AI Guides › Career & Work
Using AI To Draft Your Own Exit Interview Answers, Honestly
By Nigel Guy · 2 min read
The default instinct in an exit interview is diplomatic smoothing — "great
experience, just time for a change" — regardless of what actually happened.
It feels safer in the moment. It also means the organisation never hears
anything it could act on, and you leave a conversation that could have been
useful having said almost nothing real.
The rule: use AI to separate what's true from what's safe to say out loud
— draft the honest version first, then decide deliberately what to soften,
rather than smoothing by default before you've even named the real answer.
The mechanism: the Honest Draft
- Write the unfiltered version first, for yourself only. What actually
made you leave, without softening — this draft is never sent anywhere,
it exists so you know what you actually think before deciding what to say.
- Sort each point into say plainly, say carefully, or leave out. Not
everything true needs to be said, and not everything said needs to be
blunt — the sorting is the actual work, not an afterthought.
- Rewrite the "say carefully" points as specific and constructive, not
vague and safe. "Communication could be better" helps no one. "Decisions
about X were made without the team that had to execute them" is
something an organisation can actually act on.
- Decide what you leave out and why, deliberately — protecting a
relationship, avoiding a legal grey area, or simply not wanting to
relitigate something already settled are all legitimate reasons, but they
should be a choice, not a default.
- Rehearse saying the carefully-worded version out loud before the
actual conversation, the same way you'd rehearse any other hard
conversation — see "Using AI To Practise Saying No At Work" for the same
underlying method.
What to skip
Skip using the unfiltered first draft as your actual answers — it exists to
clarify your own thinking, not to be read aloud. Skip inventing specific
criticism you don't actually believe just to seem candid; the goal is
honest, not performatively blunt.
Guardrails
- What's safe to say varies enormously by your relationship with the
organisation, your industry, and whether you might need a reference from
people there later — weigh that before deciding what to include.
- An exit interview isn't a guaranteed confidential channel; assume what you
say could reach people beyond whoever's in the room.
- If your departure involves a legal matter — a dispute, a settlement, a
non-disparagement clause — get advice from a professional before the
conversation, not general guidance from a chat window.
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