AI is making it easier for job candidates to present polished answers, but employers are responding by making interviews harder to fake. Remote companies are increasingly asking candidates to prove their identity, location and ability to think without an AI assistant, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Remote Hiring Gets More Suspicious
The concern is widespread. A survey of 3,000 managers by Checkr found that 59% suspected candidates had used AI to misrepresent themselves during hiring.
That has pushed some employers toward unusual screening methods. Candidates may be asked to remove virtual backgrounds, move their cameras around the room, share their screens or perform simple physical actions during video interviews.
The goal can range from verifying that a candidate is actually where they claim to be to determining whether someone else, another device or an AI-generated face is helping them answer.
Companies Are Testing What AI Can’t Easily Fake
Somos, a remote-first telecommunications and security company, has introduced several of these checks. Candidates may be asked to show their surroundings and wave a hand in front of their face. The company also checks IP addresses after discovering candidates who claimed to be in the U.S. were actually located abroad.
Some candidates have reportedly ended interviews when asked to complete the checks.
Other companies are focusing less on physical verification and more on whether candidates can demonstrate their own reasoning. Passion.io, a remote-first startup, uses screen sharing and live written exercises to see how candidates produce their answers.
The company has also moved away from some take-home assignments after finding that candidates were submitting heavily AI-generated responses.
AI Use Is Still Welcome, Within Limits
The growing scrutiny does not mean employers are banning AI from the hiring process.
Recruiter Mike Hauschild said some companies encourage candidates to use AI for take-home assignments and coding exercises. They still want applicants to demonstrate their own thinking during other parts of the interview.
BrightHire, which provides software for remote interviews, has also introduced tools that monitor signals such as browser-tab switching. The results are reviewed by people rather than used as an automatic hiring decision.
For some employers, the distinction is becoming simple: AI can help candidates work, but it should not be able to impersonate their skills.
In-Person Interviews Make a Comeback
Some companies are responding by bringing candidates back into the office for critical parts of the hiring process. Nominal requires candidates to complete final interviews in person, with engineers taking coding tests on company-provided laptops. The approach gives recruiters direct control over the testing environment.
Employers increasingly want to hear the unfinished version of a person’s thinking: how they work through uncertainty, make unexpected connections and respond when there isn’t an obvious answer.
