AI Cover Letter Checker - How HR Teams are Filtering Noise

Running a AI grammar check on a cover letter shouldn't necessarily disqualify a candidate. But HR teams are now overwhelmed with hundreds of AI-generated cover letters, which they have to wade through to find high-quality candidates they actually want to send to hiring manager.

The job market is absolutely flooded with AI spam. Most AI detection tools that recruiters can use are not customize to their use case.

Candidates are using “Auto-Apply” bots and LLMs to send hundreds of applications every single day. And, because of this, hiring managers are buried under generic and perfectly average cover letters that tell them nothing about the candidate’s actual personality or communication skills.

Even though this is a complicated problem, the solution can be relatively simple: using an AI cover letter checker, combined with behavioral analysis, to filter out low-effort cover letter spam from the authentic talent.

Why Hiring Managers Need an AI Cover Letter Checker

Hiring managers need tools to maintain pipeline quality. AI cover letter checkers help recruiters distinguish between genuine candidates, and those using bots to send out a large volume of applications.

AI generates structured, formal text that sounds professional, but lacks a unique voice. This makes it hard to rank candidates manually.

Tools like Pangram, which can be used as an AI cover letter checker, serve as a first-pass review layer. You can use Pangram to identify applications that require deeper scrutiny regarding their provenance.

3 Linguistic Signs a Cover Letter is AI-Generated

If you want to detect AI in cover letters, there are three linguistic signs of an AI generated cover letter to look for: a lack of sentence variety, an overly polite/neutral tone, and the overuse of specific phrases associated with AI content.

Just a few of the phrases associated with AI content, as per Pangram’s research, can be found below:

• "Advocate for"
• "Nuance"
• "Delve"
• "Tapestry"
• "Unwavering commitment"

As for hiring manager tips: if a candidate uses words they likely wouldn’t say in an interview, that should be considered a red flag. On top of that, AI tends to fabricate skills/experiences that match the job description perfectly. If the cover letter claims experience that isn't reflected in the resume dates, it was likely AI generated.

Should You Reject AI-Written Applications?

Rejection depends on the overall role of AI in producing the cover letter. It may be easier for recruiters to start with the stack of applications have unique and thoughtful cover letters.

If a cover letter was 100% generated with AI, that suggests a lack of effort. But, if it was AI-assisted (polished or customized with AI) this can demonstrate a candidate’s resourcefulness.

Using AI to fix the grammar in a cover letter is acceptable and probably standard practice for many qualified applicants. Using AI to write a generic cover letter is not helpful to candidates or recruiters - especially if the role involves communication or writing.

HR teams navigating today’s AI landscape should establish clear internal guidelines on acceptable AI use. Doing so can help them avoid bias and unfair labor practices.

How to Implement Detection in Your Workflow

To implement AI cover letter detection in your workflow, right at the screening state, you can use the Pangram API for your ATS. Or, you can use the Pangram Chrome Extension for manual review. Both of these options allow you to detect AI in cover letters without needing to slow down your time-to-hire.

A possible workflow for the above is as follows:

• Use the Pangram API to flag high-probability AI applications in your ATS,
• Use the Pangram Chrome Extension to spot-check suspicious paragraphs directly in your browser,
• If a candidate is flagged, but promising, ask them specific questions about the anecdotes in their cover letter to test authorship.

Using Pangram for Fair Candidate Assessment

Pangram provides a granular "AI Likelihood Score" rather than a binary result. Proving this score allows hiring managers to see if a human wrote the core content and merely used AI for editing.

With a 99.98% accuracy rate and 0.01% false positive rate, Pangram lets you detect AI in cover letters while protecting genuine candidates from being unfairly rejected due to the errors of an AI detection tool.

Pangram is SOC 2 Type 2 certified and does not train models on the data you provide. Your candidate's privacy will be maintained.

You can use Pangram to detect AI in cover letters that were produced using a multitude of different LLMs. These include Claude and ChatGPT, among other, allowing Pangram to serve as a ChatGPT cover letter detector.

Recruiting Is Already a Challenging Job

If you are in recruiting, AI detection can help adjust signal to noise. AI is changing recruitment and the need for authentic human connection remains.

By using an AI cover letter checker as a diagnostic tool rather than a barrier, hiring managers can build stronger teams and filter out the noise.

Stop wasting time on bot applications. Verify candidate authenticity instantly with Pangram.

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