Feeling strange about it is normal
Many people describe their first AI interview the same way. "It doesn't feel real, it's like you're looking into a mirror and speaking to yourself," one UK student told the Guardian (as reported by The Condia). You are not imagining it.
Some people decline. In a May 2026 Greenhouse survey, 38% of job seekers said they had walked away from a hiring process because it included an AI interview. That is a valid choice, and if you would prefer a human interview, there is a separate guide on how to ask. The advice below is for when you decide to go ahead and want the format to feel less strange.
Why it feels odd
Nerves before any interview are familiar. An AI interview adds a few causes of its own, and it helps to know which one is getting to you.
- You get no feedback while you talk. In a conversation you read nods, smiles and small sounds and adjust; with a camera or an AI voice, none of that arrives. As one university careers centre puts it, without real-time feedback "it's tough to know if your answers are resonating."
- A visible timer makes every pause feel longer than it is. "Seeing the timer count down just makes me so anxious," one person wrote under a video about recorded interviews.
- Many platforms show your own face while you talk, which pulls your attention away from the answer. One commenter, after watching a practice clip, asked: "I thought I had more energy. Why do I look tired?"
- You often don't know what is being measured. In the Greenhouse survey, 39% wanted a clear explanation of what the AI is measuring.
- Some people are not told about the format at all. In the same survey, 70% of respondents were not clearly told up front that AI would evaluate them.
Getting used to it is what helps
Most of the strangeness comes from the setting. Talking to a lens, hearing a synthetic voice and watching a countdown are all unfamiliar, and each one becomes ordinary after you have done it a few times.
So rehearse those conditions directly: speaking with no reaction, speaking against a clock and hearing your own recorded voice. It doesn't take weeks. Three short sessions are enough for most people to notice a difference.
A three-session warm-up
- In the first session (about 15 minutes), prop your phone at eye level and record yourself answering two easy questions, such as "Tell me about yourself" and "Why this kind of work?" Watch it back once and note one thing you would change.
- In the second session (about 20 minutes), set a two-minute timer, or the limit in your invitation if you know it, and answer three questions with no retakes. You are practicing starting when the clock starts and finishing before it ends, so the answers can be rough.
- In the third session (about 20 minutes), have a friend read questions from off camera without reacting, or use an AI interviewer that asks follow-up questions. This one is closest to the real thing, because you can't predict every question.
If you have been out of work for a while, this warm-up is a good way back in; there are more ideas on the page for people coming back to the job market.
On the day
- Before you press start, breathe out slowly twice. Making the out-breath longer than the in-breath is a simple way to settle.
- Know your first sentence before the first question appears, because the first ten seconds are the hardest. A rehearsed answer to "Tell me about yourself" is a good place to start.
- Look at the lens, not at your own face. "Pro tip, the little light that shines next to your webcam is a great thing to look at to maintain eye contact," one commenter suggested. If your self-view distracts you, check whether you can hide it.
- A two-second pause feels endless while you are in it. On playback it is barely noticeable.
- If an AI voice cuts in, finish your thought in one sentence if you can, then let it move on. Being interrupted by software says nothing about your answer.
- If something breaks, take a screenshot and email the recruiter. Technical problems happen; one large field experiment recorded them in about 7% of AI interviews.
Accent, pace and sounding like yourself
If English is not your first language, you may wonder whether the software will understand you, and the worry has some basis. Research reported by Information Age found that one video-interview system's speech-to-text had an error rate under 10% for US English speakers, but up to 22% for non-native speakers with other accents.
You don't need to change your accent. A few things help any listener, human or not: a quiet room, a pace a little slower than feels natural, full sentences, and clear key words such as job titles, tools and numbers. If you have a specific concern, you can ask the employer for another format or an accommodation.
Keep it in proportion
An AI interview is one step in a hiring process. Many people never hear back at all: 51% of those who completed one said so in the Greenhouse survey, which says more about the process than about you. It isn't always bad, either. In the same survey, 38% came away with a more positive view of the employer after a well-run AI interview.
What calms most people is having done it before. As a careers expert at Indeed told the Associated Press, "You need to practice out loud." If you want somewhere to do that where nothing is decided, you can rehearse with an AI interviewer on Hmmlo; after each answer, Cal, the coach, tells you what to try next, and you can say it again.
