Imagine applying for a job and receiving an invitation to interview. There is no recruiter on the other end of the call, no conventional panel and no human asking the opening questions. Instead, an artificial intelligence (AI) system speaks to you, asks about your experience, records your responses and evaluates your suitability for the position. For job seekers in India, this is becoming a reality. Companies are experimenting with AI interviewers to handle the first round of recruitment, particularly for positions attracting thousands of applications. The technology promises faster screening and lower recruitment costs. It also raises a fundamental question: how does a candidate convince a machine that they deserve a job?
How does an AI interview work?
An AI-led interview usually begins with an invitation to complete a digital assessment. Depending on the platform, candidates may interact with a voice-based agent, respond to questions on video or participate in a structured conversation. The system asks about qualifications, work experience, job-related knowledge and behavioural situations. Some platforms can ask follow-up questions, evaluate responses against predefined criteria and generate scores or recommendations for recruiters. Not every automated interview works in the same way. Some systems conduct conversational interviews, while others rely on scripted questions, automated telephone calls or recorded responses. These should not be confused with software that merely scans CVs or schedules interviews. AI is moving from helping recruiters manage interviews to conducting parts of the interview itself. It can handle the initial interaction, but the extent of its role in evaluating candidates and influencing hiring decisions varies between employers.
MakeMyTrip: 45,000 applicants, an AI-led first round
One Indian example comes from MakeMyTrip. Its MyLaunchpad campus hiring initiative, aimed at early-career candidates, can attract more than 45,000 applicants, according to India Today’s report of 2 December 2025. The company uses AI-driven interviews for early-career positions in technology, product and business development. Its platform generates more than 20,000 data points per interview across functional, cognitive, behavioural and communication dimensions, according to Group CHRO Yuvaraj Srivastava. The system helps shortlist applicants, after which human professionals conduct further interviews. Srivastava said that hiring cycles had become 50 per cent faster and the cost per hire in non-metropolitan cities had fallen by 40 per cent. These are figures reported by the company, not independently audited industry-wide findings. The stated objective is to process applications at scale while widening access to candidates outside major metropolitan centres.
R Systems: an AI agent called Zyra
Product engineering and digital solutions company R Systems has also introduced AI into preliminary recruitment through an in-house agent called Zyra. Zyra was being deployed in a controlled pilot to conduct automated screening and first-level interview interactions for fresh graduates, technical and engineering positions, and some experienced candidates. The system assesses communication and behavioural fit and provides real-time scoring. R Systems’ chief human resources officer, Satyadeep Mishra, told the publication that manual screening time had fallen by 40–55 per cent, first-level interview scheduling had become around 60 per cent faster, and hiring costs for high-volume roles had fallen by up to 30 per cent. These are company-reported outcomes. Human professionals remain involved in subsequent assessments and final hiring decisions. The examples illustrate the emerging model: AI handles the initial interaction, while people take over when deeper technical knowledge, judgement or context is required.
Which industries are using AI interviews?
The trend extends beyond technology companies. AI-led screening is particularly attractive to businesses that receive large numbers of applications for roles with relatively standardised initial assessments. A report by recruitment platform Apna, published by ETHRWorld on 24 December 2025, said more than 6,000 companies had adopted its AI Calling Agent during 2025. Employers created around 11,200 AI-enabled job listings, resulting in approximately 12 lakh automated screenings, according to the platform’s data. The report identified Paytm, Titan, Muthoot Fincorp, SBI Life Insurance, IDFC First Bank and HCL among companies using the tool. Adoption was strongest in sales, customer support, software development, finance and operations, with Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities emerging as important markets. The distinction between automated screening and a full AI interview is important. An AI calling agent may ask preliminary questions about experience, availability and eligibility without conducting a comprehensive interview. Apna also reported more than 73 lakh AI interview sessions on its platform during 2025, amounting to over 1.9 crore minutes. However, its report also discussed an AI Job Prep tool that helps candidates practise interviews. The figure should not be interpreted as 73 lakh employer-conducted interviews. It reflects platform activity around AI interviews and preparation, rather than establishing the number of actual recruitment interviews conducted by machines. Nevertheless, the data indicate that automated candidate interactions are being used across financial services, retail-related businesses, technology and customer-facing operations. Sales and customer support offer obvious applications because employers often recruit large numbers of employees. Financial services and operations involve repeated preliminary checks, while technology companies can use AI screening before more intensive technical assessments.
A wider transformation in campus hiring
AI interviews are part of a larger shift in Indian recruitment. Deloitte India’s Campus Workforce Trends 2026, published on 27 August 2026, found that 86 per cent of surveyed organisations said AI or agentic AI was transforming their recruitment processes. The survey covered 257 organisations and 505 campuses. Resume screening was the most common application, used by 72 per cent of organisations, followed by AI-based assessments at 48 per cent. Deloitte also identified AI-led video interviewing as an emerging screening method. These figures describe AI adoption across recruitment, not the proportion of employers conducting fully automated interviews. They nevertheless indicate that the technology is becoming embedded in several stages of campus hiring. The survey also found that 35 per cent of organisations reported AI adoption was creating new entry-level roles or skill requirements, up from 21 per cent in FY25. Recruitment technology is therefore changing not only how candidates are selected but also the capabilities employers expect them to demonstrate.
Can a machine judge a candidate fairly?
The attraction for employers is clear: AI can operate at scale, ask structured questions and reduce the time recruiters spend on repetitive preliminary conversations. For candidates, however, the experience raises concerns about transparency and fairness. A system may misinterpret an accent, misunderstand an answer or place excessive weight on communication patterns that do not reliably predict job performance. Applicants may also be unclear about how their data are stored and how automated scores influence shortlisting. A consistent assessment is not necessarily a fair or accurate one. Employers need to test their systems for bias, ensure that questions are relevant to the job and provide appropriate human oversight. AI should support recruitment decisions rather than become an unquestioned authority. Fresh graduates may also need to adapt to speaking clearly to a digital interviewer, answering structured questions and explaining their reasoning without the natural cues of a human conversation.
The machine asks. The human decides.
For now, the Indian examples point towards a hybrid model. AI is taking on preliminary interviews and high-volume screening, while people continue to handle technical depth, complex judgement and final selection. The scale of adoption remains difficult to establish nationally. Company case studies and recruitment-platform figures demonstrate real activity, but India does not yet have a comprehensive public count of employers using AI to conduct interviews, candidates interviewed or jobs filled through such systems. What is clear is that the first round of recruitment is changing. For some applicants, the first voice they hear after submitting a CV may no longer belong to a recruiter. The machine may not make the final hiring decision. But increasingly, it is helping decide who gets to meet the person who does.
