Midnight Job Interviews Are Real, and AI Is Why They Exist

Key points

• 24 percent of AI-run job interviews on recruitment platform Ribbon happen between 10 pm and 2 am local time, according to data from more than 500 companies.
• A May 2025 Greenhouse survey found that nearly two-thirds of American job applicants have now been interviewed by an AI agent, up 13 percentage points in just six months.
• 38 percent of American candidates have withdrawn from a hiring process rather than complete an AI interview, the same Greenhouse survey found.
• Greenhouse, a hiring software company, acquired an AI interview startup in May 2025 and now tracks that 15 to 20 percent of its AI-interview bookings happen at night.
• Tim Millard, an Atlanta-based communications professional, completed an AI video interview at 9:30 pm in January and received an automated rejection two months later.

Tim Millard tidied his living room, propped open his laptop, and sat down to do a job interview at 9:30 on a weeknight. Nobody was on the other end. A question appeared on screen, a 30-second timer ran down, then a ding fired and he had two minutes to record his answer. Then the next question. Then another ding.

"It felt so out of this world," Millard, a communications and marketing professional who had been unemployed for six months at the time, told Wired.

He received an automated rejection in March. A year on, he is still searching, and the experience hit hard enough that he turned it into a one-man show, After Careful Consideration, which debuted at the Atlanta Fringe Festival in May.

So who actually interviews at midnight?

Parents who cannot get 30 free minutes until the kids are asleep. Hourly workers who cannot take a personal call during a shift. Kitchen and factory staff who spend their days somewhere loud and public. For these people, 11 pm is the only quiet slot available.

Arsham Ghahramani noticed the pattern almost immediately after he co-founded Ribbon, a company that builds voice-based AI recruitment software. An AI voice agent, meaning software that holds a spoken conversation and scores the responses automatically, conducts the interviews without any human recruiter present. Twenty-four percent of Ribbon's interviews happen between 10 pm and 2 am. For manufacturing clients that figure jumps to 35 percent.

"This is a genuinely new option for people," Ghahramani says.

Hiring platform Greenhouse reports a similar pattern: roughly 15 to 20 percent of candidates using its voice AI agent book their slot at night.

Does the AI actually decide who gets hired?

Not quite, but its score matters a lot. A typical AI interview works like this: the candidate answers questions on camera or by voice, and an algorithm scores each answer against a rubric built for that specific job. A welder might be assessed on technical certifications. A sales candidate might receive an "enthusiasm" score. That score goes to a human recruiter, along with the footage, though Ghahramani acknowledges many recordings go unwatched by any person.

Ophir Samson, who leads Greenhouse's voice AI division after the company acquired his startup in May, describes the tool as a résumé add-on rather than a replacement for human judgement. His argument: with thousands of AI-written CVs flooding every inbox, genuinely strong candidates disappear into the pile. A recorded interview at least gives them another way to be noticed.

"It's a shitty time to be a candidate," Samson says. "Your résumé goes into a black hole."

Should candidates be worried?

Yes, with nuance. The lack of transparency is the sharpest concern. Candidates rarely know which keywords or behaviours the scoring rubric rewards, whether a low score triggers an automatic rejection, or how long footage is stored.

The numbers show many people are already voting with their feet. Thirty-eight percent of American candidates told Greenhouse they had dropped out of a hiring process rather than face an AI interview. A further 12 percent said they would quit if one was required.

For now, if you are asked to complete an AI or automated video interview, treat it exactly as you would a human one: quiet room, professional background, specific answers over vague ones. You do not know which words the rubric is looking for, but clear, concrete responses are a safe bet regardless.

Millard's advice is starker. "In today's job market," he says, "it feels like if you are going to scream, you're going to scream into the void. And nobody is going to hear you."

Common questions

Can an AI interview reject me without a human ever seeing my application?

In practice, yes. Many services send a score to a recruiter, but low-scoring candidates are often filtered out before any person watches the footage. Treat every recorded answer as if it is your only shot.

Is it legal for a company to use AI to score a job interview?

In most countries, yes, though rules vary. Some US states, including Illinois, require employers to disclose when AI analyses interview footage and to explain how the technology works on request.

What should I do if I feel the AI interview was unfair?

Ask the employer directly which platform they used and whether a human reviewed your footage. In jurisdictions with AI hiring laws you may have a right to that information.