How to choose an AI interview platform: features, pricing and questions to ask

The number of AI interview platforms has grown fast. Some run video interviews. Some run voice interviews or text interviews. Some grade coding tests with AI, and some do a mix. To pick the right one, you need to be clear on what matters for the way you hire.

Start with the basics. What type of interview does the platform run? Video platforms record the candidate on camera. Some ask AI follow-up questions and some do not. Voice platforms hold a live conversation. The AI listens, asks follow-up questions, and adjusts. Text platforms are mostly smart forms. Each type trades off candidate experience, how much you learn about the candidate, and what tech the candidate needs.

Three things matter more than anything else. First, how candidates take the interview: by phone call, by browser link, or only through an app. Second, whether every score shows the answer it came from. Third, the pricing model: per candidate or per seat. Get these wrong and the platform will not work for your team, however good the AI is.

Video interviews need a stable internet connection, a working camera, good lighting, a quiet room, and a screen big enough to read questions. Many applicants for store, warehouse, call center and field roles do not have all of that at the moment they apply.

Voice interviews need a phone, and almost everyone has one. A candidate on a bus with a cheap phone can do a voice interview as well as a candidate at a desk with a laptop. The barrier is much lower, so many more candidates finish.

Voice also tells you more than most people expect. You can hear tone, pace, confidence, hesitation, and word choice. You can hear how someone responds when asked to say more. You lose the picture, but for a first-round screen, the voice tells you more than a grainy webcam of someone reading answers off a screen.

Per-seat pricing means a fixed monthly fee for each recruiter. It works for companies that hire the same number of people every month. If you hire 50 people a month, every month, the math is simple. But most companies do not hire at a steady rate. They have graduate intakes, holiday rushes in retail, new client launches in support teams, and quiet months with almost no hiring.

Per-candidate pricing means you pay for each interview. Your cost follows your use. You pay when you use the platform and not when you do not. For hiring that rises and falls, this model costs much less. A graduate drive that screens 2,000 candidates costs exactly 2,000 credits. You are not paying for a yearly license that sits unused 10 months a year.

Watch for hidden costs in either model. Some platforms charge extra for languages, cheating checks, custom questions, reminders, or API access. Ask for one full price per candidate that covers everything you will use. If the vendor cannot give you a simple number, the pricing is built to confuse.

In many jobs, such as field sales, retail, and customer support, the candidate's working language may not be English. If your AI interview platform only works in English, you either shut out good candidates or get weak results from people who can do the job but struggle to explain it in English.

Look for platforms that hold the interview itself in other languages, not only a translated form. The candidate speaks in the language they prefer, and the scorecard comes out in English. The candidate is at ease and gives strong answers, and the hiring team reviews everything in one language.

Test the language support yourself before you sign. Run a sample interview in each language you hire in. Check the transcript, the scores, and whether the follow-up questions make sense in that language. Some platforms claim to support a language but produce messy transcripts or clumsy translations that miss meaning.

Ask: "What happens when the candidate's connection drops during the interview?" A good platform saves progress and lets the candidate pick up where they left off. It does not punish them for a bad connection. A bad platform loses the session and makes the candidate start again.

Ask: "Can I see why the AI gave each score, not just the score?" A score with no reason is useless. You need to see which part of the transcript led to each rating, so you can check it and change it when the AI is wrong. If the vendor says "the AI just gives a score," that is a warning sign.

Ask: "What share of candidates finish the interview across your customers?" If the vendor will not share this number, it is probably low. Then ask what the platform does to raise it, such as reminders and phone calls.

Before you book demos, agree as a team on what matters. Write down how many candidates you see per month, which roles, and which languages. Add how invites should reach candidates, your budget per candidate, and the tools you must connect to. Then judge platforms against your list, not theirs.

Run a trial before you commit. Any platform worth paying for will let you run a real hiring round of 50 to 100 candidates before an annual contract. Use the trial to measure four things: completion rates, scorecard quality, whether recruiters use it, and whether hiring managers are happy. These four tell you everything.

Goodfit gives you 20 free assessments to start. It calls candidates or sends a browser link, runs interviews in 14 languages, and charges per candidate. Cheating checks, coding tests, and psychometric tests are all in the same platform. Run a trial on one role and see if the numbers work for your team.