Candidates prefer conversational AI Interviews Vs Humans

A large70,000‑applicant field experiment run by academic researchers in partnership with recruitment firm, PSG Global Solutions, shows what really happens when AI runs first‑round interviews instead of human recruiters. The numbers are hard to ignore.

What changed when AI ran first‑round interviews

In this study, PSG Global Solutions randomly routed candidates either to a human recruiter, to an AI voice agent, or gave them a choice between the two. Human recruiters still made the final hiring decisions in every case, based on interview outputs and test results.

Three commercial outcomes stood out:

• 12% more offers extended
  Candidates who completed AI‑led interviews were about 12% more likely to receive a job offer than those interviewed by humans.

• 18% more candidates actually started
  The AI path did not just generate offers on paper; it produced an 18% increase in actual job starts, meaning more candidates turned into real hires on day one.

• AI‑interviewed hires stayed 17% longer
  Early retention (measured at 30 days) was around 17% higher for candidates who went through AI‑led interviews versus those interviewed by humans.

The surprise: candidates prefer AI

The most unexpected result was candidate choice. When the PSG experiment offered applicants the option of either a human recruiter or the AI interviewer,nearly 78% chose the AI.

Candidates gravitated to AI because they could interview outside working hours, from home, and receive consistent, structured questions without worrying about a recruiter’s mood, time pressure, or subjective first impression. Crucially, offer and satisfaction outcomes were at least as strong for those who chose AI.

What this means for recruiting teams

This research with PSG Global Solutions does not argue for removing recruiters from the process; it argues forchanging their role.

• AI handles the high‑volume, repeatable first‑round conversations, capturing richer and more consistent data from every candidate.

• Recruiters use that signal to spend more time advising hiring managers, building relationships, and making nuanced judgments about fit at later stages.

The takeaway: when AI runs the first interview and humans make the final call, teams can increase offers, starts, and short‑term retention—while most candidates actually prefer the AI path.