Are AI Job Interviews Really Effective?

Companies are always looking for practical AI tools to make recruitment easier and more efficient. With increasing numbers of applications to screen, recruiters often struggle to streamline a growing workload, making AI recruiting tools an appealing solution. 

More companies are turning to automated video interview software to minimize hire time, help recruiters screen more applicants fairly and consistently, and reduce inherent bias in the interview process. 

No technology can replace the role of a recruiter, however. It’s essential to evaluate the effectiveness of AI tools and how they’re best used to ensure they’ll benefit your hiring practices. 

The Strengths of AI Job Interviews

Incorporating AI job interviews into your hiring process could help to distribute some of the initial screening interview work. Here’s how AI job interviews work well:

AI Makes Recruiting Easier

Delegating the work of scheduling and conducting screening interviews to AI technology frees recruiters to focus their attention on later stages of the hiring process and scouting highly skilled candidates.

Recruiters can choose to be as involved or as hands-off as needed in the process, depending on how much they want to rely on the AI software. AI can collect data on candidates during interviews and submit findings as a report for human review, or it can even make hiring decisions (without human input) based on data collected from interviews. 

Suppose companies don’t want to use AI. In that case, the software can function as an interview recording platform, allowing recruiters to view and assess candidates without spending a significant portion of their time conducting initial interviews. This way, recruiters can screen more applicants than when performing in-person interviews. 

AI Broadens the Candidate Pool

AI job interview technology allows more significant numbers of applicants to participate in the hiring process by increasing the number of initial interviews a company can accommodate and making interviews more accessible to candidates.

Expanding the candidate pool broadens a company’s opportunities for diversity and inclusion. Recruiters can review candidates that, without the AI technology, may not have made it to the initial interview phase of the hiring process. 

Weaknesses of AI Job Interviews

While AI job interviews promise to improve recruitment by ensuring objective and fair assessments that accurately capture a candidate’s qualifications, the software doesn’t always live up to the hype. 

Here are the drawbacks of AI interview technology:

Often Neglect the Candidate’s Application Experience

One upside for candidates applying to companies using AI interview technology is that they have greater flexibility in when and where they conduct the interview. 

However, the convenience offered by AI job interviews may not be enough to offset the negative experience many candidates have in the interview process. 

AI job interview software is designed with recruiters in mind and, as a result, often neglects the interviewee’s experience. Candidates go into the interview without any clear explanation of how the technology works, what data it collects, or how they are being assessed, which leaves them feeling confused about how to conduct themselves. 

While many candidates understand the inevitability of an increase in automated hiring processes, a lack of any human interaction often leaves candidates feeling dehumanized. 

Companies can help to mitigate the negative impact by making the process transparent and informing candidates upfront about how the technology works. The Depersonalization Spectrum and recommendations from HBR can help companies effectively explain AI technology and improve candidate experience.

They’re Not Bias-Free

AI video interview software companies claim that their software promotes objectivity and reduces bias in the hiring process. Still, AI software is developed using past data, which can lead to inherited bias. 

In one publicized case, Amazon ditched an AI hiring tool it built after discovering that the algorithm favored male candidates and penalized resumes containing terms like “women’s.” 

There are many ways for AI interview technology to discriminate against applicants. In the Amazon example, using language designated as more masculine or more feminine impacted the outcome. 

AI Job Interview Software Often Assesses Candidates Based on Facial or Voice Recognition

However, facial recognition technology is much more inaccurate for black women. 

Voice recognition technology might fail to account for differences in accent or cultural intonation patterns. In some cases, it might even fail to recognize that someone is speaking a different language altogether, as demonstrated in this MIT Technology Review test conducted with Curious Thing. 

Are AI Tools Practical?

AI job interview tools have the potential to minimize bias and discrimination in hiring practices and streamline recruitment practices. However, they still have a long way to go before they can be counted as reliable, transparent, and objective. 

As a relatively new technology, there’s little regulation for AI video interview technology, and companies haven’t been transparent about how exactly the software works. 

Without comprehensive information about the software systems and more studies conducted to determine their efficacy, it’s not clear how well the technology can assess a candidate’s qualifications or how it can do so without any bias.

AI job interviews may be an effective tool to help minimize some of the workloads in the hiring process, but as it stands, any actual decision-making about candidates is best left to real recruiters. 

Corissa Peterson is a Career Advisor and Staff Writer at Resume Genius.

 
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