Whitehall to increase face-to-face job interviews after surge in AI applications

LONDON — The U.K. civil service plans to hold more in-person job interviews and diminish the role of written candidate statements in an attempt to combat a surge in applications created by AI.

Recruiting managers have seen a sharp rise in the number of applications for each role without any change to the overall number of viable candidates across the system, said a U.K. government official with knowledge of the conversations not authorized to speak publicly.

Cabinet Secretary Antonia Romeo believes some applicants are using AI to generate bland personal statements, meaning they can apply for more roles but fail to show their personal skills. 

In the most extreme cases, entire applications — even virtual interviews — appeared to have been generated by bots and not human beings, the official added.

There is at least one case in which civil servants became so suspicious during a virtual video call that the candidate was not a real person that they terminated the interview early.

The official said the civil service plans to move away from personal statements — and for flagship recruitment schemes, leaders are looking at reintroducing compulsory face-to-face interviews.

The changes are likely to form part of a wider review of Whitehall which Romeo is due to deliver to Prime Minister Andy Burnham by summer 2027.

Romeo said in her annual lecture on Tuesday that she planned to “strip back and simplify” Whitehall recruitment to attract the most talented people from all backgrounds, adding she wanted to end “formulaic job ads, generic interviews and slow processes.”

This includes scrapping “success profiles,” a core feature of the civil service’s bureaucratic recruitment process. A new selection framework is due to be launched from April 2027.

However, a rise in face-to-face interviews will also mean some recruitment takes longer — just as civil service budgets are under intense pressure.

It is also an example of the challenge facing ministers and officials who plan to embed more AI into the civil service itself. 

Romeo said on Tuesday that AI would “radically rewrite” the way Whitehall works, including with “frontier teams” in departments with looser recruitment rules and a more AI-focused “Fast Stream” program for university graduates.

Dave Penman, general secretary of the First Division Association union for senior civil servants, said he had also seen an uptick in suspected AI-generated applications to the union. “These legitimate concerns don’t mean that the whole system is broken and everyone applying for jobs is faking it. I suspect what the civil service is facing is similar to many other areas of recruitment.”