Imagine this: you’re applying for a job, and instead of facing a human panel, a bot pops up on your screen and starts the interview. It’s the future of recruitment, and Maharashtra Cyber Police is leading the charge. In a first-of-its-kind move in India, the Maharashtra Cyber Department is using artificial intelligence (AI) to conduct initial job interviews. The idea is to speed things up, remove bias, and give hiring a tech-savvy twist. AI interviews to speed up hiring Normally, government job interviews can stretch out for weeks. But with this new AI system, the Cyber Police believes the initial round can be wrapped up in just a few hours. Yashasvi Yadav, Additional Director General (Cyber) said: This time around, we are going in for AI in the recruitment process that will finish the process in a matter of hours, thereby saving several manhours that can be used productively. He added that this will also reduce human errors and remove unconscious bias. However, a manual interview will still happen afterward to double-check AI results and ensure no good candidates are mistakenly screened out. Smarter hiring This pilot project is part of the department’s plan to hire 150 cyber consultants. Over 2,400 people have already applied for various tech and analysis roles.
To manage this huge number, Maharashtra Cyber Police has tied up with two firms — Nova Strategic Operations (NSO) and VeriKlick, a US-based AI company. The partnership is non-financial, meaning the tech is being provided without money changing hands for now. How the AI interview works According to Komal Dangi, CEO of VeriKlick, here’s how the AI-powered interview process unfolds: Dangi explained: The system has been trained on over 70,000 hours of interview data. It also anonymises candidates by removing their name and gender, assigning them a number to reduce any bias during evaluation. Availability The AI interviews are expected to roll out later this month. If successful, this could set a trend for other departments and even private companies to follow. Yadav further said: We will probably be the first government department in the country to adopt AI as part of the recruitment process. So if you’re applying, remember: your next interviewer might just be a bot.
