Most firms are fine with a tool helping you draft. None are fine with one helping you answer. Here is what the named ones have said, what the numbers look like across the market, and the rule this site works to when a firm has said nothing.
The market in numbers
49%
of UK employers accept AI help in CVs and application answers; 10% ban it; 45% give no guidance at all.
Before you apply: fine, unless the firm says otherwise
Getting a CV rated, a cover letter reviewed or a statement scored is preparation, the same as asking a friend. Keep your own words in the final version, because interviewers ask about what is written and generic text is what recruiters say they can spot.
During a test or an interview: never
Live help in an online test, a recorded video round or an interview is cheating at every firm, whether or not they have written it down, and the banks now retest in person. Practise the tests unaided so the online score is one you can repeat in the room.
If a form asks whether you used AI: say so
A truthful one-liner about drafting help costs nothing. An untruthful one is grounds for withdrawing an offer later.
If software screened you out: ask
You are entitled to know that an automated tool made or shaped the decision, to an explanation of it, and to have a person reconsider. The ICO's 2026 guidance spells this out; a polite email to the recruitment inbox is how to use it.
What named firms have said
Each entry names its source and the day it was last read, and says whether the source is the firm, the press or a prep site. A firm missing here has not been found to state a rule; the rule of thumb still applies.
No external sources, including ChatGPT, during interviews
AI banned in interviews
Goldman Sachs prohibits the use of any external sources, including ChatGPT or a search engine, during the interview process, and says it wants applicants in their own voice. The rule covers the recorded HireVue round as well as live interviews.
Draft and rehearse with whatever you like beforehand; once a question is on screen, it is you and nothing else.
Generative AI in interviews may mean disqualification
AI banned in interviews
Amazon tells candidates not to use generative AI tools during interviews and says that failing to follow the rule may result in disqualification. The rule is stated to applicants directly as part of the process.
Treat every interview stage as closed book, including the online assessments.
Asks candidates not to use AI assistants in the application
AI banned in interviews
Anthropic asks applicants not to use AI assistants when writing their application, so that it can judge the person's own communication and interest. It says so on the application itself.
Where a firm asks for your own words, give them yours; a rater can still tell you what is weak.
AI avatar asks six recorded questions; recruiters score them
AI asks, people score
The recorded video interview for the 2026/27 UK intake is presented by an AI avatar, six questions in around forty minutes, and scored by KPMG's student recruitment team rather than by software. It is followed by the in-person Launch Pad assessment day.
Practise answering to a blank screen with a countdown; the avatar does not react, and the people scoring you later will.
Recorded video interview on SHL, about an hour, one-week window
Recorded video round
PwC's UK recorded video round runs on SHL's platform, takes about an hour and has to be completed within a week of the invitation. Answers are recorded and scored afterwards.
Book a quiet hour early in the window rather than the last evening, and run the Firm Prep questions for PwC first.
Final interviews back in person since September 2024
In-person final stage
Deloitte brought final-stage interviews for UK graduate and apprentice programmes back into the room from September 2024, after the Financial Reporting Council raised concerns about cheating in a fully online process. Earlier stages, including a job simulation and a video interview, stay online.
Expect to reproduce anything you did online, in person; practise the tests and the answers unaided.
AI tools banned in virtual interviews; in-person rounds for engineers
AI banned in interviews
Google has banned AI tools in its virtual interviews and now requires in-person office visits for engineering candidates, part of a wider move back to face-to-face interviewing to counter candidate fraud.
Coding and reasoning rounds are closed book; practise them that way.
McKinsey has returned to face-to-face interviews, saying it wants to assess human qualities directly. Gartner found 72.4 percent of recruiting leaders now interview in person to counter candidate fraud.
Case practice with a person across the table, not a chat window, is the rehearsal that transfers.
In-person interviews reinstated with extra verification
In-person final stage
Cisco reinstated in-person interviews with additional identity verification and background checks, after cases of candidates using AI or stand-ins in remote rounds.
Bring ID and be ready to repeat anything you did remotely.
The firms that retest in person are selecting for one thing: can you repeat your online score with nobody helping. The drills here are timed and unaided, and Firm Prep scores answers you give to a blank screen.