AI CV Maker: How to Create a Better CV With AI

AI can be very helpful in CV writing, especially for organising and phrasing content, but the facts always come from the candidate, and they shouldn't completely rely on an AI CV writer. An AI-generated CV that hasn't been reviewed and edited by a human tends to read as generic, which signals low effort. Using AI can significantly speed up the process and make it easier, producing faster drafts and helping with phrasing and tailoring, and this guide will explain how to use it properly. Finally, CV writing with AI can take different forms: candidates can use general AI tools or specialised AI CV makers to write their CVs, and we'll show how it works in practice.

What an AI CV Maker Can and Cannot Do

To help you use AI for CV writing, the table below covers all the tasks where AI is really helpful, along with recommendations on what to watch for and what to keep, modify, or remove from its output.

An AI CV maker can help at each step of CV writing, but checking the accuracy is always the candidate's job.

How to Build a CV With AI in Six Steps

As mentioned above, you can use AI for CV writing in different ways, depending on whether it's a general tool or a specialised AI CV writing service. The guide below will show you how to use an AI CV maker most effectively.

Step 1: Gather All Your Notes and Facts

Before opening an AI CV maker, gather all the achievements and responsibilities from your past jobs that you can think of in one place. The quality of the AI output always depends on the input you feed it. Also, your notes can help you keep track of your experience and the tool's inventions.

Step 2: Upload Your Initial Draft

Most AI CV makers will first analyse and parse your existing document to create the initial version of your AI-generated CV. Some CV makers, like Toptal's AI CV maker, offer an additional path: you can start from scratch and go section by section, and it gives you content suggestions based on the role title. In that case, use your notes to be sure which suggestions best match your experience.

Step 3: Use AI to Improve the Content Section by Section

CV makers typically have a workflow that goes through the CV section by section: contact details, professional summary, work experience, skills, and so on. AI CV writers, like the one offered by Toptal CV, provide two kinds of content editing: rewriting existing content and suggesting additional content tailored to your role.

If you're editing your CV with the help of a general AI tool, such as ChatGPT, instead of an AI CV maker, use prompts that will ensure the AI doesn't fabricate things and produce output based only on your facts. Here are some examples you can use:

• "Rewrite these notes as bullet points for my work experience section. Use only the facts provided, and don't add metrics, tools, or results that aren't in my notes: [paste your notes]."
• "Write a 2-3 sentence professional summary for a [target role] using only the information pasted below, and avoid words like 'passionate' or 'results-driven': [paste your notes]."
• "Compare my CV with this job description. List which of my existing skills match the role. Don't suggest skills I haven't listed."

Step 4: Review Every AI Suggestion

The goal of AI CV writing is to spare you the time to think and write yourself, but you should always read all the suggestions and rewrites carefully to ensure everything aligns with your background. Edit any specific achievement number that isn't accurate and include only the skills that you could defend in an interview.

Step 5: Choose a Template and Do a Final Check

Once your CV content is finalised, select a template that suits you best, download the PDF, and check that every part of the final draft serves to show you're a strong fit for the job you're applying for. AI CV makers typically include a gallery of CV templates you can choose from. As a final step, you can also use an ATS CV checker to compare your CV with the target job. Tools like Toptal CV's ATS CV checker provide a thorough analysis of different aspects: keywords, achievements, formatting, language, job fit, and so on.

Step 6: Tailor Your CV for Every Job Application

AI tools are very helpful in comparing your CV with a job description and offering suggestions to tailor it for a specific application. This step requires extra attention to avoid misleading inventions. Toptal CV's AI CV maker includes an additional "Tailor to a Job" feature that lets you paste a job description and receive tailoring suggestions for each section. You're in control of which changes will be applied and which ones skipped.

AI CV Before and After: A Complete Example

Scenario: A candidate is using AI to write their new CV. They are a client coordinator at a professional services company and are applying for an operations coordinator role. The responsibilities listed in the job description for the target role are: managing client accounts, tracking support tickets, and coordinating with the sales team on CRM records.

The table below shows how their original content looks (their input taken from either their notes/prompts or the original uploaded CV), what a weak AI output looks like, and the stronger, human-edited version as the final result.

