Guide
Using AI in an apprenticeship portfolio, honestly
Most apprentices are better at the work than at writing it up. AI can help close that gap, as long as it acts as an interviewer and editor rather than the author. Evidence has to be yours, and assessors are alert to writing that isn't.
Read the standard first
Before writing anything, turn the criteria you are assessed against into a plain-English checklist of what the assessor needs to see. AI is useful here: paste the criteria (which are public) and ask it to rephrase each one as a question you can answer from your own work.
Be interviewed, not ghost-written
Ask the AI to interview you about a piece of work, one question at a time, and to push for specifics: what you did, what changed, what you would do differently. Your answers become the raw material. You then write the evidence in your own words.
What to avoid
Generic, polished paragraphs with no specific detail; reflection that says you 'learned a lot' without saying what; and anything confidential about your employer or colleagues pasted into a personal AI account. Check your provider's rules on AI use, and never submit AI-written text as your own.