitment practices used by larger UK employers, as well as these articles from the Institute of Student Employers, asking how exposed are graduate jobs to AI and can employers respond? and the Prospects Luminate article, asking how will AI affect the early careers recruitment process?

We would also encourage you not to be tempted to rely too heavily on AI-powered tools such as LinkedIn’s “easy apply” tool when submitting an application. Although you might think it will speed-up your application and remove some of the pain, remember that AI does not know you and if you do reply on it, you may find that the employer does not see sufficient evidence of how you meet their requirements.

Within our own Career Toolkit, UWE’s Careers & Enterprise team has produced a short guide (requires UWE login) to help you recognise when AI can add value and save time during the application process, and when it’s best to stick to traditional methods.

AI is here to stay, although the ways in which it is being used continue to develop and are subject to many different influencing factors. When using it for your career, we encourage you to be ethical, forward-thinking and to adopt a responsible approach.