How to prepare for an AI interview: text, voice and video

What an AI interview is

An AI interview is a job interview in which software asks the questions instead of a recruiter. It is usually the first round: the employer sends you a link, you answer in your own time, and people on the hiring team read or watch what you said afterwards. How the software works, and what it should and should not decide, is covered in what is an AI interviewer.

First, find out which kind you have

Preparation depends on the format. The invitation usually says which one it is, and if it does not, ask the recruiter before you open the link.

• Text chat. You type your answers, or dictate them, in a chat window, often on a phone. Nobody sees you, and you can think before you send each answer.
• Recorded video. A question appears on screen and you record your answer. Many platforms give a short time to think before recording starts and limit how many times you can record again, and a practice question at the start shows how it works.
• Live voice or video. The AI speaks the questions and responds to what you say, closer to a phone call than a form.

How the formats differ for the people using them is compared in AI video interviews or chat interviews.

What an AI interview asks

A first round exists to settle a few things before anyone books a real interview, so most AI interviews cover the same ground:

• your experience that is relevant to this role;
• why you applied, and why you are looking to move;
• the salary you expect;
• your notice period and the earliest date you could start;
• availability, such as shifts, weekends or location;
• one or two questions about how you handled a real situation at work.

Why employers ask exactly these at this stage is in the questions a first round actually has to answer.

What gets assessed

That depends on the employer and the software, so it is fair to ask. In a well-designed AI interview, the content of your answers is compared with what the role needs, and a person on the hiring team reads the result and decides who moves forward.

You should be told before the first question that you are talking to an AI. If you are not, or you want to know whether a person reviews the results, ask the employer. The design choices that make an AI interview fair or unfair are in is an AI screening interview fair to the candidate?

Before the interview: what to have ready

1. The job advert, open in another tab. Pick out the two or three requirements that matter most and have an example ready for each.
2. Your CV, with the dates and job titles of your previous roles. An answer that contradicts your CV is the easiest thing for a reader to notice.
3. Your salary expectation, as a figure. In Malaysia, give the basic salary and any fixed allowance separately. A single total is hard to compare with an offer.
4. Your notice period and a realistic start date. Check your contract for the notice period. The notice period calculator gives the last day under the Employment Act if you are not sure how it counts.
5. Three short examples from work, each with what happened, what you did and how it turned out. Numbers help: customers a shift, orders a day, a target you met.
6. The setting. For video: the camera at eye level, light in front of you rather than behind, a quiet room, a charged battery and a connection that will last. For text: a stretch of time when you will not be interrupted.

During the interview: how to answer

• Answer the question that was asked, in the first sentence, then add the detail.
• One specific example beats three general claims. “I handled about forty customers a shift” says more than “I have customer service experience”.
• A follow-up question is normal. Software asks one when an answer leaves out what the question was for. It does not mean you have failed.
• On video, talk to the camera. Keep notes to a few words; reading a script word for word sounds like reading.
• In text, write as you would to a hiring manager: full sentences and short paragraphs.
• Be exact about facts. If you are not sure of your notice period or a date, say so and give your best understanding rather than a number you made up.

Can you use ChatGPT for an AI interview?

To prepare, yes. Using an AI tool to practise likely questions, or to tighten the examples you already have, is ordinary interview preparation.

During the interview, it works against you. The hiring team reads or watches the whole interview, generated answers sound alike from one candidate to the next, and follow-up questions ask about the details of your own experience, which a generated answer does not have. Some employers treat it as dishonest. Answer in your own words.

Answering in Malay or another language

If another language is easier for you, ask the employer whether you can use it. Some text interviewers carry on in whatever language you write in; others only work in the language the employer chose.

After the interview

The result usually goes to a person at the company, who decides on next steps on their own timeline. If you have not heard back by the time they gave, contact the employer directly. Questions about what happens to your answers, or requests to remove them, also go to the employer that invited you.

Questions people ask

If your interview is with Blue

We make Agentic Blue, an AI interviewer that is typed by default with Voice and Video as options, so read the above knowing that. If your link is for an interview with Blue, what to expect in your interview with Blue covers exactly what you will see, how long it takes and what the hiring team receives.