US Federal Government to Test AI Interviews for Some Job Applicants

The federal government will begin using artificial intelligence in the interview process for some job applicants in the coming days, according to U.S. officials. Not all federal agencies will immediately adopt the technology, but it will be tested on the so-called Tech Force, an initiative launched eight months ago to recruit private-sector tech experts into two-year government posts. A platform called CodeSignal will be used on the Tech Force applicant pool, one official said.

The federal government, which employs about 1.9 million workers, has lagged the private sector in using AI interviewing tools as a first layer of screening for high-volume postings. Guidance issued last week by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the government's HR unit, encouraged agencies to use AI during hiring but called for human oversight, especially in certain crucial personnel decisions. OPM introduced a tool earlier this year that uses AI to prepare job descriptions.

Spokespeople for the office did not immediately comment. OPM Director Scott Kupor has pushed to speed up the often-sluggish federal hiring process and has urged agency heads to tap early-career professionals for at least a third of their new hires to offset the imbalance in the aging federal workforce. AI is being used more heavily for tasks in the personnel office, whose administrative staff have access on their government computers to AI programs including Microsoft's Copilot, Anthropic's Claude, OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini.

In the pilot program for Tech Force hires, AI agents will conduct structured interviews with standardized questions. The agents will record and summarize the audio so hiring managers can review and evaluate later. CodeSignal offers several AI-powered tools to screen applicants in early hiring rounds, including interviews with virtual AI agents and phone, audio and text-based options.

Hiring managers are then sent transcribed recordings of candidates. Several officials said AI is likely to become a more common part of the federal government interview process in coming years. The rollout is set to begin in the coming days, according to officials.