AI Interviewer

What Is AI Interviewer?

The Manatal AI Interviewer allows you to conduct automated, asynchronous video interviews with candidates at any time. This feature helps recruiters automate early-stage screening and delegate repetitive interview tasks to an AI agent, while you maintain full control over the interview content and evaluation criteria.

Once the feature is activated in your account, you can begin creating AI interviews directly from your jobs. For practical examples of leveraging the AI Interviewer, refer to AI Interviewer: Use Cases.

Try the AI Interviewer demo

Not subscribed to the AI Interviewer yet? You can explore a sample interview directly in Manatal to see exactly what you get once a candidate completes an AI interview.

1. Open any job or candidate profile and click the "Interviews" tab.
   
2. In the AI Interviewer card, click "View a demo".
   Note

   The demo is a sample only. Viewing it does not create an interview, does not save any data to your account and does not use any AI Interviewer credits.

   
3. On the demo page, you can:
   - Watch the recorded interview video (play, pause and move through the recording).
   - Open the "Assessment" tab to see how the AI evaluates the candidate's answers against the grading criteria.
   - Open the "Transcript" tab to read the full conversation.
   
4. Either return to the previous screen by clicking on the Interviews tab or stay on the demo page.
   
5. Ready to get started? Click "Subscribe" either on:
   i. The demo page:
   
   ii. Or the Interviews tab page:
   
   This opens the AI Interviewer subscription options.
   

Enabling AI Interviewer Feature

1. Head to the following page. Alternatively, click on "Administration" from your side menu, open the "Features" category and then the "AI Interviewer" category.
   

   

   

2. Click "Enable AI Interviewer".
   

3. Click "Select a plan".
   

4. Choose your preferred monthly or annual pricing plan.
   

5. Tick the checkbox to agree with the 'Terms and Conditions' and click "Subscribe" to submit your request.

   Important

   Please note that it typically takes up to 1 business day for your AI interviewer credits to be processed and added to your account.

   

   

Add AI Interviewer credits

1. Head to the following page. Alternatively, click on "Administration" from your side menu, open the "Features" category and then the "AI Interviewer" category.
   

   

   

2. Click on "Increase the limit".
   

3. Request your desired credit amount directly with our Support Team.
   

AI Interviewer Credit Usage

AI Interviewer credits are allocated and reset based on your selected plan type.

• Monthly Plans: Credits reset every month. Any unused credits do not roll over or carry forward to the next month.
• Yearly Plans(Recommended): Credits are allocated upfront for the entire year. This is the ideal option for teams with fluctuating hiring volumes, providing the flexibility to use your credits whenever needed without tracking monthly expirations.

FAQ for AI Interviewer Credits

1. How are credits consumed?
   Interview credits are only deducted when a candidate completes an interview. Credits are not consumed when you:

   • Create a job or an interview template
   • Share an interview link
   • Review completed interviews

2. How do I know if I have run out of credits?
   A yellow banner will be displayed at the top of your screen, visible to your account Admin. This banner prompts you to contact Support to increase your interview credit limit.

Managing your AI Interviews

1. From the Jobs menu, navigate to any job.
   

2. Click the "Interviews" tab.
   

3. Click on "New AI Interviewer" to begin the configuration and setting up your questions.
   

Step 1: Configuring your interview language, voice, and retakes

1. Select your preferred language, voice tone, and retakes for the AI Interviewer from the dropdown menus.

   • Interview language: Select a language.

     Important

     The language you select is used for the questions the AI generates, the AI's spoken responses, and the whole interview conversation. Write any manual questions in the same language you selected.

     Note

     • Manatal detects the language of your job description and selects it automatically if it is supported. You can change it from the dropdown at any time.
     • If your job description is written in a language that is not supported, no language is preselected. You will see "Select interview language" and must choose a supported language before you can continue.

   • Voice: Choose between a male or female voice for each language. Click "Play sample" to hear it before deciding.

     Note

     The language you select will be used for both the interview questions and the AI's spoken responses.

   • Allow retakes: Choose how many times a candidate can retake the interview, from 0 to 5. Select 0 if you do not want to allow retakes.
     If you do not want to allow candidates to retake the interview after submission, select 0 retakes.

     Important

     • Each retake will be recorded in Manatal and will consume 1 additional AI Interviewer credit.

   

2. Click "Continue" to move on to your questions.
   

Step 2: Creating your interview questions

When creating your AI Interview, you have two options for adding questions:

1. Generate questions from job description
2. Manually add questions
   

Option 1: Generate questions from job description (Recommended)

Click "Generate from job description" to have the AI create up to 10 relevant interview questions based on your job's description,each with a short title, the question and its grading criteria, all written in the interview language you selected in Step 1 (even if your job description is in another language).

Option 2: Manually add questions

If you prefer to write your own questions, click "Manually add questions".

You can add up to 10 questions. For each question, you must provide a:
- Short title: An internal reference for you to identify the question.
- Question text: The exact text the AI will ask the candidate.
- Grading criteria: What a good answer should cover. The AI uses this to assess the candidate.

