As of 13 August 2026, AI can track job applications.

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 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open one secure spreadsheet or a recruitment system and create columns for candidate identifier, role, application date, stage, last action, next action, owner, due date and source.
   2. Gather the current applications, relevant emails, interview notes and calendar entries, removing personal information that is not needed for tracking.
   3. Paste the records into the prompt under the application records heading, keeping the wording of conflicting or uncertain entries.
   4. Ask the model to produce the tracker, overdue list, follow-up drafts and human-decision list using the fixed stages in the prompt.
   5. Compare each candidate's stage and due date against the original email, calendar and interview records, then correct the tracker where the source disagrees.
   6. Send only the follow-up messages that you have approved, and record the sent date and next action in the tracker.
   7. Set a recurring manual check of the tracker against new applications and inbox messages, and restrict access to people involved in the recruitment process.

   Prompt

   Act as an HR administration assistant, not a hiring decision-maker. Create a clear candidate application tracker from the information below.
   
   Business: [BUSINESS NAME]
   Role: [ROLE TITLE]
   Application records:
   [PASTE CANDIDATE NAMES OR IDENTIFIERS, APPLICATION DATES, CURRENT STAGES, CONTACT DETAILS, INTERVIEW DATES, ACTIONS, DEADLINES AND RELEVANT NOTES]
   
   Use these stages only unless a record clearly needs a separate status: received, screening, interview, further interview, offer, rejected, withdrawn, hired, on hold.
   
   Return:
   1. A table with candidate identifier, current stage, last recorded action, next action, owner, due date and missing information.
   2. A list of overdue or unclear records, quoting the source text that creates the problem.
   3. Draft neutral follow-up messages only where the next action is clear.
   4. A short list of records that need a human decision.
   
   Do not rank candidates, recommend who to hire, infer protected characteristics, invent dates or facts, or change a status without evidence. If information conflicts, show both versions and mark the record for human checking. Treat all candidate information as confidential and include only the minimum necessary personal data.

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