Using AI in Career Development Practice: Practical Ideas for Practitioners

AI is a hot topic around the world right now, and for many reasons. Some people fear it will transform the world of work, automating jobs and leaving people behind. Others are optimistic about its potential to create positive change, both generally and in how we approach careers.

As career guidance practitioners, you’re already exploring ways to use AI to enhance your conversations with clients. This post outlines some creative applications of AI in career practice that I hope will inspire you to experiment thoughtfully in your own work, not as a replacement for what you do, but as a tool to help you work more effectively and equitably.

Career Exploration and Insight

AI chatbots like ChatGPT and CoPilot can be fantastic resources for exploring sectors, job roles, and career progressions. With proper prompting and critical thinking, practitioners can build a chatbot’s understanding of specific roles and industries, helping clients ask the right questions to get useful responses. For example, if you want to find out more about jobs within the green sector, you could ask AI for an overview, suggest job roles to explore further, and explain the future outlook of the industry.

You can also use AI to understand specific job roles, their key responsibilities, required skills, and routes into the industry. Ask it about a specific job title and it can suggest similar roles with different titles, or teach you industry-specific terminology. I’ve done this myself and asked AI to create a “cheat sheet” of things to research, along with reading materials, organisations, and associations related to a particular field. I’ve then used this information for desktop research and to connect with relevant groups on LinkedIn and other platforms to stay updated with industry news. AI can also suggest job sites for specific industries and provide simplified labour market information, though it’s always worth checking it’s drawing from current sources. Keep your critical thinking hat on.

I recently spoke to school pupils about salary expectations, and some revealed they thought teachers start on around £60k after graduation. The reality? Starting salaries are closer to £28k-£33k depending on location (according to a rough Google search). This kind of gap, between perception and reality, happens all the time, and it shapes decisions in ways that can derail careers before they’ve even begun.

Research shows that 80% of UK employers report difficulty finding candidates with required skills (ManpowerGroup Talent Shortage Survey 2024), suggesting a fundamental disconnect between what people think jobs require and what employers actually need. AI can help you bridge these gaps in your sessions by surfacing accurate salary data and labour market trends, giving your clients a more realistic picture of what to expect.

Another tool I’ve found particularly useful is Napkin AI, which can transform text-based information into visual diagrams. When you’re mapping out career pathways, from entry-level to senior roles, having a visual representation makes the journey much clearer, especially for visual learners.

Application and Interview Support

As I mentioned, AI can help clients (and practitioners) learn industry-specific language, which can then inform how CVs and cover letters are tailored. You can ask whether you’ve struck the right tone in a cover letter, or how experiences listed on a CV could be adjusted to include relevant keywords. I’ve also used AI to review job descriptions, summarise company websites, and generate potential interview questions based on that information, all of which has guided my background reading when applying for roles.

AI can also help people draft outreach emails to potential mentors, LinkedIn connections, or training providers. Many young people, according to the most recent Youth Voice Census (2025), find it difficult to articulate their skills and experiences. Simply listing achievements in a chatbot and asking AI to suggest ways of conveying successes can be a useful starting point.

I’ve found it helpful to prompt AI with something like:

I worked in retail for two years, handled customer complaints, trained new staff,
and managed stock. How could I describe this experience for a role in project management?

The responses often highlight transferable skills that clients might not have recognised on their own, things like stakeholder management, team development, and resource planning.

Learning and Skill Development

One of the biggest barriers in career development is jargon. Whether it’s understanding employment contracts, qualification frameworks, or industry terminology, the language can be intimidating. AI is brilliant at breaking this down into plain English. You can paste in a dense job description or apprenticeship specification and ask it to explain what it actually means in simpler terms, making your sessions more accessible and your explanations clearer.

I’ve also used AI to help clients identify skills gaps. For instance, you could ask: “I want to move into digital marketing but I currently work in hospitality. What skills do I already have that are transferable, and what do I need to develop?” AI can map out the overlap and suggest specific learning resources, courses, or even YouTube channels to bridge the gap.

This is particularly valuable when you consider that almost 40% of UK workers have a field-of-study mismatch (IMF Report on UK Skills, 2024), they’re working in areas different from what they studied, which means transferable skills conversations are more important than ever.

For practitioners, AI can create bite-sized learning prompts tailored to individual goals. If a client is preparing for a specific career move, you can use AI to generate a personalised learning plan, week by week, that feels manageable rather than overwhelming.

Projections suggest that 20% of the UK workforce will be significantly underskilled for their jobs by 2030 (IMF Report on UK Skills, 2024), making ongoing skill development conversations a core part of your practice.

Inclusion and Accessibility

This is where AI can really make a difference in terms of equity. Around 15-20% of the UK population is neurodivergent (UK Parliament briefing, 2025), yet only 30.2% of disabled people with autism are in employment, compared to 82% of non-disabled people (UK Parliament briefing, 2024). Part of this gap comes from access barriers, information that isn’t presented in ways that work for different learning styles or neurotypes.

For your neurodivergent clients, AI can adapt materials into different formats, simplified language, step-by-step guides, or even sensory-friendly alternatives. I’ve spoken to practitioners who’ve used AI to create social stories for workplace scenarios, helping clients rehearse what to expect in unfamiliar situations.

AI can also support people in thinking through disclosure decisions. For example, if a client is weighing up whether to share information about a disability or care experience, you can use AI to role-play different approaches. You might ask:

How could I explain a two-year gap in employment due to caring responsibilities
in a way that feels comfortable and professional?

AI can generate multiple options, and the client can choose what resonates most with them.

Another useful application is localising advice. Career guidance can’t be one-size-fits-all, and AI can help tailor information to reflect the economic and cultural context of the person you’re supporting. If you’re working with someone in a rural area with limited public transport, for instance, AI can help identify remote or flexible working opportunities that might otherwise be overlooked.

Communication and Confidence

Confidence doesn’t appear overnight, and AI can provide a low-stakes space for clients to practise. I’ve used it to help people rehearse how they might talk about their strengths in an interview, or how to explain a career change in a way that feels authentic.

You can prompt AI with scenarios like:

I'm moving from teaching into corporate training. How can I talk about my classroom
experience in a way that appeals to L&D managers?

The AI generates options, and you can refine them together with your client until it sounds like them, not a script, but a starting point that builds confidence.

AI is also useful for tone-checking. If a client has drafted an email or LinkedIn message and isn’t sure if it strikes the right balance between professional and approachable, you can paste it into AI and ask for feedback. It’s like having a second pair of eyes that’s always available.

Why This Matters

AI isn’t just about working faster, it’s about working more equitably. When used thoughtfully, it can help you as a practitioner to empower people to explore their potential, reduce barriers to understanding and access, and deliver more personalised support even when time and resources are tight.

Your clients deserve guidance that’s tailored, responsive, and inclusive. AI won’t deliver that on its own, but it’s becoming a genuine tool for making that happen in your practice.

Getting Started

If you’re new to using AI in your practice, don’t overthink it. Pick one tool with a free tier, ChatGPT, CoPilot, or Claude are all good starting points, and just experiment. Test it in your own context first. Try prompts, see what works and what falls flat, and refine your approach. We have an extensive prompt library tailored for careers and employability here.

The key is to use AI for the groundwork, research, synthesis, generating ideas, then bring your expertise, judgement, and humanity to shape it into something meaningful. Stay curious, stay critical, and keep asking: is this actually helping the person in front of me?

The tools will evolve, but our purpose won’t: supporting people to find their way forward.