TL;DR: A resurgence of in-person job interviews is gaining momentum as employers attempt to combat a wave of cheating in the hiring process driven by artificial intelligence. While the pandemic and remote work boom made virtual interviews routine, the rapid adoption of generative AI tools has prompted a growing number of companies to reintroduce face-to-face assessments, hoping to verify skills and authenticity in ways that digital screens cannot.
According to hiring managers and workplace experts, this shift is partly a response to candidates leveraging AI to draft answers or even complete technical challenges in real time during virtual interviews. As recruiters have grown more sophisticated in their detection – searching for clues like suspicious pauses, off-screen activities, or answers that don't align with on-the-spot reasoning – so too are job seekers evading these measures.
Industry leaders have been candid about the impetus behind the trend. "We are making sure we'll introduce at least one round of in-person interviews for people, just to make sure the fundamentals are there," Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai told The Wall Street Journal in June.
Companies including Cisco and McKinsey are among those committing to more face-to-face sessions since it has become "relatively easy to use AI tools off camera to write the code job candidates are being tested on," recruiters told the publication.
Technical roles, especially in fields like software engineering, where virtual coding tests are standard, are particularly vulnerable. Interviewers have reported candidates using clandestine software to generate code or responses, occasionally relying on verbal cues like "Hmm..." as they wait for AI-generated answers to populate. The proliferation of services marketed to job applicants that promise to evade video platform detection has further raised the stakes. In extreme cases, deepfakes and synthetic personas have appeared in interviews, with some scams involving international operatives aiming to secure employment under false identities.
One troubling aspect of this trend is that some scams involve cybercriminals from other countries, including groups tied to North Korea. Investigations by security firms have uncovered schemes in which North Korean IT workers use generative AI to craft convincing résumés, alter their identities for live interviews, and even maintain multiple roles with US companies simultaneously, often for funneling salaries and sensitive information back to the regime. The FBI and cybersecurity firms have recently intensified warnings and monitoring for these fraudulent activities.
Employers have responded with a variety of strategies. Some now require biometric or digital identity verification before and during interviews. Others rely on in-person meetings, especially for final or high-level hiring decisions, to better gauge interpersonal skills and reduce the risk that candidates are borrowing from technological aids or posing as someone else.
Despite the advantages, workplace researchers point out that a total return to in-person interviews is unlikely, and most employers are instead opting for a hybrid process – virtual interviews for early rounds, with face-to-face meetings reserved for finalists or for certain high-stakes positions. "The recruiting landscape has changed with return to offices, and part of the return to in-person interviews is setting that expectation about coming into the office," according to Jamie Kohn, senior research director at Gartner. The move is as much about reducing risk as it is about reaffirming the value of direct, human interaction in a digital hiring world.