Name: AI bots are now conducting job interviews. I tried it
Uploaded: 2026-03-11T16:29:24.000Z
Duration: 9 min 14 s
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What challenges did you encounter and how did you address them?

Sure, that's a couple different questions, so let me start with the first one when it comes to I hear you got it.

Sentences with advanced comparative

I'm being interviewed by an AI and it's just as unsettling as you'd expect.

With AI everywhere in today's job search, it seems inevitable that we'd eventually get here.

But still, AI avatars running job interviews is pretty next level.

It seems like the process is on the rise.

Wanted to understand why and whether they can ever be helpful.

So you made it to the interview stage of your job search.

Before you meet with an actual human, you have to make it past an interview with an AI.

A ton of companies apparently, from Meta and Netflix to mastercard and Domino's, have started to use these AI interviewers as part of their initial screening processes.

The the value add here, according to the creators of these AI tools, is that it allows some companies to talk in some way, shape or form to virtually everyone who applies for a role instead of just some of those people.

Most of our customers are unable to get humans out to about 95% of applicants.

And you hope that the lucky 5% that you somehow picked out is the 5% that you should in fact be talking to.

All of them make the claim that these tools operate with less bias and prejudice because after all, you're talking to an emotionless bot about why you deserve the job.

AI interviews usually look like a one on one video call with an AI agent.

I tried out one from Codesignal, which was a static photo of an AI avatar.

Kind of like when someone turns off their camera on Zoom and you just see their headshot.

Another one, Humanly, was a fully built out AI avatar designed to look like a human.

So you go through a 30 minute, 45 minutes.

Sometimes it's even 15 minute interview companies can decide the length, they can decide the tone.

Could you walk me through your typical workflow from the initial deep dive conversations to the final audience friendly product.

Compared to the other tools I tried, Humanly's AI avatar asked pretty good questions and we had an okay back and forth, but

the appearance of the avatar itself was approaching the uncanny valley.

I had to look away from her face the whole time or I wouldn't have been able to focus on my answers.

Humanly says their AI interviewer is unique because it gets candidates talking more.

They'll average about 200 words per response to the avatar, which is more than a human doing a phone screen.

Then there was code signal which I did the demo with using a photo of an AI avatar, but

not one conversing with me in video form.

How would you describe your technical fluency around AI and the hardware that powers it?

And how do you stay current on that side?

I definitely am more comfortable with the software rather than the hardware.

Codesignal was the best one I tried because the interview questions were the most realistic.

We do not currently look at how you set things mostly what you said, so really focused on the words that you use to describe and answer the questions.

It even had some of the newsroom lingo down, like asking about my toughest experience with a comms person who didn't like the outcome of an article and how I handled it.

in practice it did allow me to answer how I would normally answer any other type of interview questions, but

I still wouldn't want to do an interview this way and just making sure that we're like framing it in the right.

When you get that kind of pushback from a source or.

But under the surface of any AI tool there are questions about the effect of a technology that scales so quickly and the subtle or not so subtle ways it could impact the people it's analyzing.

In theory or according to these companies pitches at least, AI interviews should reduce bias and level the playing field.

But that's only if the systems themselves are bias free and that is a standard that is impossible to achieve.

The reason for that is because these systems are trained on large swaths of the Internet and obviously large swaths of the Internet are human made and they contain sexism, racism and a ton of other biases.

What's less clear is exactly how these AI algorithms work to evaluate and rank candidates.

It doesn't help that with a lot of large AI models, parts of them are so called black boxes, but

meaning that we don't always know how or why the AI systems make the decisions they do.

And many times the companies can't fully explain it either.

One company, Eightfold, is currently being sued by two plaintiffs who want greater transparency into these black boxes.

According to their website, Eightfold works with companies like Activision, Salesforce, Dolby and more.

I actually got to try out Eightfold's software and out of the three I tried, it did feel the most robotic and least human.

Like I Will begin asking you questions shortly.

I did appreciate that the default setting was just a pulsating circle for me to talk to, so it wasn't distracting from an Uncanny Valley standpoint, at least.

Personally, pretty passionate about the way technology is covered.

In your view, what are the most important AI trends to cover in 2026?

When we spoke to the company, they said their algorithm sets them apart.

And they kept talking about their consistent approach, which they say leads to less bias.

Every candidate will be asked the same question, same rating score, very consistent during the interview, and

So based on the job description, the response, what was that level of, I would say, competency of that capability from 0 to 5 being, you know, mastery of that skill to not aware.

But the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Eightfold said that in scoring candidates, these tools should operate more like credit agencies, which are required to report how sensitive consumer data is handled and evaluated, as well as inform consumers of their scores.

We asked Eightfold for comment via email and they responded with, we use information applicants choose to submit and data authorized by our customers under contract.

We do not scrape social media and the like to assess an applicant's fit for a specific role.

During our interview prior to this statement, they also expressed confidence in their bias procedures, saying they haven't had to change anything.

We haven't had anything that we had to go back and change because there was bias in the system.

When it comes to our algorithm and the integrity of our algorithm, we haven't had to go back and course correct the outcome of the lawsuit could change that and it'll likely have a ripple effect on Eightfold's competitors.

We asked codesignal and humanly how they handle the bias in their systems.

All three companies said they conduct bias audits or a way to test out the bias in AI systems and how they treat minorities and different groups of people.

We've been audited by a third party for several years, so we went in our early days and these are audits that are done yearly.

We have an industrial and organizational psychology team internally as well as subject matter experts, which we call the talent science team.

And they conduct regular bias audits in partnership with customers.

And the bias audits look at all sorts of different cuts, right where we would look at performance on the AI interview and the rate at which people get the job.

Ethics and security have been part of just the way we build.

Whether it's SoC2 or ISO certification for security, privacy and all of the AI controls, the executives we spoke with said that candidates are only graded on what they say in their actual responses.

But that means that just like when an AI parses your resume, cover letter, or another part of your job application, keywords here are important.

So if this is the future of job interviews, I'm apprehensive.

It's already such a tough process to apply for a job, to feel like a number in the system already, to feel nervous, to have to talk about your experience and why you're the best fit.

And I just can't see it being easier to do all of that with an AI system on the other end rather than a human.

So what should you do if you're faced with an interview like this?

It's important to speak clearly, use keywords and metrics when you can your responses, and

maybe ask a question or two at the end just to be on the safe side.

I unfortunately don't have those details on hand in a reliable way since this is a first round screen.

You know, one thing that really surprised me in doing all these interviews was that these companies said that a lot of people tell them that they prefer talking to an AI interviewer rather than a human.

Let us know in the comments if that's true or if you think that's bogus.