Why does Google plan on returning to in-person interviews for new recruits?

Global tech giant Google is planning to bring back its in-person interview practices after the company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sundar Pichai, said that artificial intelligence (AI) has made virtual hiring unreliable, reported the news portal Times of India.

Pichai said that Google plans to introduce the candidates with at least one round of in-person interviews to ensure that the company can find the fundamentals in a potential hire. 

"We are making sure we'll introduce at least one round of in-person interviews for people, just to make sure the fundamentals are there," Sundar Pichai mentioned in an interview with computer scientist and podcaster Lex Fridman in June 2025.

Why not online interviews?

According to the news report, the AI issue has become so widespread that Google employees are demanding the company management to not carry out remote job interviews of software engineers.

The job role requires candidates to solve real-time coding challenges which has now become compromised due to the AI tools off-camera being used by the interviewees to generate the solutions. 

Some audio recording from Google's February 2025 townhall meeting showed that the employees were confronting the upper management with this issue.

"Can we get on-site job interviews back?" an employee asked, according to the recordings reviewed by the news portal CNBC. "There are many email threads about this topic. If budget is a constraint, can we get the candidates to an office or environment we can control?"

Why does Google prefer online interviews?

Google's vice president, Brian Ong, acknowledged that the tech giant was facing a fundamental challenge and said that the virtual interviews are two weeks faster and easier to schedule. 

"We definitely have more work to do to integrate how AI is now more prevalent in the interview process," said Ong, according to the news report.

The report also mentions that hiring managers are flagging that more than 50% of the candidates appearing for an interview are cheating with the help of AI tools.

"Given we all work hybrid, I think it's worth thinking about some fraction of the interviews being in person. I think it'll help both the candidates understand Google's culture, and I think it's good for both sides," said Sundar Pichai, responding to an employee.

Ong also highlighted how this issue is not just limited to Google, and that the competitors of the firm are also looking at ways to solve the issue which as become an ‘industry-wide crisis.’