Which tool to choose
The tool is the conversational assistant: you give it the role, the real duties and what you offer, and it builds the ad. The valuable part is making it honest and attractive at once: clear about what the job will involve, realistic about the requirements, welcoming in tone. For recurring job descriptions, keep a template. The judgment you can't delegate is which skills are really needed versus those that are "nice to have": AI doesn't know your context and, if you let it, lengthens the list of requirements until it discourages exactly the people you'd want.
How to do it
- Give the AI the role, the concrete responsibilities, the real requirements and what you offer (terms, growth, environment).
- Ask for a clear and welcoming ad, with inclusive language.
- Cut the requirements to what's necessary: distinguish what's really needed from what's merely desirable.
- Reread it through the candidate's eyes: is it clear what they'll do? would they feel invited to apply?
A concrete example
Sara had to hire someone for her small team and had jotted down a list of ten requirements, partly copied from other ads. She asked the AI to help her write the ad, and in talking it through she realized half of those requirements weren't really needed: they were "it would be nice," not necessary. She cut them, keeping the three things that really mattered. The assistant wrote her a clear ad, honest about the role and welcoming in tone. The applications that came in were fewer but far more relevant: she'd stopped scaring off the right people with a list of demands she didn't need.
When it does NOT work (and how to fix it)
If the requirements list is too long
It's the most common mistake, and AI tends to go along with it. Every extra requirement discourages solid candidates who think they're not up to it. Cut to the essential: what's really needed to do the job, not the wish list. Often three or four real requirements are worth more than ten.
If the language excludes without meaning to
Certain phrasings discourage entire groups of people from applying, even unintentionally. Ask the AI for inclusive language and reread carefully thinking of who might feel shut out. An ad should widen the pool of good candidates, not narrow it by accident.
If it's vague about what the job actually involves
A generic ad attracts generic applications. Be concrete about the real responsibilities and the typical day: whoever reads it must be able to tell whether that job is for them. Give the AI the real details of the role, not abstract descriptions.
A tip from someone who really uses it
Cut the requirements, don't add them, and this is where your judgment is needed against the AI's tendency. The trap of job ads is the wish list: you end up asking for every imaginable skill, and the result is that the best and most honest candidates — the ones who read the requirements and self-assess — give up because they don't tick every box, while the most brazen remain. An effective ad asks for few things, the ones that are really needed, and leaves room for whoever can learn the rest. Use AI to write clearly and welcomingly, but make the brave decision yourself to shorten the list: you'll attract fewer applications, but far more relevant ones, and you won't have driven off the perfect person just because they lacked a requirement that, in the end, wasn't even necessary.
Frequently asked questions
How many requirements should I put?
Few and real: only what's truly needed to do the job. Long lists discourage solid candidates. Always distinguish the "necessary" from the "nice to have," and keep mainly the former in the ad.
How do I make the ad inclusive?
By asking the AI for language that doesn't exclude and rereading carefully thinking of who might feel shut out. The goal is to invite all capable people to apply, not to narrow the field unintentionally.
Can AI write the whole ad?
It can write the form and the structure, but the real requirements and what you're really looking for are yours to decide. If you let it work on its own, it tends to inflate the skills list: the judgment about what's essential stays human.
If the ad is well written, will I attract the right candidates?
Good writing isn't enough: a well-written ad with inflated requirements or vague about the role attracts the wrong people or scares off the right ones. What makes the difference is the substance — realistic requirements, clarity about what the job involves, a tone that invites — and that depends on your choices, not on the form. AI helps you write clearly, but if you ask for skills that aren't needed you'll still gather off-target applications. Relying on the quality of the text alone, without cutting the requirements to the essential, is the most common way to publish elegant ads that attract the wrong candidates.