47% of UK job seekers have had an AI interview; 30% walked away from one
TL;DR: Hiring platform Greenhouse surveyed 2,950 active job seekers — 1,132 of them UK-based — and found 47% of UK candidates have sat through an AI interview, with 30% withdrawing from a hiring process because the employer required one. Candidates the Guardian spoke to described the format as “awkward”, “humiliating” and “completely horrible for the autistic brain”, with several noting that countdown clocks, no two-way questions, and no human acknowledgement made it harder to demonstrate genuine fit.
A workforce-experience problem, not just a tooling one
The Greenhouse data lands while the Information Commissioner’s Office is consulting on automated recruitment. Volume has plainly arrived: nearly half of UK job seekers have already encountered AI interviews, and applicants are now self-filtering away from employers that mandate them. The complaint set is consistent — pre-recorded prompts on a blank screen, three-minute response windows, and no signal that a human has watched the recording. One scientist applying for a senior role told the Guardian she “received very general feedback and a rejection” and was unsure whether “anybody watched the interview”.
Greenhouse positions AI interviews as a way to keep up with rising application volume, and the headcount math is real for HR teams sifting thousands of CVs. But the survey suggests the format is now an active filter on the candidate side too: a third of UK applicants have walked, and accessibility concerns — particularly for autistic and neurodivergent candidates — appear in nearly every reported transcript.
Looking forward
The ICO has already flagged automated recruitment as a 2026 enforcement priority, and the Greenhouse figures give regulators a concrete population to point at. For UK employers, the relevant operational questions are no longer whether AI interviews can be deployed, but whether the candidate experience is documented, whether reasonable adjustments are offered (longer response windows, alternative formats, the option of a human-led first round), and whether there is a clear human-in-the-loop step before rejection. With 30% of UK candidates self-deselecting, the cost of getting this wrong is showing up upstream of any ICO action: in the calibre and diversity of the funnel.