Forty-seven percent of UK jobseekers say they have faced an AI interview, according to research by the hiring platform Greenhouse. The same survey of 2,950 active job hunters found 30% of UK respondents abandoned an application when AI was involved. Other data show employers are deploying AI widely while application volumes have surged, putting pressure on recruitment teams. That mix is changing how candidates and firms behave in hiring processes.

Short, recorded and impersonal

Greenhouse asked almost 3,000 active jobseekers about their recent applications. The sample included 1,132 people based in the UK. Nearly half had encountered an AI interview at some point.

The typical format is brief and automated. Candidates watch a prerecorded prompt. They get a short planning window. Then they record an answer. Most sessions last around 10 minutes. Some are longer. One interview cited by a respondent stretched to 30 minutes.

The format rarely lets a candidate see a human. That's by design. Employers use automated interviews to screen large numbers quickly. But candidates say the experience feels distance and odd. Many report talking to their own image on screen rather than a real person.

Jobseekers describe being cut off

Responses collected by Greenhouse and direct interviews show the same pattern: awkwardness, frustration and a sense of being unread. Thomas, 21, a university student in northern England, told researchers he found the process strange. He applied for 15 roles.

Around 10 of those asked him to do an AI interview.

"It feels strange talking into a camera," he said. "You can't see anyone other than yourself." Thomas said later, human rounds felt far better. He has a job that starts in September. But he wants employers to improve the AI-stage.

Susannah, 44, a scientist in Cambridge, said she found a recorded AI interview humiliating. She applied for a senior post. After sending a CV and cover letter, she was asked to consent to an AI interview. She said there was effectively no option but to agree if she wanted to progress.

Her interview consisted of five on-screen questions with about three minutes to reply to each. "I found it awkward and the whole process humiliating," she said. Susannah worried the recorded answers might never be reviewed by a human.

David Gwynn, 37, a part-time bartender in London, described being interviewed by a robot as "incredibly alienating". He said there was no feedback and he had no idea how he came across. Gwynn added that some firms offer an AI interview because waiting weeks for a manager to be available would otherwise stall the process.

Mastheads

Employers face a deluge of applications

Recruiters say volume is the immediate problem. Data cited by hiring firms show the number of applications per job has jumped. One platform reported applications rose from 13 to 49 per posting in the year to November 2024, an increase of 286%.

At the same time, vacancies per 100 jobs fell from 4.1 to 2.2 between May 2022 and February 2025, according to official labour market figures. That means recruiters face many more applicants for fewer open roles.

Dina Taylor, Chief Evangelist at Hirevue, described how candidate behaviour has changed. She said more people now use AI to draft CVs and cover letters. That, she argued, increases the number of applications recruiters must sift.

"No recruiter or hiring manager has the brain space or the time to read all of those resumes and make an informed decision," Taylor said. "Every day that the job goes unfilled is lost dollars to the business." She offered that as background for why firms automate steps such as scheduling, CV sifting, assessments and interviews.

Abandonment and trust costs

Research from another recruitment site found that more than four in five hiring managers are using some form of AI in the application process. That same work showed about 40% of jobseekers had either abandoned or considered abandoning an application because AI was used.

Greenhouse's figures and the employer data point to a tension. AI helps firms to cope with scale.

But it also pushes some candidates away. Around 30% of UK respondents to Greenhouse said they walked away from a hiring process that included an AI interview.

That matters because it changes who completes applications and who gets through early screening. Candidates who are comfortable with automated formats are likelier to continue. Others drop out. That can narrow the applicant pool in hard-to-see ways.

Users and observers raise two recurring complaints. One is usability. Candidates say prerecorded prompts and fixed time windows make it hard to show personality. They also report technical glitches and poor guidance about how answers will be assessed.

The other is transparency. Several respondents worried they had no idea whether a real person would review their recorded answers. They also said they received no feedback. That leaves applicants uncertain whether they were rejected by a person, an algorithm, or by automated scoring thresholds.

Experts inside hiring firms say trade-offs are involved. Automated systems speed up hiring and let managers cope when applications spike. But they don't replace later-stage human judgement. Some organisations keep human review for shortlists and later interviews. Others use automation for early elimination only.

Recruitment teams are dealing with more applicants while trying to fill roles faster. Some firms have shifted routine work to software to preserve time for managers. That includes automated scoring and recorded interviews.

Candidates react in different ways. Some adapt. They practise speaking to a camera and learn how to frame short answers. Others refuse to engage and abandon applications altogether. Some say they will only apply to firms that guarantee human contact later in the process.

The practical result is changing candidate behaviour and employer practice. Recruiters are refining filters and explaining procedures to reduce drop-out. Some firms are also experimenting with hybrid models that combine short automated stages with a guaranteed human review for candidates who pass the first filter.

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Applications per posting rose from 13 to 49 in the year to November 2024, a 286% increase, a surge recruiters say helps explain why firms are automating early-stage interviews.

This article was created with AI assistance.