The AI-Generated CV: A Better First Impression, or a Distorted Picture of the Candidate?

Artificial intelligence is changing the way candidates present themselves. But as CVs become more polished, are recruiters getting a clearer picture of someone's abilities – or an increasingly artificial version of their professional history?

There is no denying that artificial intelligence has changed the recruitment landscape. Candidates can now produce a professionally structured CV, rewrite their career history, tailor their experience to a specific vacancy and generate compelling descriptions of their achievements in a matter of minutes.

 

For candidates, this can be a significant advantage. For recruiters and employers, however, it introduces a new challenge: understanding how much of what they are reading genuinely reflects the individual sitting behind the application.

The question is no longer simply whether a candidate has the right experience. It is whether the experience presented on their CV accurately represents what they have actually done.

The positives: AI can make a good candidate easier to identify

Used properly, AI is an extremely useful tool for job seekers.

Not everyone is naturally good at writing about themselves. Some highly experienced professionals struggle to communicate their achievements, while others have spent years in demanding operational positions without ever updating their CV.

AI can help by:

For international candidates, particularly those working in hospitality across different markets, language can also be a barrier. Someone with excellent operational experience may not necessarily have the written communication skills to present that experience effectively.

AI can help bridge that gap. There is nothing inherently wrong with using technology to communicate your professional experience more effectively. In fact, knowing how to use AI productively is becoming an increasingly valuable workplace skill. The problem starts when improving the presentation becomes improving the story itself.

 

The negatives: When professional presentation becomes professional exaggeration

This is where things become considerably more complicated.

AI tools are designed to generate persuasive, relevant and well-written content. Give them a job description and a candidate's existing CV, and they can produce a version that appears almost perfectly aligned with the employer's requirements.

But in doing so, the distinction between genuine experience and enhanced claims can become blurred.

Consider some common examples:

 

1. Inflated responsibilities

A candidate who supported a hotel opening might suddenly appear to have led the entire pre-opening operation.

Someone who assisted with budgeting may now describe themselves as having full P&L responsibility.

 

2. Exaggerated achievements

A candidate who contributed to improving departmental performance might claim to have delivered a substantial increase in profitability, without being able to demonstrate their individual contribution.

 

3. Enhanced job titles

A functional or supporting position can be rewritten to sound considerably more senior, creating a misleading impression of the candidate's actual level of authority.

 

4. Manufactured skills and experience

A candidate may include systems, operational expertise or specialist knowledge simply because these appear in the job specification, despite having limited practical experience.

 

5. The illusion of leadership

Perhaps most concerning in senior recruitment is the way AI can make participation sound like ownership.

 

There is a significant difference between being involved in a project, managing a project and having overall accountability for its success.

These distinctions matter enormously when recruiting senior executives. The research suggests this is becoming a genuine recruitment concern

This is not simply a theoretical discussion. An iHire 2025 recruitment survey found that 29.3% of job seekers had used AI to write or customise their CV or cover letter in the previous year. Among employers, 24.4% identified fake or fraudulent candidates as a concern, while 24.2% highlighted inauthentic applications and CVs. Research published by Jisc's Hedd service in July 2025 also found that 67% of large companies surveyed had seen an increase in job application fraud, with employers identifying AI as one of the contributing factors.

 

More recently, academic research presented at the 2026 Language Resources and Evaluation Conference examined 420 CVs categorised as authentic, AI-enhanced or fully AI-generated. Importantly, the research also highlighted the limitations of off-the-shelf AI detection tools.

The message is clear: AI-assisted applications are becoming commonplace, but verifying the information they contain remains a challenge.

Why this matters even more in luxury hospitality recruitment In senior hospitality recruitment, a CV is only the starting point.

When recruiting a General Manager, Director of Finance, Director of Engineering or Director of Food & Beverage, employers are not simply looking for someone who can describe their responsibilities convincingly. They need someone who has actually delivered results.

Can a General Manager demonstrate how they improved profitability, repositioned a property or managed a challenging refurbishment?

Can a Director of Finance explain how they controlled costs, improved financial reporting and influenced commercial decisions?

Can a Director of Engineering demonstrate responsibility for capital expenditure, asset management and operational compliance across multiple properties?

 

These are not theoretical competencies. They require practical experience, sound judgement and the ability to explain decisions and outcomes.

A beautifully written CV cannot substitute for those capabilities.

In fact, the more polished and impressive a candidate's CV becomes, the more important it is to explore the detail behind the claims.

The recruiter's challenge: Looking beyond the CV

For recruiters, this means adapting the way candidates are assessed.

Rather than relying too heavily on impressive career summaries and carefully worded achievements, interviews need to go deeper.

Some important questions include:

The ability to discuss professional experience naturally, confidently and with sufficient detail is often far more revealing than the wording of a CV.

This is also why professional references, employment history checks and qualification verification remain important.

Recruiters should be careful not to assume that a well-written CV is AI-generated, or that an AI-assisted CV is dishonest. Equally, they should not assume that impressive language automatically translates into impressive performance.

When AI starts creating the portfolio too.

 

The influence of AI is not limited to CVs. We are also seeing its use in the way chefs present their culinary experience and portfolios.

A portfolio of dishes has traditionally been a valuable way for chefs to demonstrate their creativity, technical ability, presentation and personal style. Photographs of dishes they have actually created provide an insight into their work and give prospective employers something tangible to discuss during an interview.

 

AI can certainly help chefs organise their portfolios, improve image quality and present their work more professionally.

However, there is another side to this.

We are increasingly seeing food images that appear suspiciously artificial, heavily enhanced or potentially AI-generated. Dishes can look almost too perfect, with elaborate presentation, unrealistic detail and styling that raises questions about whether the chef has actually prepared and presented the dish.

 

This creates a problem for employers. Are they looking at the chef's genuine culinary work, or an image created to demonstrate what AI can produce?

For an Executive Chef or Head Chef, creativity is important, but so are technical ability, consistency, execution and the capacity to deliver under real operational conditions. There is a considerable difference between presenting a photograph of a dish you have personally created and presenting an AI-generated image of something you might aspire to create. Technology should help chefs showcase their talent, not manufacture it.

Ultimately, employers want to see what a chef can actually produce, not simply what can be generated on a screen.

 

The candidate's responsibility: Be impressive, but be honest There is an important message here for candidates.

Use AI. Improve your CV. Make your achievements stand out. Present your experience professionally. But do not allow technology to create a version of your career that you cannot defend in an interview. An exaggerated achievement might secure an interview, but it can quickly undermine credibility when someone starts asking detailed questions. For senior professionals, reputation is everything. The hospitality industry, particularly at executive level, is built on relationships, professional networks and people who know one another. A misleading CV can do considerably more damage than simply losing one job opportunity.So, is AI making CVs better or making recruitment harder?

Potentially both.

 

AI gives candidates the opportunity to communicate their experience more effectively, and it gives recruiters another reason to look beyond the document in front of them.

But there is a fundamental difference between presenting your experience in the best possible light and presenting experience that you do not actually have.

 

A CV should open the door to a conversation, not create an expectation that the candidate cannot fulfil.

Ultimately, the most impressive CV is not necessarily the one with the strongest language, the most sophisticated formatting or the longest list of achievements. It is the one that accurately reflects the professional behind it.

And no amount of AI can replace genuine experience, sound judgement and a proven track record.