Is the fate of workers in the hands of AI interviewers?

AI interviews are becoming a new trend in recruitment, but how do job seekers react to it? This article explores the impact of AI interviews on job seekers' mentality, new opportunities for recruitment platforms, and whether AI interviewers will replace the role of traditional HR, providing unique insights for human resources professionals and job seekers.

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“Don’t get close to AI interviews, or you’ll end up unlucky.”

It's another recruitment season, and the new main force in the job market is coming in full force. Data shows that the number of college graduates in 2024 is expected to be 11.79 million, an increase of 210,000 year-on-year. Faced with such a large number of job seekers, major companies are increasingly using AI tools in the recruitment process. Among them, AI interviews have become standard in fields including banks, foreign companies and fast-moving consumer goods.

More and more job seekers have to pass the "eyes" of AI interviewers before entering a company, and this is not easy. Judging from the comments on social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Weibo, job seekers often feel helpless when facing AI interviewers: "anti-human", "hate all AI interviews", "AI interviews have never been successful"... Some job seekers do their homework hard, or "use magic to defeat magic".

However, the large-scale application of AI interview products has become an inevitable trend. In order to improve screening efficiency and reduce labor costs, many medium and large companies have made AI interviews a daily routine. Recruitment platforms such as 58.com, Liepin and Niuke have also noticed this trend and have made frequent efforts in the past two years.

When the "digital human" interviewer in formal attire appears in front of the screen, it may not only be the workers who are being tested.

1. Workers who are blocked from AI interviews

Tong Lin started to get nervous the moment she received the AI ​​interview notice. Although she was already familiar with the AI ​​interview process: first log in to the system to check the information, check the computer camera and microphone, tidy up her appearance, and then press the confirm button. Then, an AI interviewer in formal attire appeared in front of the screen, and Tong Lin had to remind herself when she/he asked mechanical questions, "Keep a smile on your face, don't look around, and answer in enough time."

Tong Lin, who is studying at a 211 university in Chengdu, is about to graduate this year. She has been busy looking for a job since the beginning of the year. After receiving frequent notifications of AI interviews, she realized that AI interviews have become the "standard" of many large companies. In fact, the AI ​​interview process she experienced is similar, mainly with AI interviewers asking questions and job seekers recording videos to answer. "Most of the time, if you don't answer the same question well, you have the opportunity to re-record the video and answer it again."

Although he has experienced no less than ten AI interviews, Tong Lin still feels that "AI interviews are more difficult to perform than real-person interviews". "The interaction with real interviewers is stronger, and the other party's response is more intuitive, and you can quickly adjust your state. But AI interviews always make me feel like I am facing an emotionless robot. You can't get timely feedback from his expressions and movements to adjust your own state."

Complaints about AI interviews on Xiaohongshu

Like Tong Lin, Fang Ying has also experienced several AI interviews recently. "AI interviews are very procedural. In real interviews, they often ask more targeted questions based on your answers, which may magnify your strengths. However, AI interview questions are often repeated, and you need to state similar content multiple times."

In order to successfully pass the AI ​​interview, Fang Ying read a lot of experience sharing online, including details on clothing and appearance, preparation for English questions, methods for sorting out Chinese questions, eye direction, etc. Some netizens even shared that they could use AI dialogue tools to train AI interview capabilities, "tell AI the job requirements and content, and let the other party simulate an interviewer" to adapt to AI interviews in advance.

However, in Fang Ying's opinion, some companies' AI interviews are still "going through the motions". "I feel the probability of screening people out is relatively small. As long as they are not particularly abnormal, they can basically enter the next round."

In fact, there are many sharings about AI interviews on platforms such as Weibo and Xiaohongshu. Among them, on Xiaohongshu, there are more than 50,000 notes about AI interviews. Many job seekers are like Tong Lin, who either don’t know how to prepare or can’t adapt. Some netizens even said “use magic to defeat magic” and “use ChatGPT to prepare answers and let AI interview AI.”

In addition, on the Zhihu platform, the topic of "AI Interview" has generated 1.36 million views, and experience sharing posts such as "AI Interview Scoring Points", "AI Interview Summary and Notes", and "AI Interview Answering Skills and Methods" have all received high views.

2. Recruiting giants rush to seize the AI ​​blue ocean

While workers are racking their brains for AI interviews, third-party AI interview service platforms are rushing to seize this blue ocean.

In recent years, HR SaaS service providers and online recruitment platforms have been increasing their investment in related technologies and products. Among them, Duomian·Doris, a subsidiary of Tongdao Liepin, introduced a large language model and launched the second-generation AI interview product. According to Dai Kebin, chairman of the board and CEO of Tongdao Liepin Group, Duomian·Doris has seen a rapid increase in customers since its launch, and has currently served four to five hundred companies.

