The AI Job Hunt Revolution: Why Your Next Interview Might Be With a Robot

You probably can't say you've experienced the strangeness of the job market in 2025 until you've submitted to an interview with an AI human resources agent.

Keith Tode, a healthcare executive, thought he'd participate in one for a job he wasn't especially interested in, just to see what it was like.

"It's a little disturbing," he said, trying to impress a non-human voice that emanates from a data center somewhere on the internet.

When the agent told Tode that he didn't have enough international experience and wouldn't advance to the next stage, "I was shocked," said Tode, who has been consulting while looking for his next full-time role.

AI interviewers are just one way that artificial intelligence technologies are impacting the job market. Below are the key dynamics playing out in 2025:

Data Says AI Isn't Destroying Jobs

The unemployment rate has been trending up since April 2023, hitting 4.8% in August. However, data released earlier this month by Yale University's Budget Lab finds that AI isn't responsible for job destruction — at least, not yet.

"The picture of AI's impact on the labor market that emerges from our data is one that largely reflects stability, not major disruption at an economy-wide level," according to the report's authors.

Art Papas, CEO of Bullhorn, a company that makes software used by recruiters and staffing agencies, said that when he talks with customers, "I always ask, 'Have you heard of anyone saying we don't need [a particular] role anymore because they're using AI?' And anecdotally, the answer is no, not yet."

But There May Be a Chilling Effect on New Hiring

Despite that, Papas and others say that companies may be holding off on hiring because they want to see how new AI tools will increase productivity among their existing employees.

"If I were a hiring manager and I was thinking, 'I have a call center full of people, do I really want to ramp up [hiring] right now? Probably not," Papas said.

"What I'm hearing again and again is, 'Grow with the people we have, and we're just going to make them more productive,'" said John Sviokla, co-founder of research firm GAI Insights.

Could Blue-Collar Jobs Be the New White-Collar Jobs?

If AI begins to reduce the number of white-collar "knowledge worker" jobs, it's less likely to impact jobs involving physical labor. Sviokla notes that about a million jobs in electrical, plumbing, carpentry and other skilled trades are unfilled in the U.S. right now.

Tode predicts we could eventually experience "an inversion of the class system in the United States. What I mean by that is that blue-collar workers — the workers that cannot get replaced by AI, such as plumbers, roofers, car mechanics — are going to be the upper class in the United States, and white-collar workers like me and like you are going to be struggling to make ends meet."

Bring Your 'AI Posse' With You

What if you are one of those white-collar workers, or are earning a degree that puts you on that path?

Getting hands-on experience with AI software most relevant to your work is essential, said several experts.

"I have a kid who just graduated, a sophomore in college, and a senior in high school, and I tell all of them to act as if [learning about AI] is a class," said John Werner, a managing director at Link Ventures. "Listen to AI podcasts or YouTube videos and just become conversant. The white-collar jobs that exist now, I think, are not going to exist, and there's going to be all sorts of roles that we play with AI. ... It's almost like growing a new skill set, and it's exciting."

Sviokla expects that companies will start hiring posses, rather than individuals.

"If you want to get a job, you have to come with your [AI] agents" — specialized software that can help you perform tasks, he said.

Sviokla predicts a hiring manager might say, "OK, I see your résumé, and this is great, but what tools have you built, and what do you use now to make yourself more productive?"

Is It OK to Use AI to Get Hired by an AI?

Job candidates seem confused about how they're expected to use AI to navigate a hiring process where many of the gatekeepers are AI tools that analyze their résumés, assess how well matched they are to a particular job, and even conduct the initial interview.

Mavi Ruiz-Blondet, an engineer, has been hunting for her next role since July. One service she has been using to help refine her résumé, fill out forms and refer her to specific openings is Jobright.ai, which markets itself as an "AI copilot." But when Jobright pointed Ruiz-Blondet to an open position at Peloton, she was surprised to see a checkbox asking her to verify that she hadn't used AI for any part of the application.

"I'm only on that website because AI suggested this job," she said. "It was a little bit surreal to read."

"At Peloton, we embrace technology, including AI, to enhance productivity and accelerate innovation in the work we do for our members," according to some of the company's recent job postings. "However, in our hiring process, our priority remains in getting to know you and your unique qualifications" — so AI usage is not allowed.

And even though Bullhorn makes software called Amplify that enables recruiters and staffing agencies to have an AI agent conduct spoken interviews, when asked how he felt when he received a cover letter or résumé that seemed to have been crafted, or polished, using AI, CEO Art Papas responded: "It kind of feels inauthentic for me. That's a huge red flag."

So while companies feel under pressure to explore how AI might be useful as a way of operating more efficiently — and potentially requiring fewer human workers — it seems human job seekers are under pressure to figure out what's allowed in this brave new world.