Step 3: Reviewing questions and grading criteria

All your questions are shown in one list, with the question and its grading criteria visible together so you can review them side by side. You can perform the following actions:
1. Add: Click "Add question" to add a new question to the list. You can have up to 10 questions.
2. Edit: Click directly on the "Short title", "Question", or "Grading criteria" fields to edit them.
3. Rearrange: Drag the "dots" icon. The question and its grading criteria move together.
4. Delete: Click the "trash" icon to remove a question.

When you are finished, click "Create" to proceed.

Example Questions:

Position: Sales Manager

Question 1

• Short title: Sales Strategy
• Question: Can you describe how you would develop and execute a sales strategy for a new product entering a competitive market?
• Grading criteria: Structured approach to sales strategy, like market segmentation, ICP, channels, metrics. Showed adaptability.

Question 2

• Short title: Leadership
• Question: Tell me about a time you managed a sales team to exceed their targets.
• Grading criteria: Clearly explains coaching methods, motivation techniques, and how success was measured. Shows empathy and strategic delegation.

Question 3

• Short title: Customer Relationship
• Question: How do you build and maintain long-term relationships with key clients while pursuing new business?
• Grading criteria: Showed client engagement process, regular check-ins, feedback loops, and upsell/cross-sell strategies.

You can also include basic screening questions:

Question 1

• Short title: Visa Sponsorship
• Question: Are you able to work in the country without visa sponsorship?
• Grading criteria: Expected local candidates

Question 2

• Short title: Relocation
• Question: Are you able to relocate to Paris?
• Grading criteria: Expected candidates who are able to relocate and work onsite, not fully remote employees

Editing an existing AI Interview

1. In the job's "Interviews" tab, click "Configure" next to your AI Interview.
   
2. Modify the configuration and questions, then save your changes.
   Important

   If your interview was created before grading criteria became required and some questions have no grading criteria, you will need to add them before you can save any change, even if you only edited another setting.

   Note

   Edits apply to new candidates only. Interviews already completed are not affected.

   
   

Disable AI Interviewer inside a Job

• You can prepare interviews in advance, but they can only be shared with candidates once the feature is enabled inside the job.

• The AI interview has two states:

  • Enabled: The AI Interviewer can run interviews anytime a candidate accesses the link.
  • Disabled: The AI Interviewer will not run, and the interview is unavailable to candidates.

1. Click "Configure" next to the AI Interviewer link for the AI interview you set up.
   

2. By default, after an AI Interview has been created, the AI Interviewer is enabled. To disable it, you will need to click on "Conitnue" on the configuration page.
   

3. On the Interview questions page, you can click "Disable AI Interviewer".
   

4. Click "Continue" on the pop-up.

   Note

   After you disable it, candidates will not be able to interview using the previously available link.

   

Sharing the interview link:

1. Once your AI Interview is configured, a unique link will appear in the "Interview" tab for that job. Click the "Copy" icon to copy the link and share it with your candidates.
   

Get notified when an interview is completed

As soon as a candidate completes an AI interview, Manatal lets you know so you can review the results right away, without having to check back.

You will be notified in three places:

• Home dashboard: in the notifications feed on your Home page.
  
• Notification bell: in the dropdown at the top of any page.
  
• Email: in your inbox, with the subject "You have a new notification".
  

1. Each notification in the app shows the candidate's profile picture.
   
2. Click it to open the completed interview on the candidate's profile, in the "Interviews" tab, where you can watch the recording, read the transcript and review the assessment.
   

Managing your notification preferences

You decide which AI Interviewer notifications you receive, and whether you get them in the app, by email, or both.

1. Head to the following page. Alternatively, click on "Settings" in the side menu and then click on "Notifications".
   

   

2. Scroll to the Interviews and Meetings notifications section.
   

3. Turn the 'In-application' and 'Email' notifications for AI Interviewer(when a candidate completes an AI interview) on or off.
   

Candidate Assessment

Once a candidate completes the interview, the AI agent automatically analyzes their performance and evaluates the interview transcript against the grading criteria you defined to highlight key strengths, weaknesses, and overall fit for the role.

Reviewing AI Interview results

1. From the Jobs menu, open a job where an AI interview has been completed.
   

2. Click the "Interviews" tab.
   

3. Click on the card containing the completed interview.
   

4. It opens the candidate profile where you can:
   i. View the AI-generated assessment summary (strengths, weaknesses, and key insights) in the "Assessment" tab.
   ii. Read the full interview transcript in the "Transcript" tab.
   iii. Watch the full recorded interview.

Reviewing Candidate Retakes

• If a candidate completes multiple retakes, the system will log and display each submission.
• Each attempt will appear in a separate row, with the most recent submission at the top.
  

Deleting an AI Interviewer Record

• To keep your evaluation data clean, you can manually delete an interview record. This resets the candidate's progress and lets them use their original link for a new attempt.

1. Locate the completed interview record and click the three-dots next to it.
   
2. Click on "Delete the AI Interview".
   
3. A confirmation modal will appear. Click on "Continue". This will permanently remove the interview attempt, recording, transcript, and AI assessment from Manatal.
   

