Companies are turning to artificial intelligence to interview job candidates after being overwhelmed by AI-generated applications flooding in from easy-apply job boards, according to reporting by The Associated Press.
The trend, which represents an acceleration of years-long adoption of AI-powered hiring tools, has been documented by the hiring platform Glasshouse. Its recent research shows that more job seekers than ever are reporting encounters with AI job interviews — typically at the screening stage, before any human recruiter reviews their file. Yet the same research found that a significant share of applicants simply walk away from the process entirely when they learn a bot will conduct the interview rather than a person.
The tools come in several forms. Some employers rely on text-based chatbots that ask questions via messaging platforms. Others send applicants a phone number and ask them to speak with an automated voice. Increasingly, companies deploy video-chat bots with on-screen avatars that react to candidates’ answers in real time.
“Companies are just being bombarded with AI-generated applications that come in from easy-apply job boards,” Priya Rathod, a career coach, told the AP. “They need a way to filter out who’s a real, qualified candidate and who’s using a bot to spam every listing they can find.”
Rathod estimated that fraudulent or mass-submitted AI applications now make up a material portion of the inbound volume for many corporate recruiters, particularly for remote and entry-level roles. The AI screening interviews, she said, act as a first gate: a candidate who cannot complete the conversation or whose responses fail basic coherence checks never makes it to the human review stage.
The practice has drawn sharp reactions from job seekers. In surveys pooled by Glasshouse and cited by the AP, many described the experience as unsettling or dehumanizing. Some reported abandoning the application entirely when they realized the interview would be conducted by an AI, either out of discomfort or because they concluded the company was using technology as a cost-cutting shortcut rather than a genuine evaluation tool.
Amanda Augustine, a career expert at TopResume, told the AP that candidates can improve their performance in AI interviews with the same preparation they would bring to a human one. She advised job seekers to test their internet connection, camera and microphone beforehand, and to dress professionally even when the interview is conducted by an on-screen avatar.
“The bot is scoring you on specific criteria — word choice, speech clarity, whether you answer the question directly,” Augustine said. “Treat it like a real interview, because for the company it is one.”
She also recommended researching the employer thoroughly and preparing questions that demonstrate genuine engagement with the role, rather than generic follow-ups. Several platforms that host AI interviews, Augustine noted, will flag candidates who stray from the question or appear to be reading a script.
For candidates who want to practice, Augustine pointed to remote-job search sites that offer mock AI interview modules, which she said can help job seekers become comfortable with the format before facing a real one. She also advised keeping an updated, cleanly formatted résumé ready to upload, as many AI screening systems pull data directly from the document.
Analysts who study hiring technology told the AP that the convergence of AI-generated applications and AI-conducted interviews marks a new phase in recruitment automation — one in which two bots increasingly manage the first conversation between an employer and a potential employee. Whether this arrangement produces better hiring outcomes or merely faster filtering remains an open question, they said, because the wave of AI interviews is too recent for long-term employment data to be available.