Federal Government to Implement AI for Job Interviews

In Washington, U.S. officials have announced that the federal government will begin integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into the interview process for certain job applicants in the coming days. This initiative will initially focus on the Tech Force, a program designed to recruit private-sector tech experts into two-year government positions. Although not all federal agencies will immediately use AI, testing will start with the Tech Force.

The platform CodeSignal will be employed to evaluate applicants for the Tech Force, as reported by one official. The federal government, which employs approximately 1.9 million workers, has lagged behind the private sector in using AI tools for initial screening in high-volume job postings.

Recently, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), responsible for human resources within the federal government, issued guidance encouraging agencies to incorporate AI in hiring. They stressed the need for human oversight, especially in matters of critical personnel decisions. Earlier this year, OPM introduced a tool that leverages AI to develop job descriptions.

While spokespeople from OPM did not provide immediate comments, its director, Scott Kupor, advocates for accelerating the federal hiring process. He also emphasizes the importance of hiring early-career professionals to balance the aging workforce within the government.

Personnel office staff have access to various AI programs, including Microsoft’s Copilot, Anthropic’s Claude, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Google’s Gemini, all available on their government computers. In the pilot phase for Tech Force, AI agents will conduct structured interviews with standardized questions, capturing and summarizing the audio for hiring managers to evaluate later.

CodeSignal provides multiple AI-driven tools for screening candidates early in the hiring process, featuring virtual AI agents for interviews as well as phone, audio, and text-based options. Transcribed recordings of these interviews are forwarded to hiring managers for review.

Several officials predict that AI will play an increasingly prevalent role in federal government interviews in the years ahead.