--- title: "Job descriptions with ChatGPT (and Claude or Copilot)" url: https://usingaias.com/ai-for/job-descriptions/ summary: "Give AI your own notes on the role and get a structured job description and person specification. Split essential from desirable, check the wording for bias, and set pay yourself." published: 2026-10-01 updated: 2026-10-01 author: "Jack Stovell" publisher: "Adapt Progress Evolve Limited" language: en-GB --- # Job descriptions with ChatGPT (and Claude or Copilot) Give AI your own notes on the role and get a structured job description and person specification. Split essential from desirable, check the wording for bias, and set pay yourself. ## At a glance - Difficulty: Beginner (Suits anyone who writes job adverts; no HR system needed.) - Time: About 45 minutes to an hour for one role (our estimate, not a measured figure) - Tools: ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot - You need: Your own notes on the role: purpose, main duties, reporting line, skills needed; Your organisation's job description template, or the Acas one; The pay, grade and location, decided by whoever owns them - Role hub: [AI for HR](https://usingaias.com/ai-for/hr/) ## What you'll end up with A job description and person specification you can advertise, with the essential and desirable criteria split, the wording checked for anything that could exclude people, and the pay and location filled in by a person. The AI does the first draft; you do the deciding. ## Before you start You need your own notes on the role. Four things: what the job is for, the main duties, who the person reports to, and the skills you actually need (not the ones you'd like in a perfect world). Have your organisation's job description template to hand too. If you haven't got one, Acas publishes a free template, plus a version with two worked examples (an administrative assistant and a warehouse assistant). Its outline covers the main headings, the role's main duties and who the employee reports to. That's a good shape to aim for. ## Steps ### 1. Write your notes on the role Don't polish anything yet. Write what the role is for in a sentence or two, list the duties in whatever order they come to you, and note the reporting line. Then the skills, split roughly into "can't do the job without it" and "would be nice". Rough is fine. You're feeding material to a tool, not submitting a finished document. ```text Role name: [role name] Main purpose: [one or two sentences on what the role is for] Reports to: [job title of line manager] Main duties: - [duty 1] - [duty 2] - [duty 3] Skills and experience needed: - [must-have skill or experience] - [must-have skill or experience] - [nice-to-have skill or experience] ``` **Checkpoint:** one page of rough notes you could explain to a colleague in two minutes. ### 2. Get a structured draft Paste your notes into ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot and ask for the structure. Tell it, in so many words, not to invent the pay or the location. ```text Using my notes below, write a job description and person specification for [role name]. The job description should have these headings: - Job title - Main purpose (one or two sentences) - Main duties (as a list) - Reporting line - Working arrangements: leave this as a placeholder for me to fill in The person specification should list skills, experience and qualifications, each labelled essential or desirable. Do not invent a salary, grade or location. Leave those as [to be completed]. Here are my notes: [paste your notes from step 1] ``` **Checkpoint:** a draft with clear headings, the duties as a list, a reporting line, and a person specification where every item is labelled. Check each duty against your notes; anything you didn't give it comes out. ### 3. Split essential from desirable AI drafts tend to stuff the essential column. A tool doesn't have to explain to anyone why a good candidate got ruled out. So go through every criterion and ask one question: could someone do the job without this? If yes, it moves to desirable. If the honest answer is "they'd manage, but it'd be easier", that's still desirable. ```text Here is my person specification. For every criterion, answer one question: could someone do the job without this? Give a one-line yes or no with a short reason. If the answer is yes, suggest moving it to desirable. Essential criteria: - [criterion 1] - [criterion 2] - [criterion 3] Desirable criteria: - [criterion 1] - [criterion 2] Do not add new criteria. I will decide what moves. ``` **Checkpoint:** a short essential list where every item is something the person can't do the job without. Everything else sits under desirable. ### 4. Run an inclusive-language check This is where the law comes in. Acas says that when advertising a job you must not ask for or exclude anyone with a certain protected characteristic. The Equality Act 2010 lists nine: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. The government's Responsible AI in Recruitment guide names discriminatory job advertising as one of the risks of AI in hiring, so a draft that sounds sure of itself still gets checked. Acas gives examples worth knowing: - "recent graduate" or "highly experienced" can discriminate by age, and you must be able to prove a good reason for any job requirement - "barmaid" or "handyman" imply you want a man or a woman, so use language that defines the job, not the applicant - a nationality instead of a language: "German-speaking sales rep", not "German sales rep" - clothing rules, such as a hairnet, that could clash with someone covering their head for religious reasons Ask the AI to find these, but only to flag them. If you let it rewrite