As of 13 August 2026, AI can create a candidate persona for a UK vacancy.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 15 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open the approved job description and copy it into a working document, removing confidential candidate information and internal details that are not needed.
   2. Gather the vacancy's reporting line, team context, working arrangement, location, hiring objectives and agreed selection criteria from the hiring manager.
   3. Paste those details into the prompt, replacing every bracketed slot and keeping essential and desirable criteria separate where the team has already agreed them.
   4. Paste the completed prompt into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and ask for the candidate persona.
   5. Compare each essential criterion in the persona with the approved job description and remove any requirement that is not necessary to perform the role.
   6. Ask a colleague involved in fair recruitment to check the persona for stereotypes, unsupported assumptions and unnecessary barriers, then send the approved version to the hiring team for sign-off before using it in screening or interviews.

   Prompt

   Create a candidate persona for this UK vacancy using only the information I provide.
   
   Vacancy title: [TITLE]
   Job description: [PASTE JOB DESCRIPTION]
   Company and team context: [PASTE CONTEXT]
   Reporting line: [ROLE]
   Working arrangement and location: [DETAILS]
   Hiring objectives for the first 6 to 12 months: [OBJECTIVES]
   Selection criteria already agreed by the hiring team: [CRITERIA]
   
   Produce:
   1. A short summary of the person who could succeed in the role.
   2. The measurable outcomes they need to deliver.
   3. Essential skills and experience, each linked to a stated job requirement.
   4. Desirable skills and experience, clearly separated from essentials.
   5. Behaviours and working preferences relevant to the role, without stereotypes.
   6. Evidence to look for in a CV, application or interview.
   7. A list of criteria that should not be used because they are irrelevant, speculative or likely to exclude people unfairly.
   8. Five neutral interview questions tied to the essential criteria.
   
   Do not invent company facts, salary, qualifications, experience, motivations or candidate characteristics. Do not infer age, gender, ethnicity, disability, religion, sexual orientation, family situation or other protected or personal characteristics. Do not describe an ideal personality. Flag any missing information instead of guessing. Keep the persona focused on fair, job-related selection and label every assumption.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.