As applications for China’s civil service examinations surge to record highs, education companies are rushing to develop artificial intelligence products that can help candidates pass the notoriously competitive tests.

Civil service jobs, with their iron-clad job security, have become increasingly attractive to Chinese workers in recent years.

Last year, an unprecedented 2.6 million people applied for the national civil service exams, competing for fewer than 40,000 available government positions.

Tutoring candidates to secure a public-sector job has become a lucrative industry, with a host of Chinese education companies launching services specifically targeting the civil service exams.

Now, these firms are racing to integrate AI into their products. On Saturday, online tutoring player Fenbi announced it has developed the country’s first specially trained AI civil service exam tutor.

According to the company, the AI tutor is capable of crafting personalized study plans, teaching the civil service exam curriculum, and explaining exam questions. It can also help customers select which civil service role to apply for — a choice that many in China struggle with given the huge variety of jobs on offer.

The AI tutor will be launched in August, according to Fenbi. Meanwhile, the company said that it is already leveraging its large language model to make its workforce more efficient.

For example, they use an AI assistant to help their human tutors grade candidates’ interview performances, allowing them to take on more clients. In 2021, the company’s tutors could only take on up to 40 students at a time, but they can now serve up to 150, Fenbi said.

Fenbi trained its large language model using the massive troves of proprietary data it had accumulated while operating its online tutoring business, Chen Jianhua, the company’s chief technology officer, said at a launch event on Saturday. Users have accessed the company’s mock exam question bank around 3.7 billion times, Chen added.

Fenbi is far from the only Chinese tutoring company seeking to integrate generative AI technology into its business; several other firms have also announced new AI-powered services targeting civil service exam candidates.

Last year, Offcn, one of China’s largest vocational education companies, rolled out AI tools that help candidates select which civil service positions to apply for and grade exam essays. Another company offers an AI service that gives candidates mock interviews.

Yan, a fresh graduate who took last year’s civil service exam in the northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, told Sixth Tone that she welcomed these new AI services as they are generally cheaper than hiring a human tutor.

“Though they might not be as good as humans, it’s great to have new alternatives,” said Yan, who gave only her surname for privacy reasons. The 25-year-old added that she had already purchased an AI-powered service to help her prepare for civil service job interviews.

Chinese education companies are also targeting overseas markets with AI products. Made-in-China apps including Question AI and Gauth are reportedly surging in popularity in the United States, offering students help with their homework at affordable prices.

(Header image: VCG)