the whole document, you lose track of what changed. ```text Check this job description and person specification for any word or requirement that could exclude people by age, sex, race, disability or religion. For each one, give me: 1. The exact phrase, quoted 2. Why it could exclude people 3. A neutral alternative Do not rewrite the rest of the document. Only list the problem phrases. [paste your draft job description and person specification] ``` Then you decide. A requirement can stay only if you can show a good reason for it. **Checkpoint:** a list of quoted phrases with suggested alternatives, each one accepted or rejected by you. ### 5. Fill in pay, location and the practical details yourself This part is yours. Pay and grade are a human decision, based on your budget and your pay structure. A figure the AI offers is a guess. Then the practical details. Acas says to tell applicants what you'll need from them, such as proof of the right to work in the UK, references and any health check before they start, and you must tell applicants how you'll use their personal information. It also suggests giving applicants the job description, an application form, the person specification, information about the organisation and an equality and diversity monitoring form. Check the application route too. Acas's example: requiring a handwritten form when handwriting isn't crucial to the job could disadvantage someone with dyslexia or arthritis. AI can word the "what we'll ask from you" section, but you type the facts. ```text Add a section headed "What we'll ask from you" to the job description, in plain English. Use only the details below and add nothing else. - Proof of the right to work in the UK - References: [number and type of references] - [Any health check before starting, or delete this line] - How we will use your personal information: [one line, pointing to your privacy notice] Pay: [pay, confirmed by a person] Location: [location and any flexible working] Hours: [hours] ``` **Checkpoint:** pay, location and hours are in, typed or confirmed by a person, and applicants can see what you'll ask of them and how their information will be used. ### 6. Final read and sign-off Read the whole thing aloud. Does it sound like your organisation? Does the main purpose match the job you actually need doing? Is each essential criterion still something you'd defend if a candidate asked why it was there? Make the last edits by hand, then get it signed off by whoever approves vacancies before it goes anywhere near an advert. **Checkpoint:** one approved document, with a named person who signed it off. ## Common mistakes - **Nice-to-haves in the essential column.** It looks harmless, but it quietly shrinks your pool of applicants. - **Vague criteria.** "Excellent communication skills" is hard to assess and hard to interview against. Say what the person will actually do, such as writing clear reports for the team. - **Skipping the language check because the draft looks fine.** Discriminatory wording usually does look fine. That's the problem. - **Letting the AI fill in pay or location.** If a figure appears that you didn't give it, delete it. - **Accepting every suggested change unread.** The tool flags; you decide. ## When to keep AI out of it Don't use it to decide the grade or the pay. And don't put anything about a named current employee into a prompt: their skills, their performance, whether they'd suit the new version of the role. If you're redesigning a job someone already does, write the notes about the role, not the person. The same goes for judging candidates later. The tool drafts words and structure. People decide who gets the job. ## Review checklist - [ ] Every duty listed is one the role actually does - [ ] The reporting line is correct - [ ] Each essential criterion is something the person cannot do the job without - [ ] No phrase asks for or excludes anyone by a protected characteristic - [ ] Any requirement that could disadvantage a group has a reason you can prove - [ ] Language is required, not nationality - [ ] Pay, grade, location and hours were entered or confirmed by a person - [ ] Applicants are told what you will need from them (right to work, references, any health check) - [ ] Applicants are told how their personal information will be used - [ ] The application route does not disadvantage disabled applicants - [ ] Signed off by the person who approves vacancies ## Before you paste anything: confidentiality and UK GDPR Before you paste anything, ask two questions: is there personal data in it, and is it confidential to my organisation or a client? If the answer to either is yes, use a tool your organisation has approved, under a business contract, and send only what the task needs. **For this task:** Describe the role, not a person. Never paste a current employee's name, performance or circumstances, even when the job is being redesigned around them. Never paste these into a personal (consumer) AI account: - Payroll reports, salaries by name, bank details or National Insurance numbers - Named employee records: health, absence, grievance or disciplinary details - Customer or supplier ledgers with names attached - Unpublished results, forecasts or board papers - Anything a client has given you - Passwords, API keys or bank logins (in any tool, ever) UK GDPR, in four lines: - **Send the minimum.** UK GDPR's data minimisation principle says personal data must be adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for the purpose. For most tasks on this site, the personal data the AI needs is none. ([ICO: The data minimisation principle](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/data-protection-principles/a-guide-to-the-data-protection-principles/data-minimisation/)) - **Know who is controller and who is processor.