Should You Use AI During a Job Interview? Here's Why You Shouldn't

People were getting caught using AI because interviewers could see the app on their glasses reflection... but there are other reasons to not do this.

Picture this: you are super nervous for a job interview that you are crazy excited about it. Maybe it's the first interview you have had while starting your job hunt and you are extremely nervous. Or maybe this is the latest in a round of final interviews you have had and you want this one to be successful after so many others failed. Either way, you want to make sure you nail this interview. You have practiced your STAR responses, learned about the company and have your outfit ironed and ready to go.

But you are worried those won't be enough. Maybe you need an extra "something" to make sure that you nail every question. Or the grind of constant applications and interviews has you worried that you aren't standing out from the crowd. So you come to a decision: I am going to use AI to answer my interview questions for me instead of using my own answers.

Sounds smart right? AI should give me the perfect answer to any question that a recruiter or interviewer will come up with. The assumption is that using AI in job interviews will allow for a more polished and thorough answer than you yourself. Maybe it will erase your fears of preparing for each and every question that can come up as you will be able to answer questions on the fly.

I am truly sorry - but I am here to kill this idea.

While it sounds good on the surface, AI is not something that you want to be using during your interview.

Now, this is not a completely anti-AI blog. In fact I go in depth about how AI is actually a great aide for organizing your job search and helping you prepare documents and interview questions in advance. I can confidently say it was tool that helped immensely in my last job search.

But AI during the interview is a whole different beast. AI here is not going to make you look put together and more polished relative to your peers. In fact, this is a great way to come off as fake or dishonest even if those traits would not be what define you normally.

Still think using AI during the interview is going to help you get ahead? Read the below to see what actually happens when you use AI to answer your interview questions.

You Come Across as Fake and Robotic

Recruiters and hiring managers are looking to hire someone who is going to be unique for this role. They want someone who stands out from the crowd and has their own understanding of how to solve the problems faced by the company. If they wanted ChatGPT answers to problems, they would just ask ChatGPT. What is setting you apart if they could get these same responses from asking this question to any chat bot?

This is also going to hurt you if you heavily used AI to write your resume. While it may get you passed the first round by optimizing the resume for ATS, it's going to hurt you now to have no individual personality that distinguishes you from every other resume they have seen. If you are using very general and vague terminology you are indistinguishable from the first result of a Google search. You want to show that you have personality and direct experience, not that you read an answer from a script.

So you just practice to not sound like a robot, right? Wrong. You might not think that there are non-verbal cues that show when you are using AI but you would be wrong. Your hands not moving in time with what would be expected to write code in the moment, not actively listening but instead repeating back each question asked of you (because you need the AI to catch the question), or even not making direct eye contact with your screen are all ways you are going to come off as not engaged with the interview at best, cheating with AI at worst. As much as companies love AI they still aren't ready to hire a full scale robot yet. Don't let yourself become one

Follow-Up Questions Will Expose AI Use

While you may be able to create a surface level answer that is broad enough to answer the general question using AI, the inability to expand on your answer in any way is going to show you did not come up with the answer yourself. You cannot expand on an answer you didn't come up with.

Hiring managers (especially those in technical roles) are more and more frequently creating follow up questions to get a better understanding of why you chose to answer the way you did or what experience you used that led you to the answer. If your answers continue coming out general and vague relative to your experience they know that you are getting your answer from somewhere else.

You may think they won't know because they aren't in the room with you... you are wrong.

Using AI Shows Lack of Self-Confidence

You may think that having AI give you an extremely polished answer to a question would make you come off as a genius but it is in fact the exact opposite.

When someone reads from a script that is given to them that they are unfamiliar with, they do not show authority or expertise on the subject. The response can come out clunky while you try and understand where the points are going that you are reading from which leads to you looking like you are making up the answer as you go along.

But let's say you did nail the performance of the answer but something else gave you away (maybe the fact that your eyes were not making eye contact with the interviewer but were instead reading from a screen). When the hiring manager realizes that the answer isn't one that you yourself prepared they are going to question how well you can think on the spot and have confidence in your own ability to do the tasks they give you. Their internal decision will be this: someone that is confident they can do this job wouldn't have used AI and just stood on their experience instead.

