Late-Night Interviews Fuel AI Hiring Push, Ribbon Data Shows

Two veteran HR experts told Business Insider they see AI interviews as a net positive for inclusion. Tim Sackett, CEO of HRUTech.com, called AI interviewing "the best thing to ever happen" to inclusive hiring. "For the first time in history, 100% of applicants are being able to interview and show their worth to the job," Sackett said. Steve Boese, Co-Chair of the HR Technology Conference, said technology-driven flexibility is a "net positive" for candidates. "If hiring companies can offer 24/7 availability for these kinds of AI-brokered interviews, then they have removed a potential barrier for at least some candidates who by need or by choice will elect to take the interview at 1 a.m. or 2 a.m.," Boese said.

A May survey from Greenhouse found that nearly two-thirds of applicants had been interviewed by an AI agent, up 13 percentage points in six months. Yet 38% of US candidates told Greenhouse they had abandoned a hiring process rather than interview with AI. Another 12% said they would do so if an AI interview were mandatory. In the same survey, 36% of respondents said they felt evaluated differently because of age in both AI-led and human interviews, while 27% cited race or ethnicity.

Large language models can absorb and reproduce stereotypes from training data, academic research has shown. A 2025 Stanford study found that ChatGPT's responses showed clear biases against older women and younger workers when generating depictions of workers across industries.

"While many people long for the 'old days' of live phone screens, in-person interviews, personal feedback, etc, we are just not going back to those processes at any scale," Boese added. "Tech has taken over most of the recruiting process, and AI is now replacing the legacy solutions."