What happens in each format?
In a one-way video interview, a candidate typically reads or watches a fixed prompt and records an answer. The employer later reviews the recordings. Retakes, preparation time and answer limits depend on the platform and the employer’s settings.
A conversational AI interview asks questions and can ask follow-ups in response to the candidate’s answer. In Recruit, Iris conducts AI-led screening and technical interviews, with recordings, transcripts and scorecards available in the hiring workflow. A live recruiter screen adds a person who can change direction, explain the opportunity and resolve unusual circumstances.
Compare the evidence you need
Fixed prompts make it easier to present the same opening questions to every applicant. They can work when the question is narrow and a recorded response is sufficient. They are less helpful when a short answer needs clarification before a reviewer can interpret it.
Conversational follow-ups can explore why a candidate chose an approach or what they meant by a claim. Review the transcript to see whether the follow-up actually clarified the competency. More conversation is not automatically better evidence, and a polished spoken answer is not a substitute for a relevant work sample.
- One-way video: useful for consistent prompts and asynchronous recording.
- Conversational AI: useful when clarification and role-specific follow-ups matter.
- Live recruiter screen: useful for mutual discovery, context and complex candidate questions.
- Work sample: useful when the key requirement is doing the task rather than describing it.
Evaluate the candidate experience before rolling out
Try the process on a phone, on a slower connection and with the microphone permissions initially denied. Check whether the invitation explains duration, recording and what happens next. A candidate should be able to find help without guessing which inbox is monitored.
Provide a route to request an accommodation or an alternative format. If an interview fails technically, make the recovery process clear. Do not treat a failed upload or interrupted call as evidence about a candidate’s job skills.
Ask vendors to demonstrate the review workflow
Request a complete example: invitation, interview, transcript, scorecard and reviewer decision. Ask which claims are grounded in a candidate’s response and which are generated interpretations. Inspect how the system handles “not enough evidence”, unanswered questions and contradictions.
Check whether automatic advancement or rejection is enabled, who can change it and how a human review request is handled. Separate product capabilities from the employer’s configuration. The same interview tool can support very different hiring processes.
Start with one clearly defined stage
Pilot a single role with a stable rubric. Decide in advance what the next human conversation or work sample will verify. Compare completion, support requests and reviewer agreement with your previous process. Avoid making claims about time savings or hiring quality before you have measured them.
If you want to explore Recruit, use the public product demo and inspect how interviews connect to the ATS. Candidates applying for an actual vacancy should use that employer’s job page, where the relevant role and screening notice are available.
For candidate information, read the AI screening notice and privacy policy.