** Under a business contract, the AI provider usually acts as your processor. On a personal consumer account, you are agreeing to the provider's own consumer terms instead. ([ICO: Controllers and processors](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/controllers-and-processors/)) - **Check where the data goes.** Many AI services process data outside the UK. Restricted transfers need safeguards, which a business agreement usually addresses and a personal sign-up does not. ([ICO: International transfers](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/international-transfers/)) - **The ICO has AI-specific guidance.** It covers accountability, transparency, accuracy and security when organisations use AI with personal data. ([ICO: Guidance on AI and data protection](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/artificial-intelligence/guidance-on-ai-and-data-protection/)) Consumer plans vs business tiers (checked 2026-10-01; providers change their terms, so read the live page and your contract): - **OpenAI (ChatGPT).** Personal plans: conversations can be used to train models unless you turn off "Improve the model for everyone" in Settings > Data controls. ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, Edu and the API: not used to improve models by default. ([OpenAI Help Centre: How your data is used to improve model performance](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/5722486-how-your-data-is-used-to-improve-model-performance); [OpenAI: Enterprise privacy at OpenAI](https://openai.com/enterprise-privacy/)) - **Anthropic (Claude).** Free, Pro and Max: chats are used to train models only when the model-improvement setting is on. With it on, data is kept for up to five years; with it off, the standard is 30 days. Claude for Work and the API: inputs and outputs are not used to train models by default. ([Anthropic: Updates to Consumer Terms and Privacy Policy](https://www.anthropic.com/news/updates-to-our-consumer-terms); [Anthropic Privacy Center: Is my data used for model training? (consumer)](https://privacy.claude.com/en/articles/10023580-is-my-data-used-for-model-training); [Anthropic Privacy Center: Is my data used for model training? (commercial)](https://privacy.claude.com/en/articles/7996868-is-my-data-used-for-model-training)) - **Microsoft (Copilot).** Personal Microsoft accounts are covered by Microsoft's consumer terms, not your organisation's. Copilot and Copilot Chat used through an organisation: covered by Microsoft's Data Protection Addendum with Microsoft as processor; your data is not used to train foundation models. ([Microsoft Learn: Enterprise data protection in Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Chat](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/enterprise-data-protection); [Microsoft Learn: Data, privacy and security for Microsoft Copilot](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/microsoft-365-copilot-privacy)) > General information for UK readers. Not financial, legal, tax or HR advice. Example companies and figures are fictional unless a source says otherwise. Follow your organisation's policies and your professional body's rules. ## From the same studio Ours: made by the same studio that runs this site. - [Can You Use AI](https://canyouuseai.com/questions/apply-for-jobs/): If your advert needs a line on how candidates may use AI, this shows how UK public employers word that guidance. ## Related - [AI for HR](https://usingaias.com/ai-for/hr/) - [HR policies with ChatGPT: draft, check against UK law, approve](https://usingaias.com/ai-for/hr-policies/) - [AI for performance reviews: write-ups, not judgements](https://usingaias.com/ai-for/performance-reviews/) - [AI for office managers and admin](https://usingaias.com/ai-for/office-managers/) ## Sources - [Acas: Job description templates](https://www.acas.org.uk/job-description-templates) - [Acas: Advertising a job](https://www.acas.org.uk/recruitment/how-to-advertise-a-job) - [Acas: Following discrimination law in recruitment](https://www.acas.org.uk/recruitment/follow-discrimination-law) - [Equality Act 2010, section 4: the protected characteristics (legislation.gov.uk)](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/4) - [DSIT: Responsible AI in Recruitment guide (25 March 2024)](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/responsible-ai-in-recruitment-guide/responsible-ai-in-recruitment) ## Questions people ask ### Can ChatGPT write a job description? It can write a good first draft from your own notes on the role. You still check every duty, split essential from desirable criteria, check the wording for bias and add pay and location yourself. ### What should a job description include? Acas's outline covers the main headings, the role's main duties and who the employee reports to. When advertising, Acas suggests also giving applicants the person specification, an application form, information about the organisation and an equality and diversity monitoring form. ### What words in a job advert could be discriminatory? Acas gives examples: 'recent graduate' or 'highly experienced' (age), 'barmaid' or 'handyman' (sex), a nationality instead of a language, and clothing rules that clash with religious dress. ### Should AI set the salary in a job description? No. Pay and grade are decisions for a person, based on your budget and pay structure. If a figure appears in the draft that you did not give it, delete it. ### How do I stop AI over-filling the essential criteria? Ask of every criterion: could someone do the job without this? If yes, it is desirable.