Want a job? Employers say: Talk to the computer

Online services that interview job applicants remotely by webcam and use artificial intelligence to assess their skills mushroomed in popularity during the pandemic and into the subsequent economic recovery

A day after her interview for a part-time job at Target last year, Dana Anthony got an email informing her she didn't make the cut. Anthony didn't know why — a situation common to most job seekers at one point or another. But she also had no sense at all of how the interview had gone, because her interviewer was a computer. More job-seekers, including some professionals, may soon have to accept impersonal online interviews where they never talk to another human being, or know if behind-the-scenes artificial-intelligence systems are influencing hiring decisions. Demand for online hiring services, which interview job applicants remotely via laptop or phone, mushroomed during the COVID-19 pandemic and remains high amid a perceived worker shortage as the economy opens back up. These systems claim to save employers money, sidestep hidden biases that can influence human recruiters and expand the range of potential candidates. Many now also use AI to assess candidate skills by analyzing what they say.