Whether you like it or not, if you’re looking for a new job, you may be interviewed by AI soon.
Interviews conducted by AI will a new norm by early next year, Brent Orsuga, a headhunter and recruitment expert told CNBC Make It last month.
Founded just last year, California-based AI recruitment platform Apriora conducts up to 1,000 AI powered interviews every day for companies looking to hire for positions ranging from senior software engineers to electricians and baristas, Aaron Wang, the company’s co-founder and CEO tells CNBC Make It.
From scheduling to conducting interviews, Wang says Apriora’s AI recruiting agent, Alex, which has been trained on “the entirety of the internet,” automates the entire recruitment process.
“You can think of her as a super intelligent recruiting colleague,” Wang says.
When a job is posted, Wang says the AI will read the description — creating a set of questions designed to evaluate candidates which can be further tailored by the employer depending on their specific needs.
During interviews, Wang says Alex engages with candidates in a conversational manner, responding appropriately, much like a human recruiter would. Wang adds that Alex can answer questions about the company, adjust its questions depending on candidate responses, as well as generate detailed feedback notes and identify top candidates for the recruiter after the interview.
Here’s how Wang says you can best prepare for an AI powered interview:
Have a strong internet connection
Due to a “scarcity of time” traditional recruiters may only spend three to five seconds total on resumes, Simon Taylor, a former Disney recruiter told CNBC Make It earlier this year.
AI recruiters, however, have the bandwidth to read resumes and conduct significantly more interviews at any given time. Wang says all you really need is a strong internet connection and the ability to talk about what skills and experience you bring to the table.
Some of Wang’s clients even request Alex conduct interviews with everyone who has applied for a job without reading resumes or cover letters to give each candidate a shot at displaying and advocating for their skills, he adds.
“It really is a great way to bring equity into interviewing,” Wang says. “It doesn’t matter if you didn’t go to some resume workshop to engineer the perfect resume, or stuff your resume or cover letter with keywords.”
Think of it like any other interview
Talking to an AI recruiter like Alex should be a “very fluid conversation” where you can take as much time as you need to answer questions thoroughly and get asked appropriate follow ups depending on your answers, Wang says.
“It’s just back and forth. She won’t interrupt you,” Wang says.
Alex is trained to comprehend various accents and conduct interviews in different languages, and Wang also adds that she has a cheat detection built in: Interviews with suspicious activity including keyboard tapping after every question or the sound of someone else in the room perhaps answering questions for a candidate will be flagged.
Expect a shorter interview process
In a traditional interview process for a non-managerial position, experts say candidates should expect to face three to five rounds of interviews. Wang says with Apriora, “we’ll see a consolidation of interview stages.”
“If you have an AI that has the knowledge of an engineer, you can do that recruiter phone screen and that engineering technical round in one call,” he says.
Wang says when hiring for his own company using Alex, the process has been reduced to two interviews: one with Alex, and one final round with someone in the company. He says he typically asks Alex to reach out to candidates, conduct interviews, identify the top three, and schedule interviews with him.
Apriora has interviewed thousands of engineers using Alex and hired the company’s last three engineers and two salespeople through the software, Wang says.
Like any new technology, Wang says he’s aware people will initially be wary of interacting with AI like Alex, but he stresses that a platform like Apriora could actually improve the current candidate experience.
“A bad AI is worse than no AI, but a great AI can foster a really wonderful and delightful candidate experience,” Wang says. “You feel less judged, and you can be flexible [about] when you actually take the interview.”
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