Summary: The Indicator from Planet Money

Episode: "When AI is your job interviewer"

Air Date: November 3, 2025
Hosts: Adrienne Ma & Waylon Wong

Overview

This episode explores the rising role of artificial intelligence in job interviews, focusing on new research about AI recruiters. The hosts discuss how companies like PSG Global are implementing AI bots to conduct first-round interviews at scale, and examine a University of Chicago study on the outcomes and implications of this technological shift. The episode includes a real demonstration of an AI interview, reactions from the study's lead economist, and a discussion on the impact of replacing human recruiters with AI in the hiring process.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Recruiter's Problem: The Leaky Funnel

• [02:28] Adrienne and Waylon introduce PSG Global, a recruiting company facing challenges with the traditional hiring process—especially in high-volume roles (e.g., call centers, warehouses, nursing).
• [02:56] David Koch (PSG): The recruitment process is like a leaky funnel—many candidates start, but only a few finish due to drop-off at every stage.
  • Quote (David Koch, 02:56): “The funnel is essentially number of candidates going in and number of candidates actually being placed...every step of the way, you lose people.”
• [03:23] Response times matter: Contacting candidates within 1 minute of application yields an 85% connection rate; after 15 minutes, it drops to 35%.
• [03:48] Recruiters spend excessive time just making calls, often to candidates who’ve lost interest or don’t respond.

2. The AI Solution: Meet Anna

• [04:19] Introduction to Anna, the AI recruiter bot engineered by PSG.
  • Anna conducts first-round interviews, allowing near-instant engagement with applicants at any hour.
• [04:43-05:37] Adrienne is "interviewed" by Anna in a demo for a call center job.
  • Anna asks about multitasking and gives positive feedback for empathy:
    • Quote (Anna, 05:37): “That’s a great approach. Having empathy for the customer’s situation can go a long way in providing excellent service.”
  • Adrienne humorously doubts his performance:
    • Quote (Adrienne, 05:43): “Yeah. So I’m not feeling great about making it to the next round, to be honest.”

3. The University of Chicago Study: Testing AI vs. Humans

• [06:06] Economist Brian Jabarian partnered with PSG to rigorously study Anna’s effectiveness.
  • Quote (David Koch, 06:19): “It took me three to four years basically in total to find a firm willing to partner with me.”
• [06:42] Experimental design:
  • 3 groups—human interview, AI interview, or choice between the two.
  • Human recruiters still reviewed transcripts/audio and made final hiring decisions.
• [07:10] Brian hypothesized candidates would dislike and underperform with the AI.

4. Shocking Results: Candidates Prefer AI

• [07:37] Contrary to expectations, 78% of job applicants opted for the AI interview when given a choice.
  • Quote (David Koch, 07:37): “When given a choice, 78% of candidates choose to be interviewed by an AI voice agent.”
• [07:52] Many felt AI would be “less judgy.”
  • Job seekers with Anna interviews reported roughly half the perceived gender discrimination versus human interviews.
  • Women were especially more likely to favor the AI.

5. Outcomes: AI Interviews Yield Better Results

• [08:20] Key findings:
  • Applicants via AI were 12% more likely to receive job offers, and 18% more likely to stay in the job at least one month.
  • Anna improved candidate performance in areas such as conversational interactivity and vocabulary richness.
  • Quote (David Koch, 08:52): “If you display a lot of like interactivity…or you display a high level of vocabulary richness, you increase your chances of getting a job offer.”
  • Candidates were less likely to use negative “back channel cues” (e.g., “mm,” “uh huh”) during AI interviews, leading to better outcomes.

6. The Why: The AI Effect

• [09:21] Anna may help candidates “be better versions of themselves”—potentially less anxious and more articulate.
  • Quote (Waylon Wong, 09:21): “It’s almost like Anna allowed people to be better, better versions of themselves.”

7. The Future: Industry Impact and Human Roles

• [09:32] PSG plans to roll out Anna in 80 countries and broaden her use across many job types.
  • This likely means fewer human recruiters will be needed for repetitive tasks, while remaining staff focus on analytical and meaningful work.
  • Quote (David Koch, 10:09): “The role of the recruiter is changing...it becomes a much more meaningful job, I think.”
• [10:19] Dozens of competitors are developing similar tech—the AI interview is rapidly becoming the new normal.

8. The Human Side: Adapting to AI

• [10:32] Anecdotal reflections on whether people need to strategize differently for robot interviewers.
  • Quote (Adrienne Ma, 10:32): “You know, there’s been all this talk about how AI is too sycophantic.”
  • Quote (Waylon Wong, 10:35): “Yeah, it’s always sucking up, but I—”
  • Quote (Adrienne Ma, 10:36): “Feel like now we have to study up on how to suck up to machines.”

Notable Quotes & Moments

• David Koch (02:56):
  “The funnel is essentially number of candidates going in and number of candidates actually being placed right and every step of the way, every step in the process, you lose people.”

• Anna, AI recruiter (05:37):
  “That’s a great approach. Having empathy for the customer’s situation can go a long way in providing excellent service.”

• David Koch (07:37):
  “When given a choice, 78% of candidates choose to be interviewed by an AI voice agent.”

• Waylon Wong (09:21):
  “It’s almost like Anna allowed people to be better, better versions of themselves.”

• David Koch (10:09):
  “The role of the recruiter is changing and I think it’s a positive change. It’s going to get more difficult, but it becomes a much more meaningful job, I think.”

• Adrienne Ma (10:32):
  “You know, there’s been all this talk about how AI is too sycophantic.”
  (On learning to “suck up to machines.”)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:28] – The recruitment funnel problem
• [04:19–05:37] – Live AI interview demonstration with Adrienne
• [06:06] – University of Chicago study setup
• [07:37] – Surprising result: Most opt for AI
• [08:20] – AI increases job offers and retention
• [10:09] – How recruiter roles and the industry are changing

Conclusion

In this episode, The Indicator delivers a punchy, insightful look into AI’s growing role in hiring. Far from dehumanizing, AI interviews may actually help applicants feel less judged, perform better, and stick with new jobs. While the rise of AI tools like Anna could mean fewer human recruiters handling rote tasks, the human element is likely to become more meaningful and analytical. With competitors ramping up similar technology, your next first-round interview might just be with a bot—and you might even prefer it.