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AI banned on videos; essays unaddressed
Yale SOM is the split decision of the field. Its official Application Guide bans AI on the video questions: no AI, no scripts, no heavy notes, because they defeat the format's purpose and can undermine a strong candidacy. For the written essays, Yale publishes no disclosure requirement and no AI rule at all. So the 2026-27 posture is a hard line on video and silence on prose, and the silence is best handled conservatively.
This is our plain-English reading of Yale SOM's published materials, not the school's own words. Read the official source before you rely on it.
On the video rule: Yale is protecting the one component that shows the unrehearsed applicant, and it is explicit that over-preparation harms rather than helps. Can undermine a strong candidacy is unusual phrasing; the school is saying compliance is also strategy, since a scripted delivery loses the naturalness the format exists to capture.
The essay silence is not an invitation. A school that wrote down its video rule knows how to write an essay rule and chose not to yet, which usually means the live application or a mid-cycle update carries any change. Hold your essays to the standard of the strictest school on your list and you will be covered if Yale firms up.
Yale SOM's official policy · Sourced Jul 14, 2026
Wherever a school asks for a disclosure, the statement itself should be yours. Our free compliance check audits how you used AI against Yale SOM's rules and shows what your own statement needs to cover; it never writes it for you.
Run the free AI-policy compliance check →The full field, side by side, lives on the MBA AI-policy hub. Yale SOM's current essay prompts are on the prompt tracker.
The Application Guide says no: AI, scripts, and heavy notes defeat the purpose of the exercise and can hurt a strong candidacy. Ordinary preparation (knowing your stories, practicing aloud, timing yourself) is expected. Generated talking points read as exactly what they are.
No published rule or disclosure requirement exists for the essays as of our last check. We suggest treating the silence conservatively: write your own prose, use tools only for critique, and re-read the Application Guide before you submit in case the cycle brings changes.
The video exists to see you think in real time, so outside help defeats it entirely; an essay has always involved feedback and revision. Yale drew the line where assistance destroys the signal. That logic also hints at how it likely views generated essays, even with no rule written.
School policies change between and within cycles. This page reflects Yale SOM's public materials as of the sourced date above; always confirm against the live application before you rely on it.