Companies screening candidates with AI interview systems are running into a pointed problem: employed job seekers are turning the interviews down, TechRadar reported.

According to the report, candidates who do sit through AI-conducted interviews say they would rather have avoided the experience altogether. That sentiment matters most among employed applicants — the passive candidates recruiters typically prize — because they have the least incentive to tolerate a hiring process they find off-putting. Someone with a stable job can simply decline; someone who needs work can't.

The finding lands as employers increasingly deploy AI to compress hiring costs and handle application volume, itself inflated by AI-written applications. But the data suggests a selection effect working against those employers: automating the interview may be filtering out exactly the in-demand candidates companies most want to attract, leaving the AI funnel disproportionately filled with applicants who had no alternative.

For hiring teams, the trade-off is sharpening — efficiency gains at the top of the funnel against a shrinking pool of the most sought-after talent.