How to stop AI use in interviews: a recruiter's guide

What to do before, during and after a remote interview to keep AI assistants out of it, with a sample AI policy you can send to candidates.

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Some of the people you interview remotely are likely to be reading answers from an AI tool. They are a minority, and nothing below makes the interview harder for a candidate who answers unaided. This guide explains how to stop AI use in interviews where that is possible, how to slow it down and expose it where it is not, and what to put in a written policy for candidates.

Five steps, in order

  1. Set out the permitted help in advance.
  2. Match the face on the call to the name on the application.
  3. Give an assistant as little as possible to read or hear.
  4. Dig into work the candidate did personally.
  5. Keep written notes and compare them with your colleagues' before any decision.

The scale of AI cheating in interviews

Two surveys give a sense of it. Of 1,000 US job seekers polled by Resume Genius in 2026, 22% reported real-time AI use in an interview. When interviewing.io polled interviewers in 2025, 81% of those at big technology firms suspected that a candidate had cheated with AI. More numbers are collected in our AI interview cheating statistics.

The forms the help takes

  • A dedicated assistant app follows the audio, scans the screen and shows its answer in a window. Certain apps hide that window from screen sharing. For background, read how AI interview assistants work and what is Cluely.
  • A phone runs a chatbot, frequently by voice.
  • An extension in the browser responds to whatever question is on the page.
  • A helper out of shot feeds the candidate answers.

Preparation

State your AI rules in the invitation, then once more as the interview opens. A rule that has been spelled out is one most people keep. The wording below can be adapted:

You are free to use AI tools when writing your application and résumé. If a take-home task involved AI, let us know the tools and what you did with them. In live interviews we want your own answers, so please leave out chatbots, interview assistant apps, question-answering browser extensions and other people's help. Notes on paper are welcome, and so is asking us to say a question again. Should you need an adjustment, for instance more time or screen reader support, contact us ahead of the interview.

Hold the candidate's ID or profile photo beside the face on the call, and check that the email address is the one used to apply. That habit also guards against deepfake candidates and fake identities, and how to verify a remote candidate's identity gives every step.

Build your question list around things the candidate did, and attach two or three follow-ups to each, because no AI tool has those facts. Two guides go further: how to stop AI during an interview with the questions you ask and how to stop AI in live coding interviews.

While the interview is running

What an assistant cannot see or hear, it cannot answer. Share only the material the exercise requires. Many of these tools listen in, so when a question is written down, say it in different words instead of reciting it.

Come back quickly after each answer with something brief, such as "Why did you choose that?" The tool takes a few seconds to generate text, which gives the candidate almost no chance to read it before you expect a reply.

Three things deserve attention: hesitation ahead of simple questions, eyes tracking as though over text, and replies with the feel of a summary. Anxiety causes hesitation as well, which is why one observation settles nothing. Jot it down and continue. More signs are listed in signs a candidate is using AI.

Once it is over

Compare notes as a panel ahead of the decision. If doubt remains, arrange a brief second conversation led by another interviewer. Someone who really did the work tends to give a fuller account when asked again.

  • Asking for a tour of the room. The phone comes back out a minute afterward.
  • Software that detects AI text. Short spoken answers defeat it, and it sometimes flags a person whose speech is merely formal.
  • Lockdown software. A second device is outside its view, and plenty of candidates refuse to install it.
  • Moving all interviews on site. This is effective, at the price of slower and costlier hiring. More in should you go back to in-person interviews?

Frequently asked questions

Is it possible to stop AI use in an interview completely?

It is not. What you can do is make cheating slow and unreliable, so that few candidates attempt it and the few who do stand out.

Is it right to tell candidates you look for AI use?

Yes. Candidates are treated more fairly, and you avoid having to rule on what counts as cheating in the middle of an interview.

Are these measures unfair to candidates?

Every candidate faces identical rules, and the honest ones are no longer measured against chatbot output. Settle adjustments such as additional time ahead of the interview.

Does SecureInterview record the interview?

SecureInterview does not record or transcribe meetings: audio, video and shared screens pass to the people in the meeting and are not stored. On Pro the host can record to their own device, and everyone in the meeting sees "Recording" while it runs. The steps of an interview are on how it works.

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