How to Build an AI Submittal Template Your Recruiters Will Trust

A submittal is where your agency's reputation meets the client. It is also the most repetitive writing on the desk: same format, new candidate, dozens of times a week. That makes it the best first job for AI, provided the template is built so a recruiter can check it fast.

This guide works in any system: Bullhorn's Prompt Studio, another applicant tracking system (ATS) with saved prompts, or a business account of ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot.

Step 1: Write down your house format

Before any AI, agree on what a good submittal looks like. Pull three recent submittals that clients responded well to and list the sections they share. A common shape:

1. Candidate headline: role, years in the field, location and availability
2. Why this candidate for this job: three to five bullets tied to the job order
3. Relevant experience: most recent roles, with dates
4. Skills and certifications, as stated on the resume
5. Compensation expectations and notice period, from the call
6. Recruiter notes: anything the client should know, good or bad

Decide what never goes in. Many agencies leave out anything about age, family status, health or other personal characteristics, and anything the candidate asked to keep private. Write that list down; it goes into the template.

Step 2: Gather the inputs

A submittal template works from exactly three inputs:

• the candidate's resume
• the recruiter's screening-call notes
• the job order

If something is not in those three, it should not appear in the draft. Good call notes therefore matter more than clever prompts. Some ATSs and notetakers already produce structured call notes; Candidate.ly, for example, documents AI-generated recruiter notes using ChatGPT (Candidate.ly help center, undated).

Step 3: Write the template

Here is a starting template. Replace the bracketed parts with your format.

You are drafting a candidate submittal for [AGENCY NAME].
Use ONLY facts found in the RESUME, CALL NOTES and JOB ORDER below.
Do not add skills, dates, titles or numbers that are not in them.
If a section has no supporting fact, write "Not covered - ask candidate."
After any claim you are unsure is supported, add [CHECK].
Never include age, family status, health, or other personal
characteristics, or anything the notes mark as private.

Format:
1. Headline (one line)
2. Why this candidate (3-5 bullets, each tied to a job order requirement)
3. Relevant experience (most recent first, with dates)
4. Skills and certifications (as stated on resume)
5. Compensation and availability (from call notes only)
6. Recruiter notes

Tone: plain, specific, no superlatives.

JOB ORDER: [paste]
RESUME: [paste]
CALL NOTES: [paste]

Three lines do most of the work: "use only facts found," the "Not covered" rule, and the [CHECK] flag. Together they turn an AI that fills gaps with plausible text into one that shows you where the gaps are.

If you are on Bullhorn

Bullhorn says its AI Assistant reads the open record plus notes and CV data, and that Prompt Studio lets admins save approved templates so all recruiters produce consistent summaries (Bullhorn, undated, vendor). Its knowledge base documents Prompt Studio setup (Bullhorn KB). Check which plan you are on first; see which AI is in your ATS.

If you are using a general AI account

Save the template as a shared custom instruction or project so every recruiter starts from the same text. Use a business account with business privacy terms, and decide where the final draft is saved, normally back in the candidate record.

Step 4: Write the review checklist

The template only works with a review step everyone follows. Keep it short enough to do in two minutes:

• Every date and title matches the resume
• Every skill listed appears in the resume or call notes
• Every [CHECK] flag is resolved or removed
• Every "Not covered" line is filled from a follow-up or deleted
• Compensation and availability match what the candidate said
• Nothing on the never-include list appears
• It reads like our agency, not like a brochure

The recruiter, not the AI, sends the submittal. That is good practice, and it keeps the tool in a drafting role, which matters under some AI hiring rules. Colorado's new law, for instance, excludes tools "used solely to summarize, organize, translate, draft, route, or present information for human review" (Constangy, Jul 2026). More in the AI hiring rules post; that is general information, not legal advice.

Step 5: Pilot with two or three recruiters

Do not roll it out to the whole desk on day one.

1. Run the template on three past placements where you know the right answer. Compare the drafts with what you actually sent.
2. Fix the template where it drifted: too long, wrong order, missing a section clients care about.
3. Give it to two or three recruiters for two weeks. Ask them to keep a note of every edit they make.
4. Turn the most common edits into template changes.

Step 6: Train the desk and spot-check

Train everyone on the template and the checklist in one short session, and record it for new hires. After a month, pull 20 submittals at random and check each claim against the source notes. Track two things: how many claims needed fixing, and whether any client flagged an error. If either is rising, the template or the review habit needs work.

Common mistakes

• Letting the AI "improve" the candidate. Words like "exceptional" and "proven" add nothing and invite client doubt. Ban superlatives in the template.
• Thin call notes. The draft can only be as good as the notes. A short call-notes template pays for itself.
• Everyone writing their own prompt. That is how you get five formats from five recruiters. One saved template, owned by one person.
• Skipping the check when busy. The busiest week is when a wrong date reaches a client.

Next steps

Once submittals work, the same approach extends to job ads and database outreach. If you want to know whether the time saved justifies the effort, see is AI worth it for a small agency.

If you would rather have someone build and test the template with your recruiters, Lunan's free conversation is a good place to start.