Companies Are Now Using Chatbots as Job Interviewers

Fears about automation taking over jobs are nothing new. As artificial intelligence (AI) has grown, though, another question has arisen. What if robots won’t take your job, but they will interview you for it?

It may seem strange, but chatbot-conducted interviews are already a reality. What began as businesses using AI to sort through resumes or walk applicants through onboarding has led to fully automated assessments. As the practice becomes more common, it could have interesting implications for the future of hiring.

AI Interviews Today

As of mid-2023, just 10% of companies performed AI interviews, but another 34% said they planned on implementing this technology by the end of 2024. Interestingly, 15% of those businesses said AI would handle the entire hiring process. In addition to screening applicants, the chatbot would make the final hiring decision with no human input.

Most use cases today aren’t quite so automated. However, interviews themselves are increasingly chatbot-centric, even if humans retain the power to decide who to hire.

How lifelike these chatbots are can vary between organizations. One candidate said she was given a series of questions on the screen with 60 seconds to respond, but there was no interaction beyond that. Another said they received a phone call where the chatbot introduced itself as a human would, and the applicant didn’t even realize it was a robot until later in the call.

The technology behind these robot interviewers is the same underlying concept behind customer service chatbots. A natural language processing (NLP) model asks questions based on a script and interprets users’ responses to assess the situation. Instead of learning a customer’s needs, though, the bot builds a profile of the candidate to compare it to the ideal worker for a given role. Machine learning models can then predict whether an interviewee will be a good fit.

Does AI Do a Good Job at Interviewing People?

It’s easy to see why businesses would want to conduct interviews with AI. If these interviews are successful enough, companies could save costs by eventually cutting out human recruiters altogether. But even if businesses never get to that point, recruiters still say the technology saves staff managers time by ensuring only the most qualified candidates make it to the later stages of the application process. AI can also pinpoint strengths and weaknesses that humans may miss after fatigue sets in from going through multiple applications.

How effective the actual interview is remains up for debate. On the one hand, today’s NLP models are more than capable of assessing answers to pre-written questions and can complete more screenings in less time. On the other, these meetings may give less insight into the worker’s personality because they don’t always feel natural.

As advanced as AI chatbots are, they still often have an “uncanny valley” effect, not feeling quite human. This could cause uneasiness in job applicants that hinders them from performing their best, which could cause businesses to look over some promising personnel.

How Do AI Interviewers Impact Workers?

Unfortunately, such a feeling of unease is precisely what candidates report experiencing in AI interviews. Some applicants say they feel self-conscious being alone in a video call, which distracts them from the questions they’re supposed to answer. They say the lack of a human connection can heighten their anxiety, in turn affecting their performance.

Experiences like these make many people worry that they may not get jobs they’re qualified for. According to one survey, 44% of American adults think AI would do worse than humans at seeing the potential in workers who don’t perfectly fit the description. Ideally, an interview should be an opportunity to showcase such qualifications, but that advantage disappears if chatbots cannot pick up on it.

Will AI Become the Norm in Job Interviews?

Given these ups and downs, it’s unclear if AI chatbots will become the new normal in job interviews. Robot interviewers will likely become increasingly common over the next few years. However, businesses may scale back on these investments depending on how this initial rollout goes.

Most job applicants oppose the use of AI in hiring. Consequently, some companies may reverse this trend to improve their public image. At the same time, others may increase their use of interview chatbots if they save enough time and money in doing so.

There are regulatory obstacles to consider, too. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is now prioritizing action against AI bias, as AI can heighten human prejudices that exist in its training data. In light of this trend, organizations may need to take a more careful, human-centric approach to interview tech to prevent AI bias from affecting their compliance.

How to Prepare for an AI Interview

Regardless of how chatbot interviews grow or shrink in the long term, job-seekers have a good chance of encountering them today. Consequently, it helps to learn how to approach AI-driven assessments.

The first step is to recognize that businesses may use AI to conduct the interview. Overcoming the initial shock of a robot on the other end can help manage the related anxiety. Applicants should focus on their qualifications and how they would answer common questions, not so much on the human connection side.

AI can be a helpful tool for candidates, too. Mock interview programs analyze users’ speech patterns and other communication cues to give feedback on how to improve. Taking advantage of this software could give job-seekers some needed confidence and preparation before speaking to a chatbot when a career is on the line.

In general, applicants should pretend they’re speaking to a human so they remain calm and natural. However, it may also help to recognize automation’s quirks. Short answers are better than long ones because there may be a built-in time limit for responses. Candidates can also look for repeated keywords in the job description and incorporate these into their answers to catch the chatbot’s attention.

Job Interviews Face an Uncertain Future in the Age of AI

The extent to which AI will play a role in hiring and onboarding is unclear. Still, a rising number of companies will incorporate the technology into interviews in some capacity. Job-seekers need to be aware of this trend to ensure they’re ready for an increasingly automated future.