Dusseldorf. When Felix Müller* dialed into the online interview for a position at a Swedish food company, he didn't see a person on the screen, but an avatar. The virtual recruiter asked him “standard questions”: “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” And: “Where do you see yourself in five years?” The avatar's mouth moved when he spoke, but it didn't seem authentic, Müller remembers. It was like talking to a “phone bot” like those we know from customer hotlines.
The first German companies are now also using AI recruiters like Müller's experience for initial interviews with applicants. The advantages for companies: AI recruiters can interview hundreds of applicants at the same time, at any time of the day or night. They never get tired or sick, they don't sleep, and they speak several languages fluently. They help to telephone large numbers of applicants and save HR managers time and money.
But how does it feel for job seekers when the first contact with the company is not human? Are AI interviews potentially scaring away the most qualified applicants? Do companies ultimately pay for greater efficiency with their reputation?
The conversation with the avatar left a bad aftertaste for Felix Müller. The 26-year-old works as a software developer in a large chemical company. Because he is open to new things, he occasionally applies for similar positions at other employers. This is how his AI interview came about.
“I didn’t feel valued as an applicant,” he says. After all, if he were accepted, he would spend a large part of his life in the company. “To get a first impression of the company culture and colleagues, I would like to talk to real people.”
Most applicants have this wish. The US job platform Greenhouse asked 2,950 job seekers in Germany, the USA, Great Britain, Ireland and Australia for their opinion on AI interviews. The majority of respondents prefer speaking to a human recruiter. German applicants are particularly skeptical: 42 percent of German job seekers surveyed canceled an application process because it included an AI interview.
Wolfgang Brickwedde heads the Institute for Competitive Recruiting (ICR) in Hamburg and focuses on trends in personnel selection. “It’s difficult to measure how many suitable applicants companies are missing out on because their application process incorporates AI,” he says. Some top candidates may drop out or not even apply because they have enough other options.
He refers to a study from Stanford University. More than 34,000 applications were received for a position as a junior front-end engineer. The researchers randomly divided them into two groups: one group completed the selection process without an AI interview, the other group was supposed to speak with an AI recruiter for 30 to 40 minutes. The result: Three quarters of the applicants who completed an AI interview ended the interview prematurely.
On the one hand, an abandonment rate of 75 percent is a strong argument against AI interviews, says Brickwedde. On the other hand, he also sees advantages for the applicants: the selection process is significantly shortened. “If you are faced with the choice: you can talk to an avatar right now or wait two weeks to talk to a human recruiter on the phone - then the willingness to talk to the AI is much higher,” says Brickwedde.
Candidates would also get the chance to show more about themselves than just their CV much more quickly. Proponents argue that AI can even help discover good candidates who might otherwise have been overlooked or disadvantaged.
Studies show that recruiters form a first impression within seconds of an interview. It has been proven that sympathy and prejudice also play a role. Marius Luther, founder of the Berlin AI recruiter “Madita” and also head of the job platform Heyjobs, sees another advantage in AI interviews: “They can prevent discrimination,” he says.
In contrast to the avatar who interviewed Felix Müller, Madita conducts audio-only conversations. This means: The AI does not register any external characteristics such as headscarves or skin color. If language problems arise, she can repeat the question again in the applicant's native language.
In fact, people with a migrant background appear to be more open to AI interviews in surveys. This is also shown by the research of Katharina-Maria Rehfeld and Michaela Moser, professors of human resources management at the IU International University. “However, it must be ensured that the software is actually programmed without prejudice,” says Moser. Lawsuits are already underway in the USA against large AI recruiting providers because they are said to have systematically disadvantaged older applicants and minorities.
Even if the systems are regularly checked for bias, the question remains how AI interviews feel for applicants. Felix Müller describes his exchange with the avatar as a “strange experience”. Because the avatar looked human and robotic at the same time, it moved its mouth but seemed too artificial.
There is a term in research for his feeling during the AI job interview: “Emotional Creepiness”. IU researcher Moser explains: “AI that looks and acts almost like a human – but not quite – triggers deep discomfort.”
Heyjobs founder Luther's AI recruiter Madita also seems surprisingly human in conversation. She listens carefully, briefly summarizes answers, and asks interested questions. She commented on the applicant's lack of professional experience in marketing: "All right, thank you for your openness. Lateral careers can be really exciting."
But in some moments it becomes clear that this is not an attentive conversation partner, but a machine. For example, when Madita is silent for a few seconds before she answers. Or if she ignores steep demands - such as a gross salary of 160,000 euros with a maximum of 20 hours of work per week - in a neutral manner.
A few minutes after the interview, Madita sends a structured summary of the interview to the HR department and rates the applicant's required skills on a scale of 1 to 5.
A human recruiter then decides whether an applicant will advance to the next round. “Madita itself is not allowed to make a decision or send automated rejections – that would violate the General Data Protection Regulation,” says Luther. The EU AI Act also classifies AI systems in recruiting as “high risk” and stipulates strict transparency and auditing obligations.
At the supermarket chain Rewe, which is already using Madita on a test basis, the path to introduction was correspondingly long: among other things, the data protection coordinators and the works council had to be involved. What was particularly convincing about one of Germany's largest employers was that the decision remained with the recruiter despite the initial AI interview, says Alexander Schleiermacher, Senior Consultant Talent Acquisition at Rewe.
Madita is also already in use at the direct consultancy Axa and the conference technology manufacturer Televic. Overall, however, AI interviews are not yet widespread in Germany. In a survey by the digital association Bitkom last year, only one percent of companies said they would use AI to conduct job interviews - but seven percent could imagine it. In the USA, one in five job interviews is already conducted by an AI recruiter.
Large corporations in particular now receive a volume of applications that is almost impossible to handle. Recruiting expert Brickwedde sees the reason primarily in the situation on the labor market: "Two years ago we had twice as many jobs. Now we only have half as many, but the same number of applicants." In addition, technological developments have reduced the time required to send an application: AI helps when creating a CV, and thanks to “one-click applications”, documents can be quickly submitted to the company. The result: Job seekers apply more broadly and less selectively.
If a company receives 500 applications for a position, recruiters either have to do drastic pre-sorting before conducting initial interviews, or they have all candidates first conduct an AI interview and then select who is allowed to speak to a human in the second step.
One risk of this variant: Applicants who want to influence the selection in their favor will use AI themselves in the AI interview. To prevent two AIs from talking to each other, Madita includes an “integrity check”: “We check whether the answers in the interview come from the person themselves or are read or recorded with the help of AI,” says Madita founder Luther.
Applicant Felix Müller can understand that companies are trying to cope with the mass of applications and shorten the process. But he says he wouldn't take part in an AI interview again.