What AI often does, which is demonstrated in this example:

• Exaggerates the scope of their work ("12 client accounts" becomes "high-value clients")
• Invents results ("increased sales efficiency by 30%" comes from a note that mentions no metric), which can sometimes inspire true outcome-based bullets, but often is a hallucination
• Implies seniority that isn't backed by any evidence (here, "prepared weekly deadline and issue updates" became "led strategic initiatives")

Why the human review was important in this case:

• It removed fake or exaggerated numbers and presented the real scope of their work, which isn't misleading
• Uses a stronger verb where it's justified ("collaborated" instead of "worked with"), but doesn't invent outcomes
• Although it's an AI-generated CV, it reads as something the candidate can defend in an interview

Make AI-generated CV Content Sound Like You

This chapter will teach you how to recognise the most common AI patterns and how to turn them into real, substantial content.

Pattern 1: Superlatives without support ("AI fluff")

One of the most recognisable AI patterns is adding many adjectives that don't tell the reader anything, such as "passionate", "dynamic", or "visionary". You should replace such words with specific claims.

Before: "Results-driven professional with a passion for..."
After: "Client coordinator with 8 years of experience managing..."

Pattern 2: Unspecific ownership language

If your original input says "contributed to" or "assisted with", AI will very likely transform it into "led" and "owned". If such claims don't actually fit your experience, remove them.

Before: "Led cross-functional initiatives to improve client satisfaction"
After: "Coordinated weekly status updates across account management and delivery teams for 12 client accounts"

Pattern 3: Invented metrics

Perhaps the most dangerous AI pattern is assuming what constitutes a good result and inventing very specific, quantified results of "your work". If such percentages or numbers inspire you to find and include your own, do that. Otherwise, use a real outcome.

Before: "Reduced resolution time by 40% through process optimisation"
After: "Updated case status daily in Excel and escalated unresolved tickets to senior support"

How to Review an AI CV for ATS and Accuracy

Whichever AI CV maker you might have used, always check the final result for accuracy and compliance with applicant tracking systems (ATS). CV makers, as shown above, can make factual mistakes, and the ATS-compliance of the output has to be verified. Toptal’s AI CV maker uses CV templates developed by hiring professionals and tested with major ATS systems to ensure the content is parsed and organised correctly during the screening process.

Accuracy checks:

• Every number is real: All quantified claims in your CV must be true and verifiable.
• All the skills are yours: Include only the skills you could defend in a conversation with the hiring manager.
• Your job titles are exact: AI sometimes likes to "improve" them.
• Employment dates are correct: When organising content, AI can make mistakes.

ATS checks:

• Copy-paste check: If the content you copy from your CV and paste into a plain text document remains logical and readable, you're good.
• Standard section headings: All the sections use standard titles, such as "Professional Summary", "Work Experience", "Skills", and "Education".
• Use an ATS score checker: Run your CV through Toptal CV's ATS CV checker for a detailed assessment of its recruiter- and ATS-friendliness.

AI CV Maker vs ChatGPT

Both can be used when writing a CV using AI, but the process differs. Below is a breakdown of the tasks best performed by an AI CV writer and ChatGPT, along with when to use each.

The advantages of a dedicated AI CV maker:

• It's a guided process with built-in structure, and you don't have to start from a blank prompt.
• It comes with a collection of ATS-friendly CV templates.
• Tailoring features are incorporated into the same CV-writing flow.
• The CV is exported directly into a PDF file.

When using ChatGPT is useful:

• Rephrasing a specific bullet you're not happy with.
• Reviewing a draft you've already written for grammar and language.
• Mapping out the fit of your CV for a specific job advert.

The practical combination would be to use an AI CV maker for a faster, guided CV-writing process, and ChatGPT for specific tasks that offer more options. In each case, you should check the final result for accuracy.

Conclusion

AI CV makers are truly useful in helping you draft, format, and tailor your CV faster, especially if you don't have much experience with it. Although AI can never completely replace human judgement, the workflow described in this guide (gather facts, draft section by section, edit and tailor for each application, and review the output and final file) produces a well-written, accurate CV. If you're ready to start working on your CV, Toptal CV's AI CV maker will guide you through every step, with a structured process and tailored content suggestions.