Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur netus erat
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur bibendum volutpat.
NEW
Talent Acquisition with Conversational, Structured AI Interviews – Seamlessly Integrated with Your ATS
“knowledge workers” as they are with “high-volume” job seekers
older job seekers as they are with younger
people with master’s or bachelor’s degrees as they are with job-seekers without them
But what do job candidates think of being interviewed by an avatar? New research below explains. And if you are inclined to think that young people, and candidates for high-volume jobs, are the primary job seekers who would embrace this technology, the results are likely to surprise you.
A guide to the use of avatars in talent acquisition is also available.
Employers who use artificial intelligence to conduct job interviews have multiple reasons for doing so. It may save considerable amounts of time previously spent on manually reducing hundreds or even thousands of job applicants to a manageable number for a hiring manager to interview. It may help reduce the bias inherent with human review of resumes.
But the experience of job candidates is just as important. Do they believe it is fair, or that humans would be less biased? Is having a conversation with an avatar awkward, or are they comfortable with it and prefer a recorded conversation with a static image? Does it depend on whether this is for a “high-volume” job, or for a “knowledge worker”?
Not to be ignored: the question of whether job candidates would even be willing to participate in such an interview.
Colleva addressed these questions in an April-June 2025 study of 667 people. Colleva's analyzed feedback across seven job roles: Account Manager, Customer Support Representative, Executive Assistant, Financial Advisor, Project Manager, Operations Specialist, and Sales Development Representative. Rather than just asking people how they felt about the possibility of being interviewed by an avatar, the study involved people who had experienced an avatar interview, for a more accurate reading of their experience.
The upshot of what the study found: “Candidates told us this wasn’t just bearable — it was better,” says Colleva Co-founder Michael Palys. “More thoughtful, less biased, and surprisingly human.”
Most people find AI interviews fair, regardless of gender, race, or educational level. And these interviews were embraced just as much among knowledge workers such as financial advisors as they were among people seeking more high-volume positions.
Read on for more about the results of this study.
Here’s a quick look at the intriguing results from this study of how job candidates felt about their interview with an AI-powered avatar.
%said avatar interviews gave them a fair chance to present their qualifications
%said it was a valuable part of the application process
%felt the recruiter would understand them better because of the experience
%felt more confident in their application
%of candidates prefer AI avatar interviews to a simple voice-based interview (of those who have a preference)
Before even considering issues such as bias, an important question is whether a job interview with an avatar, instead of a live person, is even something job seekers will want to do.
According to Colleva’s findings:
In their own words, here is some of what job candidates said about their experience with an avatar.
An avatar is not the only type of virtual interview. Employers can use phone-based interviews that don’t involve an image of a face in any way. Or, they can use a video interview, where candidates are asked to make recordings of their answers to written questions, with no person, image, or avatar involved. There are many other variations of the job interview.
According to this new research:
Candidates consistently told us the avatar made the experience feel more human, helped reduce their nerves, and gave them someone to engage with, without the pressure of a real person. It added structure, warmth, and a surprising sense of presence.
Here is some of what they told us about how an avatar compares to other interviews, such as an initial round of interviewing with a person.
One candidate even compared the avatar interview not just to other types of phone/computer interviews, but to human interviews. They said: “The avatar made me feel more at ease than humans, I guess, because I knew it wasn't real but it also was very engaging.”
The conventional wisdom of the use of AI interviews is that they are best suited for high-volume positions; for example, sales-representative jobs making cold calls for call centers or other companies. Turnover can run very high, even at rates of 100 percent, in some jobs in these industries. At some organizations, hundreds and even thousands of people are applying, screened, interviewed, assessed, and selected in any given week.
Some people’s assumption is that employees in more of a “knowledge work” role prefer a higher touch experience that involves more human-to-human interaction.
Colleva’s AI interview study does not support this conventional wisdom. The satisfaction rates among financial advisors were the highest of the jobs we tested. Financial advisors, accustomed to building client relationships through conversation, found the AI interview format natural and highly effective for demonstrating their interpersonal skills.
Ninety-seven percent of advisors were comfortable with the format. This was the highest comfort rate of all the roles we examined. Financial advisors’ satisfaction rates, at 86 percent, were also the highest among all the roles. “The AI-powered interview is a valuable tool for practicing communication skills,” said one participant, “especially for those preparing for roles like financial advisor where clarity and confidence are key.”
Said another: “I appreciated the AI interview format for its efficiency, clarity, and structured conversation, allowing me to showcase my skills and experience in a concise manner.”
Finance is an area where our customers have indeed found AI interviews to be particularly effective. It is also a sector that does a tremendous amount of due diligence when picking a vendor, only considers technologies with SOC 2 Type II certifications, and is determined to reduce risk.
An important consideration in any assessment or interview is providing a level playing field to every candidate. Does the type of evaluation or selection tool used provide people who have been otherwise overlooked a chance to prove their ability to do the job? How is the technology embraced by people from under-represented groups?
In Colleva’s research, people of color reported higher satisfaction and comfort than other participants (7 percent more people of color, for example, preferred an AI interview over a resume/cover letter alone, when compared to other participants). Non-native English speakers, older candidates, and people with disabilities all found the format accessible and fair. Of people over 60 years old, for example, 84 percent were comfortable completing the interview format; of those under 30, 83 percent were. Satisfaction didn’t vary significantly based on the education levels of the respondent; whether people had a master’s, bachelor’s, or no college degree produced no significantly different comfort levels.
Overall, the Colleva research study found that 91 percent of job seekers said avatar interviews gave them a fair chance to present their qualifications, and 83 percent felt recruiters would understand them better than without the interview.
Here are some of the comments from job seekers about how they perceived the fairness of an avatar interview.
The results of this study of the use of AI-based avatars to handle at least an initial round of job candidate interviews were very positive. Strong majorities of job candidates found the format to be more fair and more comfortable than alternative forms of assessment. It was embraced as much by people over 30 as under. It is as comfortable for “knowledge workers” in finance as it is for people seeking high-volume jobs. Strong majorities of people find it fair, regardless of gender, race, or educational level.
Given their tremendous potential to improve both quality of hire and the candidate experience, Avatar usage will likely only expand. Its use will be more common in other areas of talent acquisition and talent management, including:
Colleva is working with companies in multiple industries on all of these ways to use avatars. Let us know if you would like to talk more about the research on job seekers, or about what we are learning from our customers about how avatars can benefit companies, job seekers, and employees.