Last year, 58.com also launched a new intelligent AI interview tool - AI Recruitment Superman, which has the function of generating recruitment notices, interview questions, etc.; Zhaopin launched AI Yimian, claiming that it can "combine video analysis technology, voice analysis technology, deep semantic understanding technology, facial feature recognition technology, measurement technology, etc., to conduct a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the job qualities of candidates, and finally analyze the talent portrait of candidates"; Niuke, an HR recruitment SaaS platform focusing on campus recruitment, has also targeted AI. Its CEO Ye Xiangyu once predicted that 2024 will be the year of a major explosion in AI application products, and the "new generation of recruitment leaders" driven by AI in the recruitment industry will soon arrive.

AI Yimian launched by Zhilian

The latest news is that according to a recent announcement by the State Intellectual Property Office, Ping An Bank Co., Ltd. has obtained a patent called "Intelligent Robot Interview Method, Equipment, Storage Medium and Device", with the authorization announcement number CN111126553B and the application date of December 2019. This shows that the AI ​​interview track is surging.

01. How does this track make profits?

Zinc Scale learned that the AI ​​interview service platforms currently on the market mainly provide two charging models: one is charging per person.

Take Niuke as an example. According to its official customer service, the basic price of AI interview service is 35 yuan per person, and corresponding discounts can be provided for large usage. When Zinc Scale asked whether there was a long-term package, the other party said, "In fact, it is charged by person." According to the information provided by Haina AI Interview's customer service, its charging standard is also mainly charged by person, "One interview per person is about 15-30 yuan."

The other is to cooperate with enterprises on customized projects , and the fees for such projects can be as high as hundreds of thousands of yuan. According to Zinc Scale, most medium and large enterprises currently choose to charge by person.

02.Will AI interviewers replace HR?

According to a survey conducted by 36Kr's "Wind Vane" in May last year, 75% of the HRs interviewed believed that their positions would be partially replaced by AI; 3% of the HRs interviewed believed that AI would completely replace their positions. And this concern is not groundless. Amazon tested an "automatic job applicant assessment" algorithm in 2021, and quickly laid off hundreds of HRs the following year. In 2023, the e-commerce giant launched a second round of layoffs of about 9,000 people - the human resources department and retail department were the hardest hit areas.

It is undeniable that there are indeed many pain points in traditional recruitment scenarios . For example, in the campus recruitment process, HR often cannot quickly interview and screen a large number of candidates in a short period of time. For another example, China has 850 million blue-collar workers and 350 million white-collar workers, and blue-collar workers have strong mobility. As Huxiu wrote, about 300 million blue-collar workers have to look for jobs three times a year, and there are many hidden rent-seeking spaces.

03.What specific changes can AI interviews bring to enterprises?

Fast-moving consumer goods giant Unilever once released a set of data: the AI ​​system saved 100,000 hours of interview time and saved 1 million in recruitment costs each year.

According to "Tech Planet", the person in charge of Liepin's AI interview product "Doris" said that for a bank's campus recruitment, if only the traditional offline 5-minute quick interview is adopted, it will take 20 HRs 3 days to complete 5,000 interviews. If Doris, the multi-faceted AI digital officer, is used, 5,000 interviews can be completed in 48 hours, which is equivalent to one digital interviewer completing the workload of 20 HRs in 3 days in 2 days.

The AI ​​interview results are very intuitive

"In fact, from the perspective of HR, AI interviews are more like assistants, which reduce some of the workload." Liu Yinyin is an HR of a large company. She used to feel exhausted during every recruitment season, especially in the initial screening stage. "Many times, I could only randomly select resumes to look at." However, through the initial screening of AI interviews, she only needs to conduct a secondary screening of candidates with higher scores through the background. "Because it will give a basic overall score, and then there will be specific details such as English oral assessment and logical analysis ability. It is simple and clear, and it really saves a lot of time for the initial screening."

However, she also mentioned that most companies are still working with AI interview services . "Sometimes when watching interview videos, many people do seem more unnatural in front of the camera, which affects their scores, but in fact, their work experience and ability are not bad. So sometimes we will also visit interviewees to ask about their experience with AI interviews."

In addition, some HRs also said on social media that "HR's work is not only about interviews. Even if AI can currently take on some of the interview work, it cannot completely replace HR. Especially when facing some high-end talents, experienced HR is often still needed."

Therefore, it may be too early to talk about AI replacing HR, but it is not difficult to see that AI tools are further innovating the recruitment market , and both job seekers and companies will face new challenges. As for major recruitment platforms, can they seize this opportunity?

(All names in this article are pseudonyms)

Author: Li Wenjie; Editor: Chen Dengxin; Source public account: Zinc Scale (ID: 1092449)