AI in Recruitment: The Immersive and Psychological Future of Interviews

What if your next interview didn’t feel like an interview at all, but like stepping into the role itself?

AI in recruitment is rapidly moving beyond CV screening and video calls toward immersive, simulated experiences that feel closer to a ‘day in the job’ than a traditional interview.

Employers are using virtual reality (VR), interactive assessments, and AI‑driven analysis to understand how people think, decide, and perform under pressure in realistic scenarios and not just how they answer questions.

From VR to Gamified Work Environments

The future of AI in recruitment is not just about faster screening; it is about letting professionals step into a simulated version of the job before they are hired. Immersive simulations now sit on a spectrum, from virtual reality (VR) headsets to gamified, screen‑based tasks.

At the fully immersive end, VR allows employers to recreate realistic environments and observe how professionals perform under pressure. A hospital, for example, can simulate an operating room: alarms sounding, time‑critical decisions to make, a multi‑disciplinary team to coordinate. In that virtual space, hiring managers can see how a nurse prioritises, communicates, and stays calm. These are insights which cannot be gained from a standard Q&A.

On the other side of the spectrum, gamified and interactive assessments create simulated work environments using laptops or tablets. Instead of asking professionals to talk about their experience, AI‑driven tools place them into scenarios where they have to allocate resources, manage stakeholders, or handle a difficult customer. The system then adapts in real time, tailoring follow‑up challenges based on their decisions and observed strengths.

For employers, the value lies in seeing how people think, decide, and collaborate in situations that closely mirror the role. For professionals, these experiences can feel less like a test and more like trying on the job for size, making the automated recruitment process more engaging, transparent, and relevant to what they would actually be doing.

The Psychology of Trust and Cognitive Trust

Whenever AI in recruitment is mentioned, the conversation often jumps straight to concerns about bias and fairness. Those concerns are real. A survey of job seekers found that 49% believed AI recruiting tools were more biased than humans, reflecting a deep unease about algorithms making career‑defining decisions.

Yet the psychology of trust around AI interviewing is more nuanced. A field study on AI‑powered asynchronous video interviews (AI‑AVI) found that when AI was used transparently, and professionals understood how their responses were being assessed, their cognitive trust in the process actually increased compared with non‑AI conditions.

In other words, when employers clearly explain:

• What the system is analysing
• How the outputs will be used
• Where human judgement still sits in the process

professionals may see AI as more consistent and less arbitrary than a rushed, subjective human interview.

This creates a paradox for employers. On one hand, many professionals fear that AI in recruitment will embed or amplify bias. On the other, transparent, explainable AI systems can build cognitive trust by signalling structure, consistency, and accountability.

For organisations, the message is clear. Technology alone does not create or destroy trust. The way it is communicated and governed does.

The Nuance of Transcribed vs Video AI Analysis

Not all AI‑driven interviews work the same way. A growing number of tools now focus on transcribed interviews rather than raw video analysis. Here are some examples of how it’s being used:

AI‑Assessed Transcribed Interviews

In these systems, the conversation, live or recorded, is converted to text, and AI analyses the transcript for:

• Semantic content (what was said)
• The structure and clarity of responses
• Specific competencies, such as problem‑solving or stakeholder management

This approach can feel less intrusive than direct video analysis, but it is not flawless. Automated transcription can suffer from word error rate (WER) issues, especially with strong regional accents, background noise, or specialised terminology, which may distort what was actually said. Contextual nuances can also be misinterpreted, for example, sarcasm, humour, or culturally-specific phrases.​

Controversy Around Live Facial Analysis

In contrast, some AI tools attempt to analyse facial expressions, eye movements, or micro‑gestures in real time during video interviews. This practice has become highly controversial, particularly in Europe and the UK, for several reasons:

• Scientific debates about whether facial expressions reliably map to personality or performance
• Risks of cultural and disability bias (for example, professionals with neurodivergent traits, facial palsy, or limited eye contact)
• Regulatory scrutiny, as this often involves processing biometric data, which is treated as highly sensitive under data protection law

Many employers are now deliberately moving away from facial analysis and towards text‑based or structured response analysis, which can be more transparent, auditable, and defensible.

Data Privacy, Biometrics, and Evolving Regulation

As AI in recruitment and automated recruitment processes become more sophisticated, the amount and sensitivity of data collected during interviews are increasing. This goes far beyond names and CVs.

Video interview platforms may capture:

• Biometric data, such as facial images and voiceprints
• Behavioural data, such as keystrokes, response times, and interaction patterns
• Potentially sensitive identifiers, which in some jurisdictions could include national insurance numbers or equivalent personal identifiers

Under the UK GDPR and the wider EU GDPR framework, biometric data used for identification is classified as a ‘special category’ of personal data, requiring explicit consent, clear purpose limitation, and robust security controls.

Similar protections apply under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and its amendments, which give candidates rights to know what data is collected, request deletion, and opt out of certain processing.

The emerging EU AI Act is set to introduce additional obligations for high‑risk AI systems, including many recruitment tools, such as:

• Mandatory risk assessments and human oversight
• Stronger transparency requirements to ensure professionals know when they are interacting with AI
• Record‑keeping to enable audits and challenge decisions

Being explicit about how biometric and interview data is captured, stored, and used is essential to maintaining credibility with professionals and regulators alike.

AI in Recruitment: What Comes Next

Though AI is changing the recruitment landscape, the technology alone will not shape the future of recruitment. It will be defined by how thoughtfully employers design the overall experience.

Forward‑thinking organisations are starting to:

• Use VR and AR to provide realistic, job‑specific simulations instead of generic Q&A
• Treat gamified assessments as “preview days” where professionals and employers both evaluate fit
• Prioritise transparent AI interfaces that explain what is being measured and why
• Choose transcript‑based or structured‑response analysis over intrusive facial scanning
• Build privacy, consent, and data minimisation into every stage of the automated recruitment process, particularly where biometric data is involved

Handled well, these innovations can help employers solve the limitations of traditional interviews, reducing guesswork, widening access, and creating a more engaging, psychologically safe experience for professionals.

If you are exploring how to integrate immersive assessments or AI‑powered interviewing, Morgan McKinley’s specialist teams can help you. We can design a roadmap that fits your organisation’s risk appetite, culture, and long‑term hiring goals.