Is That a Candidate Talking, or ChatGPT?

By Melinda Waters

We’ve all had this interview lately.

You’re chatting with a tech candidate, keeping it casual, and you ask a pretty standard question – maybe something about their experience with a specific stack or how they handle a heavy workload.

Then, there’s a weird pause. You hear the faint clack of a keyboard and suddenly, this person starts delivering a perfectly structured, flawless answer. It doesn’t sound like a conversation anymore.

You sit there thinking, Are they actually this polished, or did they just type my question into AI?

It’s happening everywhere now, and not just on Zoom. Candidates are using AI to feed them answers during basic phone screens. It puts recruiters and hiring managers in a really annoying position. How are you supposed to gauge someone’s actual vibe and experience when a bot is doing the talking for them?

At TalentRemedy, we’re telling our clients not to panic. You don't need to turn into a detective or start accusing people. You just have to change the way you chat.

The Telltale Signs: How to Catch It Early

Since you usually can't see their screen (or even a second screen), you have to rely on audio cues. Trust your gut if you notice these three things:

The "Search Lag" Pause: A noticeable, repetitive, awkward 5-to-10-second silence right after you ask a question. Good candidates pause to think... that’s normal. But a human thinking pause usually comes with conversational cues: "Hmm, let me think about the best example..." or a sigh. An AI pause is dead, empty air for 5 seconds, followed by a sudden avalanche of perfect, rapid-fire words.

The Background Clatter: You hear furious typing while they are supposed to be listening to you, or right before they start speaking.

The "Eyeball" Cadence: Even over the phone, you can hear when someone is reading text versus speaking from memory. Their voice loses its natural rhythm, the tone flattens out, and they don't pause for breath where a normal person would.

The "Robotic LinkedIn" Voice: Most tech professionals stumble a bit when they talk. They use industry slang or laugh about past mistakes. If their spoken answer sounds like a perfectly edited, formal essay using words, they're likely reading a script.

How to "AI-Proof" the Conversation

Trying to stop candidates from using tools is a losing battle. Instead, shift your questions so that copy-pasting a prompt won't give them a helpful answer.

1. Ditch the Textbook Questions

The easiest way to get past the AI script is to stop asking questions that have a "correct" answer. If a bot can answer your question in three seconds, it’s time to retire it.

Instead of asking: “What are the pros and cons of AWS vs. Azure?” (which ChatGPT loves).

Try asking: “Tell me about a project where everything went completely wrong. What was the mistake, and how did you guys fix it?”

AI knows the theory, but it doesn't know their personal war stories. It doesn't know the specific, annoying bug that kept them up until 2 a.m. on a Friday.

2. Interrupt the Script / Ask Follow Up “Why” Questions

If a candidate starts rattling off a perfectly polished, multi-step answer, gently break in.

Say something like: “Oh, interesting - Why did your team decide to go that route instead of keeping it simple?” or “Why did you decide to use that tool instead of [alternative tool]?”

If they’re reading a screen, that unexpected detour or follow up will usually trip them up. If they actually know their stuff, they’ll just ditch the script and tell you.

3. Keep it Situational

Give them a quick, conversational scenario unique to your business. "Our team is currently dealing with [X problem] because of [Y constraint]. If you joined tomorrow, where would you start looking to fix it?" Real-world context is incredibly hard for AI to answer accurately without a massive amount of background data.

Need Help Navigating the Tech Talent Landscape?

Building an interview process that actually works in the AI era takes time. At TalentRemedy, we help companies design modern hiring frameworks that cut through the noise to find genuine, top-tier talent.

Want to revamp your tech hiring interview strategy? Send us a message today and let’s talk!