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After the pandemic, virtual meetings and interviews became the new normal in Silicon Valley. From startups to big tech giants, most companies shifted to online hiring processes to boost efficiency and cut costs. However, with AI now changing work dynamics, there’s a new problem these companies are facing– the AI-assisted cheating during virtual hiring. To deal with this, Google has decided to bring back in-person job interviews to more accurately assess a candidate’s real skills.
Earlier this year in February, during an internal town hall meeting, Google employees directly raised the issue of candidates relying on AI tools to cheat in interviews, according to a CNBC report that reviewed recordings of the discussion. One employee asked, “Can we get onsite job interviews back? There are many email threads about this topic. If budget is a constraint, can we get the candidates to an office or environment we can control?”
Brian Ong, Google’s Vice President of Recruiting, admitted the challenge was real. While online interviews did help the company shorten the hiring timeline by nearly two weeks, he acknowledged they lacked the authenticity of face-to-face assessments. “We definitely have more work to do to integrate how AI is now more prevalent in the interview process,” Ong said during the town hall.
To change the hiring playbook, employees received top-level backing from CEO Sundar Pichai, who confirmed that Google will adopt a hybrid approach to recruitment. Speaking on the Lex Fridman podcast in June, Pichai said, “Given we all work hybrid, I think it’s worth thinking about some fraction of the interviews being in person. I think it’ll help both the candidates understand Google’s culture and I think it’s good for both sides.”
He further stressed that at least one round of in-person interviews will now be mandatory for certain roles, particularly those requiring practical assessments such as coding challenges. “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,” Pichai added.
Notably, Google is not the only company stressed with AI-assisted cheating during interviews. Reports suggest that more than half of candidates at some organisations are suspected of using unauthorised AI tools during virtual interviews. That reality has triggered a wave of policy shifts across the corporate world.
Amazon, for instance, now requires candidates to formally acknowledge that they will not use AI tools during interviews. Anthropic, the AI safety company, has also explicitly banned applicants from using such technology in its recruitment process. Consulting giants such as McKinsey and Deloitte, along with tech players like Cisco, have also reinstated face-to-face interviews for specific roles. Deloitte has already reintroduced in-person sessions for its UK graduate programme.
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