New role, same ad structure: ChatGPT struggles to ring the changes

My next experiment with ChatGPT was suggested by Alasdair Murray, who specialises in recruitment communication. He's interested in whether the latest AI is really capable of conjuring up some persuasive and plausible job listings.

I think one of the difficult things here is that so much human-generated recruitment copy is pretty poor. Many organisations regurgitate dull job descriptions and bombard applicants with bullet points. Often, it's only when agencies and freelancers get involved that you have a sense of someone trying to sell an opportunity and bring out the benefits of a job.

My initial challenge to ChatGPT was to imagine copy for three generic roles: an HR Business Partner for a large logistics company; a Staff Nurse at an NHS Trust in Scotland; and a History teacher at a secondary school. I gave no additional information, but used the phrase 'advertise the role' in my instruction, signalling that the aim was present the job attractively.

Let's compare the openings to the three different ads:

Are you an experienced HR professional looking for your next challenge? Do you have a passion for supporting business growth and development? If so, we have the perfect opportunity for you!

Are you a compassionate and dedicated nurse looking to make a difference in the lives of patients? We have the perfect opportunity for you!

Are you a passionate and dedicated teacher of history, looking to inspire the next generation of learners? If so, we have the perfect opportunity for you!

Two things are immediately clear.

The first is that the AI understands that HR Business Partners, nurses and teachers do different things. The second is that it seems incapable of deviating from a very particular structure when it produces the copy.

If we read on, we see another repeated structure, which I would describe as plausible, yet entirely predictable.

We are seeking a dynamic and strategic HR Business Partner to join our team at XYZ Logistics. In this role, you will partner with senior leaders to identify and implement HR initiatives that drive business results and support the overall growth and success of the company.

XYZ NHS Trust is seeking a skilled and caring Staff Nurse to join our team. In this role, you will provide high quality nursing care to patients, ensuring that their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs are met. You will work collaboratively with other healthcare professionals to ensure that patients receive the best possible care.

XYZ School is seeking an enthusiastic and skilled teacher of history to join our team. In this role, you will be responsible for planning and delivering engaging and challenging lessons to students in Key Stages 3 and 4. You will also be responsible for assessing and tracking student progress, and providing feedback and support to help students achieve their full potential.

I feel as if I'm reading content that might well appear on a website. If I were to see each piece of copy in isolation, I would probably nod along to a degree. There's certainly nothing fundamentally wrong here. But anyone shopping around for work and reading multiple listings might quickly have a sense of Groundhog Day.

The final piece of copy - relating to the teaching role - is a little more interesting. insofar as ChatGPT is able to identify Key Stages 3 and 4 as the correct levels for a secondary school. Again, the AI is quite good at producing text which is role-specific, even though it has been given no specific input and is merely drawing on the material it amassed when it was first set up.

The listings go on to describe a number of responsibilities in bullet-point form, which read in a grammatically consistent way and are a very good match for the respective roles. The ads then boast two sentences of person specification, talking about some of the skills and experience expected for the job. They conclude with an identikit closing para.

If you are ready to take on a new challenge and drive HR initiatives that contribute to the success of a large and growing logistics company, we encourage you to apply for this exciting opportunity.

If you are a compassionate and skilled nurse looking to make a positive impact on the lives of patients at a respected NHS Trust, we encourage you to apply for this exciting opportunity.

If you are a dynamic and motivated teacher of history looking to make a difference in the lives of secondary school students, we encourage you to apply for this exciting opportunity.

All in all, the job ads do not embarrass ChatGPT or its creators. They do a good job at getting across the essence of the roles and make some attempt at selling them to prospective applicants. But if you relied on AI for variety of generic pieces of recruitment copy, it would be a case of déjà vu all over again.

A little further down the line, I'll experiment with some more specific input about individual roles - feeding job descriptions to Chat GPT and seeing how far this influences the structure and tone of the copy.?