Job seekers and companies are using AI to interview each other

In short: More job interviews now start with an AI voice screener, and some applicants are responding by using AI too, creating bot-on-bot interviews.

What's going on

A government contractor named Christopher told WIRED he applied to about 700 jobs in six months and usually heard nothing back. For five roles at IT firm Everforth Apex Systems, he was contacted by “Riley,” an AI recruiter that texts and calls to ask basic questions.

Christopher completed multiple calls with Riley but says he never got a follow-up from a human recruiter, and he did not even receive a rejection message. After the fifth try, he decided to use ChatGPT’s voice feature to answer Riley for him. He put the two systems side by side, like letting two automated phone menus talk to each other, and listened as they spoke for about 10 minutes and went in circles about start dates and background checks.

Christopher then tested a stronger version of the same idea. He created a fake candidate with a resume filled with keywords taken from the job post, and had ChatGPT speak as that person in a 23-minute call. He says the AI had polished answers for everything, but he still did not hear back afterward.

This is happening as more employers use AI voice tools to screen applicants because they get so many applications. Greenhouse, a recruiting platform, told WIRED that 63 percent of job seekers report encountering an AI interview. At the same time, some recruiting startups claim they can spot answers that sound scripted or AI-assisted.

What to watch

If companies keep using AI for early interviews, more applicants may use AI to keep up, especially when the process feels like it leads nowhere. A key question is whether employers will add clearer rules, faster human follow-ups, or better ways to confirm a real person is on the line.

Source: Wired