By Nhi (Yiyi) Vu, Flowmingo
Surveys tell us how candidates feel about AI interviews. In Greenhouse’s May 2026 report, 38% of US job seekers said they had quit a hiring process over one. What a survey cannot show is what candidates do once the invite lands, or what recruiters do with the results.
So we counted. Flowmingo is a free AI hiring platform: recruiters send applicants an AI interview to do in their own time, then get back a recording and a scored evaluation. We looked at 172,486 first-round AI interviews sent by 1,807 hiring organizations between April 15 and October 6, 2026. This is vendor data, and the method and its limits are at the end.
Key takeaways
- Once a candidate pressed Start, 90% finished the AI interview.
- 9 in 10 invited candidates who did not finish never reached the interview’s first screen. The loss happens at the invite.
- Of invited candidates who finished, 85% did so within 72 hours and 97% within 7 days.
- 60% of AI interviews were completed outside weekday office hours in the candidate’s own time zone, and 19% on weekends.
- The median AI interview took 25 minutes from start to submit.
- 23% of candidates used a phone; 75% used a laptop.
- Hiring teams opened 33% of finished interviews within 24 hours. Interviews scored 8 or higher were opened 68% of the time, against 47% for those under 5.
How many candidates finish an AI interview?
Most candidates who start an AI interview finish it. Of 27,706 candidates who pressed Start between August 16 and October 6, 2026, 90.2% submitted. Counted from the invite, the number is much lower: 31.5% of 19,214 invited candidates completed.
The gap between those 2 numbers is the whole story. Only 37.4% of invited candidates ever reached the first screen. Once they were in, 84.1% finished.
Chart: from invite to finished AI interview
| Invited | 100% |
| Reached the first screen | 37.4% |
| Reached the camera check | 36.8% |
| Pressed Start | 34.8% |
| Completed | 31.5% |
Source: Flowmingo platform data, 19,214 invited candidates, 274 organizations, Aug. 16 to Oct. 6, 2026.
Where do candidates drop out of AI interviews?
Before they start. Of invited candidates who did not finish, 91.3% never reached the interview’s first screen, and 74.4% never clicked the link in the invitation email at all.
The smaller group who opened the interview and left split like this. Of 5,360 candidates: 50.7% left after starting, 32.4% at the camera and microphone check, 14.6% on the screens before it, and 2.3% on the interview screen before pressing Start. The microphone prompt was a named cause in 9.1% of these exits: the candidate blocked it, dismissed it, or had no microphone.
That lines up with what candidates report. Greenhouse found 70% of AI interviewees were not clearly told beforehand that AI was involved. A candidate who opens an invite and cannot tell what it is, how long it takes, or that it needs a camera has every reason to close it.
How fast do candidates complete an AI interview?
Fast, if they do it at all. Of 22,372 invited candidates who finished, 47.9% did so within 24 hours of the invite, 84.8% within 72 hours and 97.4% within 7 days. The median was 24.9 hours.
For a recruiter, that sets the deadline. A 3-day window covers most of the people who will ever finish, and after a week almost nobody does. Reminders belong in the first 3 days.
When do candidates do AI interviews?
Mostly outside office hours. Of 68,363 completed interviews, 60.1% were submitted outside Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, in the candidate’s own time zone. 19.3% came in on a weekend, and 28.3% between 8pm and 6am.
Chart: when candidates submit AI interviews (local time, any day)
| Midnight to 6am | 7.2% |
| 6am to 9am | 3.7% |
| 9am to 5pm | 49.3% |
| 5pm to 8pm | 18.7% |
| 8pm to midnight | 21.1% |
Source: Flowmingo platform data, 68,363 completed AI interviews, Apr. 15 to Oct. 6, 2026.
This is the case for a first round candidates can do in their own time: 50.7% of them submitted after 5pm or before 9am.
How long does an AI interview take?
The median AI interview took 25 minutes from start to submit, setup steps included. The middle half of candidates took between 18 and 34 minutes. Telling candidates that number in the invite is cheap, and it answers the first question a busy candidate has.
Do candidates take AI interviews on a phone?
Mostly not. Of 68,394 completed interviews, 74.6% were done on a laptop, 22.6% on a phone and 2.8% on a desktop computer. Most candidates sit down at a computer for it, so an invite opened on a phone has to be easy to find again later on a laptop.
Which languages do candidates interview in?
Candidates used 45 languages. 8.2% of completed interviews were in a language other than English, led by Indonesian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German and Vietnamese. English still dominates, but for roles hiring across borders, a first round in the candidate’s own language is a real option.
How quickly do recruiters review AI interview results?
Slower than candidates finish them. Hiring teams opened 32.9% of finished interviews within 24 hours and 52.7% within 14 days. When an interview was opened, the median first open came 15.6 hours after the candidate finished.
Recruiters do not open them at random. Interviews scored 8 to 10 out of 10 were opened within 14 days 67.8% of the time, against 47.2% for interviews scored under 5. The score decides what gets watched first.
Chart: share of AI interviews opened by the hiring team within 14 days, by score
| Score 0 to 4.9 | 47.2% |
| Score 5 to 6.9 | 51.3% |
| Score 7 to 7.9 | 59.3% |
| Score 8 to 10 | 67.8% |
Source: Flowmingo platform data, interviews finished Apr. 15 to Sep. 30, 2026. In-app opens only; results read from the email notification are not counted.
These are floors: a recruiter who read the result in the email notification, or decided from the ranked list, does not show up as an open. Still, a candidate who finished at 10pm on a Sunday is waiting. Greenhouse found 51% of AI interviewees never heard back after one.
What should recruiters do with these AI interview statistics?
- Fix the invite before the interview. Say it is an AI interview, that it takes about 25 minutes, that it needs a camera and microphone, and when it is due. Most of the loss happens before candidates see the first screen.
- Give 3 days, and remind within them. Most candidates who finish do so within 72 hours, and almost none after a week.
- Warn about the microphone prompt. A candidate who blocks it by mistake is a candidate you lose at the last step.
- Review within a day. Candidates finish in the evening and at weekends; the employer who replies next morning is ahead of the rest.
- Tell candidates how AI is used and keep a person on the decision. Illinois and New York City already require notice.
Methodology
Source: Flowmingo platform records of what candidates and hiring teams did, not what they reported. Flowmingo is a free AI hiring platform, so this is vendor data. Population: AI interviews created April 15 to October 6, 2026 (UTC) by 1,807 hiring organizations: 172,486 candidate interviews, 68,501 of them completed, with candidates in 179 countries. Data was counted on October 14, 2026, so every interview had at least 7 days.
Excluded: Flowmingo’s own hiring, demo and sample interviews created at sign-up, practice runs, recruiters testing their own interviews, and records without a candidate email. A candidate who restarted the same interview counts once. First screen and Pressed Start come from the candidate’s journey record, logged from August 16, 2026. Review means the first time someone on the hiring team opened the result in the platform; interviews finished after September 30 were left out of review figures to allow 14 days.
Limits: candidates with a known location were mostly in India (43%), Nigeria (12%), Philippines (9%), Indonesia (7%); the United States was 2.4%. The organizations are Flowmingo users, not a random sample of employers. Every figure covers at least 143 organizations, and no organization is more than 26% of any figure’s base. Aggregates only; no candidate or organization is identifiable.
About the author
Nhi (Yiyi) Vu works at Flowmingo, a Y Combinator-backed free AI hiring platform. Recruiters send applicants an AI interview in 60+ languages and get back a recording and a scored evaluation, alongside CV evaluation, screening questions and technical tests.
