What the survey found
Western Governors University asked 3,128 US hiring professionals how AI has changed hiring. Centiment ran the survey between 24 June and 7 July 2026, and WGU published the results on 30 September.
60% said AI has made it harder to evaluate a candidate's real skills. Nearly one in five named a top challenge that would have sounded strange a few years ago: confirming that they are interviewing a human rather than AI. And the share of employers still working out how to evaluate AI skills doubled in a year, from 16% in 2025 to 32% in 2026.
What raises doubt in an interview
A polished answer is not the problem in itself. What the author watches for is whether the answer fits the question, and whether the next answers hold up as well as the first one:
When a candidate gives a polished STAR answer and it responds to the question perfectly, all good. But if it is not exactly what the question was, or if the quality of the follow-up answers doesn't match, then it raises doubts.
A rehearsed or generated answer tends to answer a slightly different question, the one the candidate prepared for. And it is usually strongest at the start. When the interviewer asks something narrower, the gap between the first answer and the second is what they notice.
Why the follow-ups decide it
Follow-up questions are where an interviewer checks that the story is yours: what broke three months after you chose that database, which part of the plan you would change, how you got the number you just quoted. Someone who did the work can keep answering. Someone reciting an answer runs out after one or two questions.
That makes the follow-ups the part of the interview most worth preparing for, and the hardest to prepare for alone, because you need someone to keep asking.
Junior candidates feel it first
The survey's sharpest number is about entry-level roles. Among employers who say AI has made skills harder to evaluate, 54% say it has reduced their entry-level hiring. Among employers who do not report that difficulty, it is 20%. When it costs more to check what someone can do, junior hiring is the first to slow down.
For a junior candidate, the advice is to lead with evidence: a project you built and can explain in detail, a number you can back up, a decision you can defend when the interviewer asks why.
How to prepare
- Listen to the question and answer that one. If it differs from the story you prepared, adjust the story, and say how it connects.
- Pick your five strongest stories. For each, write down the three follow-ups you would least like to get, and answer them out loud.
- For every number you mention, know how it was measured and what it was before.
- Prepare the parts that went wrong: the mistake, what you changed, and what you would do differently now.
- Practise without notes, at speaking pace. If an answer only works when you read it, it is not ready.
Practise the follow-ups
A mock interview that keeps asking
Calibrd's mock interview is spoken, follows up on what you actually said, and ends with a debrief on where each answer held and where it ran thin. The first round is free.
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Common questions
The short answersDo interviewers think candidates use AI to answer questions?
Many now wonder. In WGU's Workforce Decoded 2026 survey of 3,128 US hiring professionals, 60% said AI has made it harder to evaluate a candidate's real skills, and nearly one in five named confirming that they are interviewing a human rather than AI as a top challenge.
How do interviewers tell if you're using AI?
Mostly through the follow-up questions. A rehearsed or generated answer tends to answer a slightly different question from the one asked, and the next answers are weaker than the first. Someone who did the work can keep going three questions deep: what broke, what they would change, and how a number was measured.
What makes an interviewer doubt an answer?
In the author's experience, a polished answer is fine when it responds exactly to the question asked. Doubt comes when the answer does not quite fit the question, or when the follow-up answers are clearly weaker than the first one.
How should I prepare for interviews now?
Answer the question that was asked, not the story you rehearsed, and prepare each of your main stories for three follow-ups: what went wrong, what you would change, and the detail behind any number you give. Practise out loud, without notes.
Is AI affecting entry-level hiring?
According to the same survey, yes. Among employers who say AI has made skills harder to evaluate, 54% report it has reduced entry-level hiring at their organisation, against 20% of employers who do not report that difficulty.