The Rise of Interview Co-Pilots: How to Tell if a Candidate is Using AI in Your Interview

Hiring software developers has always been hard, but in 2025, it has become a battle against automation. With the rise of "interview co-pilots" (tools that listen to your questions and feed answers to candidates in real-time) recruiters are facing a new crisis: AI interview fraud.

If you’ve recently conducted a technical screen where the candidate sounded surprisingly robotic or paused awkwardly before answering simple questions, you may have already encountered this.

Here is how to spot the signs manually, why that might be a waste of your time, and how to detect AI cheating in technical interviews before you even pick up the phone.

The Telltale Signs: What to Look For

While interview co-pilots are getting faster, they still introduce friction into a conversation. If you are running a standard video or phone interview, watch for these three major red flags.

1. The "Scanning" Eye Movement

When we think, our eyes might drift up or to the side, but they usually return to the listener. When a candidate is reading an AI-generated script, their eyes often move in a "scanning" pattern, left-to-right, line-by-line. Watch for candidates who seem to be reading invisible teleprompters or looking intently at a specific part of their screen that isn't the camera.

2. The "Processing" Delay

One of the most reliable indicators is candidate response time analysis. AI models are fast, but they aren't instant. There is a "lag loop":

1. You ask the question.
2. The tool transcribes audio to text.
3. The LLM generates an answer.
4. The candidate reads it.

This creates an unnatural silence immediately after you finish speaking. If a candidate consistently takes 3-5 seconds of dead silence before answering every question, even simple ones, they might be waiting for their co-pilot to load.

3. The "Echo" Tactic

To buy extra time for the AI to generate a response, candidates often repeat the question back to you.

• Recruiter: "Can you explain the difference between TCP and UDP?"
• Candidate: "The difference between TCP and UDP... that is a great question. The difference is..."

While some repetition is normal, doing it methodically for every technical question is a common stalling tactic used to mask the latency of interview co-pilots.

The "Sunk Cost" Trap: Why Manual Detection Fails

Here is the hard truth: even if you are an expert at spotting these signs, you have already lost.

By the time you notice a candidate is using AI interview fraud detection software (or lack thereof) to cheat, you are typically 10 or 15 minutes into the call.

• You cannot easily hang up without risking a negative Glassdoor review.
• You have to sit through the rest of the interview, wasting 30+ minutes of your day.
• Your mental energy is drained trying to "outsmart" the cheater rather than assessing talent.

If you interview 10 candidates and 3 are cheating, you have lost hours of productivity that you can never get back.

The Solution: Automate the First Line of Defence

The most effective way to prevent interview co-pilots in coding tests and screens is to remove the human element from the first round entirely.

EvoHire acts as your AI defence layer. Instead of you spending hours on the phone, EvoHire’s AI agent calls the candidate for you. It conducts a rigorous, conversational technical interview based on the specific skills you need, from junior to senior levels.

How It Stops Cheating

Because EvoHire is a machine talking to a human, it can measure metrics that humans miss.

• Response Time Deviation: It tracks exactly how long a candidate takes to answer. Consistent, unnatural delays are flagged immediately in the report.
• Lexical Analysis: EvoHire processes the language and vocabulary of every answer. This can catch even those who try to paraphrase their responses to avoid detection.
• Audio & Transcript Analysis: You get a full video recording and transcript. If a candidate’s answers are technically perfect but functionally robotic, you can spot it in seconds by watching the interview rather than sitting through the call.

The Result?

You wake up to a dashboard of completed interviews. You open a report, see a "High Response Delay" warning, and simply archive the candidate. No awkward confrontations, no wasted afternoons. You only spend time on candidates who have already proven they can speak naturally and competently.

Ready to screen candidates without the headache?

Stop letting interview co-pilots steal your time. Try EvoHire’s 14-day free trial and start screening unlimited developers in parallel today.