Sharing AI Interviewer Results with Guests

You can easily share candidate AI Interview results with your guests, granting them direct access to the interview transcript, assessment, and video recording right from their portal. Learn more about guests in this guide.

Configuring the Default Admin Setting

1. Head to the following page. Alternatively, click on "Administration" from your side menu, open the "Features" category and then the "AI Interviewer" category.
   

   

   

2. Toggle on 'Share the AI Interviewer result with guests by default'.

   Note

   • All new interviews completed from this point forward will be automatically shared with guests. This setting does not affect existing interviews.

   

Sharing or Hiding Individual Interviews

1. Open the candidate's profile or a Job and navigate to the 'Interviews' tab.
   
   
2. Open the specific AI Interview you wish to manage.
   
3. Below the video player, toggle 'Share with guest' on or off.
   
   A confirmation message will appear confirming the updated sharing status.
   

What Guests See

Once an interview is shared and the pipeline stage is visible, guests have two ways to access the AI Interview from within their portal. Learn more in this guide.

Option 1: From the Candidate Profile
Option 2: From the Job's Interviews Tab

FAQ

1. Will the AI make decisions instead of recruiters?

   No. Recruiters remain in full control of all recruiting decisions. The AI is a tool designed to help you assess candidates objectively by applying the same criteria to everyone.

2. How does the AI evaluate candidates?

   The AI scores candidates by comparing their answers to each of the questions set up in the interview builder.

3. Can I create my own questions?

   Yes. You can choose the option to manually add questions and add up to 10 custom questions tailored to your role or company needs.

4. How does the interviewer respond to harmful or inappropriate content?

   The AI will not engage with violent, offensive, or discriminatory content. If such content appears, it will redirect the conversation back to job-related questions. It also avoids discussing protected attributes such as age, gender, health, or religion.

5. How does the interviewer react if a candidate asks the interviewer to give the correct answers to pass the interview?

   The AI will not coach or reveal the right answers, scores, or any performance data. Instead, it will refocus the discussion on relevant job-related topics.

6. How to ensure the correct candidate joins the interview?

   Only candidates whose email addresses are registered in Manatal for the specific job associated with the interview can access the link. This ensures secure, candidate-specific access.

7. What happens if a candidate has a problem during the interview?

   Candidates can click "Report an issue" at any time during the interview to let us know about problems such as the AI Interviewer not joining, slow or no responses, or poor audio/video quality. Reporting an issue does not end or pause the interview. These reports help our team detect and fix problems faster.

8. Can candidates give feedback on the interview?

   Yes. When the interview ends, candidates are invited to rate their experience from 1 to 5 stars and leave an optional comment. The survey is optional and does not affect the interview result or use any credits.

9. How long is the AI interview link valid for?

   The AI interview link does not expire. It will remain valid indefinitely.

10. What happens if a candidate is not talking?

    If the candidate remains silent for more than 20 seconds, the interviewer will send a follow-up question after 90 seconds to re-engage with them.

11. How many languages are supported?

    Currently, the AI supports the following languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Dutch, Bahasa Indonesia, Russian, and Polish.
    When you create an interview, Manatal automatically selects your job description's language, if it is supported.

12. What happens if a candidate replies to the interviewer in a language that is not supported?

    If the AI can’t recognize the language, it will automatically switch back to English as the default language.

13. How do I send the interview link to a candidate?

    You can copy the interview link and paste it directly into an email or message to share with the candidate. This allows them to access and start the interview easily from their inbox.

14. Can multiple recruiters access or collaborate on results?

    Yes. Any recruiter with the appropriate permissions in Manatal can view and discuss candidate results collaboratively.

15. How can I minimize potential issues for candidates taking an interview?

    Before sending an interview link to a candidate, please ensure you have sufficient credits. You can verify your credit balance in two places:

    • Within a specific job: Navigate to the “Interviews” tab.
    • In the Admin section: Go to Administration > Features > AI Interviewer.

    When sending interview instructions to your candidate(s), please remind them of the following prerequisites to ensure a seamless experience:

    • Connection: A reliable, high-speed internet connection to prevent any disruptions or lag.
    • Hardware: A desktop computer, laptop, or smartphone equipped with a functional webcam and microphone.
    • Surroundings: A quiet, adequately lit environment free from background noise and distractions.
    • Troubleshooting Lag: If a candidate experiences lag due to a slow connection, advise them not to refresh the page. Instead, they should turn off their video camera. Video requires a lot of data, so disabling it reduces bandwidth usage and helps the interview continue smoothly.

16. I didn't receive a notification for a completed interview. Why?
    Check that the AI Interviewer notification is turned on for the channel you expected (In-app or Email) in the Settings menu under the Notifications page, and that you have not turned off all in-app or email notifications in your general settings. For email, also check your spam or promotions folder for a message with the subject "You have a new notification".

17. Can I get email notifications only, or in-app notifications only?
    Yes. In-app and email can be turned on or off separately. See how to manage your notification preferences in this guide.