Over 100,000 people have gone through micro1 testing in hopes of being added to the engineering marketplace. micro1 lists companies such as Monday.com and artificial intelligence company DoNotPay among those that have used its system to screen or hire engineers from its market. Ansari says companies exploit micro1 to screen as many as 30,000 candidates a month.
Of course, AI tools are still biased, Ansari says. “Of course, there is also a bias towards people. The goal of the AI system is to make it much less biased than humans.” Thanks to AI, Ansari explains, the AI interviewer on micro1 won’t pass or fail a candidate; instead, it divides them into categories such as inexperienced, intermediate, and senior. Then, Ansari says, it’s up to the hiring manager or recruiter to decide whether the candidate is right for the job. They can also listen to audio recordings of responses rather than relying solely on the AI interviewer.
Zahira Jaser, associate professor at the University of Sussex’s business school, says much remains unknown about the impact of artificial intelligence and asynchronous interviewing, including the impact the technology will have on candidates. Recording yourself can be uncomfortable, and the AI interviewer can’t pick up any human cues. After being told to act naturally and do their best in the already stressful interview process throughout their careers, people may not know how to put their best foot forward to a chatbot, especially when faced with cloudy, built-in AI biases.
“In the real world, people are biased. However, there are techniques through which we can overcome these human biases, says Yasser. “With an algorithmic mindset, it’s likely to be very systematic.” For example, some AI-powered hiring tools are trained on profiles of past successful employees, raising concerns that they will repeat biased hiring practices of the past.
For now, these AI tools do not have the final say in who gets hired. But they are increasingly influencing which candidates meet a real human being, and that could have a huge impact on what the future of the workforce will look like.
But if you ask Ansari, there’s an alternative path to job interviews in the future: He believes job seekers could also exploit AI-powered avatars to interview AI interviewers, moving the painful and tedious parts of the initial job search entirely to computers. Ansari says AI can “really do a good job matching” job seekers to companies. “Then the company and the candidate can spend real time on a Zoom call or an in-person interview.”