AI Interview Pitfalls Businesses Must Avoid For Optimal Results

Artificial Intelligence has made a strong entrance into business hiring strategies, promising to streamline processes, increase efficiency, decrease costs, and, most importantly, identify the best possible talent. However, considering that this is a new trend, it is possible not to use AI in the most effective way possible. Mistakes and oversights can impact the candidate experience, introduce bias into your hiring strategy, and even harm your organization’s public image. In this article, we will discuss mistakes that can happen in the use of AI in the various stages of the hiring process, emphasizing AI interview pitfalls that can alienate candidates.

Mistakes To Avoid When Implementing AI In Hiring

1. Candidate Sourcing

Biased Job Descriptions

A hiring process starts with crafting a job description that attracts the right talent. Unfortunately, even when using AI, it’s possible to end up with a job description that includes non-inclusive or biased language. This can harm your hiring process in two ways. First, it might discourage certain professionals from applying. Second, it might lead the AI screening algorithm to filter out strong applications that don’t perfectly match the requirements of the job description.

Overrelying On Keyword Matching

Another way you might miss talented applicants is by relying too heavily on keyword matching. This means that if an applicant describes a skill differently from the job description, the AI algorithm could reject them, despite them being a good candidate for the position. This approach might exclude candidates with transferable skills who could bring diversity and innovation to your team.

How To Avoid It

To address the issues keeping your company from accepting applications from skilled professionals, you need to effectively configure your AI algorithm. First, ensure that biased and gender-specific language is not permitted when creating job descriptions. Additionally, adjust keyword matching to be more flexible, allowing the system to recognize not only exact matches but also related skills that could still be useful for your company.

2. Candidate Screening And AI Interviews

Trusting The AI Algorithm Blindly

Before we dive into AI interview pitfalls, let’s address a mistake that can happen right before this stage. While the purpose of AI is to streamline the screening and shortlisting stage, recruiters should proceed with caution. Specifically, they can’t just assume that the candidates ranked highest by the AI are automatically the best fit for the position without questioning the criteria used.

Evaluating Irrelevant Traits

This is closely tied to the evaluation criteria we just mentioned. Many businesses don’t spend the extra time needed to personalize the criteria based on which interviewees will be assessed, opting instead for predetermined settings. As a result, the algorithm may focus more on facial expressions and eye contact, instead of checking for skills that are crucial for the position. This can lead to poor hiring decisions or discrimination against neurodiverse candidates.

Using The Same Questions For All Applicants

Automating the interview process doesn’t mean that all candidates should be asked the same predetermined set of questions. Doing so will likely overlook specific skills that candidates possess or lead to a drawn-out interview that doesn’t cater to the candidate’s role, seniority, or industry. This approach can create a negative first impression, making candidates less likely to return if they advance to the next stage.

Ignoring Accessibility Issues

Another AI interview pitfall to avoid is failing to accommodate accessibility needs. Not all candidates have access to high-speed internet or the quality equipment necessary for a smooth AI interview, which may reject them simply due to a lagging camera or a disrupted connection. And let’s not forget candidates with disabilities who may not be able to answer as quickly as the AI system expects or maintain the required eye contact.

Failing To Be Transparent With Candidates

This is a particularly important mistake that businesses often make, which might lead to distrust between candidates and the company. If you fail to inform candidates that they will be interviewed by an AI system and provide an overview of the criteria on which they will be evaluated, they may feel blindsided upon entering the meeting and may not perform that well. As a result, you risk losing talented candidates and damaging your company’s reputation.

How To Avoid It

The AI interview pitfalls described above are diverse, which is why you need to implement several measures to address them. First, it is important to regularly audit your AI algorithms for fairness and inclusivity to ensure that no strong applicants are overlooked. The same level of caution should be applied to the evaluation criteria for skills and personality traits to guarantee that the system focuses on the factors that truly matter.

Additionally, creating tailored interview scripts for different roles, industries, and seniorities can make the interview feel more personalized to each candidate. To further accommodate their unique needs, offer the option of face-to-face or chat-based interviews to overcome accessibility and tech issues.

Finally, ensure that there is human interaction before the interview to inform applicants about the AI system, as well as after, to communicate whether they have been selected for the next phase or rejected. Following these steps will enhance the candidate’s interview experience and produce the best possible results for your company’s image and hiring strategy.

3. Decision Making And Hiring

Letting AI Make The Final Call

This AI hiring mistake occurs after the interview phase has been completed, but it can significantly impact candidate matching results. When businesses treat AI as an all-knowing power, they may be tempted to completely replace their human team with it. However, allowing the AI system to make the final hiring decision can result in employees who, despite looking good on paper, may not be the best cultural fit or possess the necessary soft skills for the position.

How To Avoid It

It is important to remember that while Artificial Intelligence is a helpful tool, it is only supplementary to your existing internal or external hiring and recruitment team. AI shouldn’t be trusted to make final decisions at any stage of the hiring process. Human judgment is invaluable, which is why your team should review the AI system’s recommendations to ensure that all criteria are met. Besides, AI interviews are only used in the initial stages of the hiring process, when hundreds of candidates need to be screened. In subsequent communications, interviews, or assessments, human involvement is nonnegotiable. Finally, regularly monitor the performance of the AI system and retrain it with new data to eliminate any potential unconscious biases.

4. Preboarding

Overlooking The Employee Experience

The involvement of AI in the hiring process extends beyond the interviews. In fact, many businesses choose to implement AI to facilitate a smooth and consistent onboarding experience. Nevertheless, if you rely too heavily on technology, you might end up with an impersonal or even awkward welcome that leaves new hires with limited guidance and support during a crucial stage in their careers. This can hurt your reputation and may even lead to early resignations, sometimes even before the onboarding process is completed.

How To Avoid It

The best way to optimize the employee experience during all stages of the automated hiring process is to stay in close contact with them. Collect feedback regularly through surveys to ensure that candidates and new hires are happy with the interview process, the communication between them and the company, the onboarding process, and other stages of hiring. This way, you will foster a positive employee experience that boosts retention and fosters an attractive brand image for your company.

Conclusion

While implementing AI in hiring can bring significant benefits, it can also hurt your business when not used correctly. In this article, we discussed various mistakes, specifically AI interview pitfalls, that can negatively impact the candidate experience and lead your company to poor hiring decisions. But most of these mistakes seem to stem from businesses that tend to treat AI as a cure-all instead of a valuable tool that they should combine with the experience of their recruitment team. Explore the solutions we shared above to find out how to blend technology with human judgment to identify and attract the most skilled candidates.