HR Headliner: Is AI Influencing Your Interviews?

March 2025 HR Headliner: Is AI Influencing Your Interviews?

HR managers and recruiters have long known that candidates may embellish their resumes to boost job-related experience. Back in my day, the trickiest move may have been to coordinate with a friend to give a positive professional reference, instead of allowing a recruiter to contact a real former supervisor. But the “new normal” of video interviews and AI tools like ChatGPT has opened up a whole new world of potential cheating.

In July 2024, reports were published about an international company that hired a North Korean cyber criminal after he used fake a employment history and AI-enhanced photo and video during the hiring process. Despite a seemingly thorough screening process that included video interviews and a background check, the hacker was able to gain employment, download sensitive company materials, and transfer potentially harmful files into the company’s systems.

While this may be an extreme example, the use of AI during the hiring process is becoming an increasing trend. ChatGPT can easily generate a well-written resume and cover letter, misrepresenting a candidate’s writing skills. Our recruiting team at Sierra HR has yet to experience an AI-faked video, but they have detected candidates using “teleprompter apps” that can listen to an interview conversation and feed real-time answers to the job seeker.

So, how can an HR manager or recruiter spot the fakes and hire the right (real) person? Below are a few guidelines for interviewing in this AI age:

• Plan in-person interviews with finalist candidates. Telephone and video meetings are efficient for initial screening, but there’s nothing like the real thing when it comes to having confidence in the person you’re hiring.
• Ask behavior-based questions during all phases of the interview process. AI may be great for generating answers to technical skills questions, but the candidate will have to rely on his/her own memory and discernment to answer a prompt such as, “Tell me about a time when you went out of your way to help a client, and how you might apply that effort to this position?”
• During video interviews, watch for signs that the candidate is typing while being asked a question, has unnatural pauses before responding, or his/her eyes appear to be tracking text or looking elsewhere. These could be signs that the person is entering your questions into an app and reading auto-generated responses.
• Ask follow-up questions if the candidate delivers a seemingly-confident response that does not clearly address the question being asked. This could be another signal that he/she is using AI to craft answers. Ask the person to dig deeper and provide more specific details, allowing you to gain better insight into potential job performance… or confirm your suspicion that the candidate isn’t really as good as he/she appears to be.

Whether you love the new tech developments emerging in our workplaces, or you’re concerned about potential negative impacts, AI is here to stay and will only become more efficient and convincing over time. Understanding and navigating the balance between AI tools and “irl” human interaction will continue to be a critical management skill.

If you’d like our input on a great (or questionable) candidate, or you’re hoping to outsource the entire recruiting process, Sierra HR Partners is here to help you hire the best people for your business. Contact one of our HR Consultants (consulting@sierrahr.com) or our Recruiting team (recruiting@sierrahr.com) with any questions you have.