It Comes Across Dishonest

This is the best reason not to go this route of all of them. Even if the interview instructions don't explicitly denounce the use of AI during the interview (which many companies now do), giving an answer that isn't your own would be the same as asking someone else to answer the question for you. A hiring manager might ask themselves when a person uses AI: "what else are they not being honest about?".

I know that this can seem hypocritical in a corporate environment that heavily pushes AI use for daily work. But the difference is when you use AI in the workplace you are expected to use it to have help with things you may not know. An interview is to find out what you are capable of on your own merit with no assistance. Anyone can use Claude to prompt a request for new code, but would you be able to understand the output? That is what the interviewer is trying to ascertain.

You Will Be Caught

Unfortunately for you there has been a rapid increase in AI use across all companies. What may have came across as someone maybe being a little awkward or too polished during the interview previously is now going to immediately signal using AI. Companies have caught on to what applicants are doing and are more aware of what to look for when someone may be using AI tools to help guide them in the process. And you better pray that another applicant doesn't use the same tool for the same questions because identical answers will sink you both!

Even if you manage to keep your speaking natural and your answers not sounding like they came straight from Wikipedia by some quick thinking, others things are going to. You may have too long of pauses, your mouse and eye movement can indicate you are reading something, you could even show the AI tool in your glasses reflection accidentally.

If your interviewer is even slightly knowledgeable about the role (which they will be) they are going to know if you naturally understand the topic or just pulling what would be the first response in GitHub to the question. Bottom line: even if they don't tell you expressly they know you are using AI - they do in fact know.

You Are Setting Yourself Up for Later Job Consequences

You might be thinking, "If it gets me a job I don't care". Which I get the sentiment, truly. If you have been out of work for months (possibly years) you are willing to do whatever you need to do in order to secure a job offer.

But many companies are writing explicit instructions in their interview prep for candidates that specifies they are not to use AI in the interview process. Getting caught no longer means just getting rejected for the position either. Companies are putting permanent bans on candidates they found to "cheat" during the interview.

Now let's say you get the offer. If you used AI to grossly inflate your capabilities or strengths it is going to become evident pretty immediately. Companies are not going to keep candidates long term who can't perform the stated job functions. And having a termination is worse than being laid off would be in terms of reputational damage.

Don't let yourself get your head underwater at a new job and beat yourself up even more if it doesn't work out. Set yourself up for success by standing on your skills.

Better to have had a job than to not have had one at all... or is it?

So No AI for Interviews?

To clarify, using AI before an interview is something that you absolutely should be doing. AI can help come up with common questions for the role you are looking at and help generate possible responses for you to practice based on your resume. It can also give examples of coding exercises you could be asked for in the role so you can practice different scenarios you may need to write on the spot. Being prepared with AI is never an issue, substituting preparedness with AI is.

What If I Am Terrible at Interviews?

I get it, if you are a nervous and anxious person than using AI can seem like a huge tool to helping you feel confident about going into the interview. But you need to go old school to get better at interviewing. Practice, practice, practice!

It doesn't have to be practice with a formal recruiter or at a real interview. You can just have a corporate friend who has been a hiring manager before give you feedback on what you could do better in presentation, responses, and attitude during an interview. Sometimes you don't realize how you explain a response doesn't provide clarity to your role or that your resting face comes across as un-engaged. Feedback is a great way to learn and grow in the interview process.

Take that feedback and also do your own practice at home as well. Knowing how to answer a behavioral question with STAR format isn't always enough to build confidence. Having the answer practiced and natural can show that this response isn't just something you came up with for the interview and instead shows confidence in what value you added to your former company.

I Am Still Going To Do It...

Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you! But you may want to know that the ease of using AI tools during the interview may be coming to an end. Google has re-introduced in person interviews to combat AI cheating in technical interview rounds and Microsoft is working on ways to alert interviewers if the interviewee has used AI code.

The best for your long-term future is to actually get the experience and aptitudes that you want to express in an interview. If you aren't feeling secure with your coding skills... practice! If you aren't sure about how your demeanor comes off in interviews... practice! Only through personal growth can most things be achieved in life and this will serve you well in all aspects of your career going forward. Good luck!