Should I require experience with a specific AI tool?

Usually not. Tools change quickly and access differs between companies. Ask about the tasks, the checking and the judgement, which carry over to any tool.

How do I assess this skill in non-technical roles?

Ask how the candidate uses AI for drafting, research or summaries, and how they check the result. The same criteria apply to any role.

Is it a concern if a candidate does not use AI tools?

Not necessarily. Ask how they would approach it and how they learn new tools. Score willingness to learn and care about accuracy.

Should I ask about candidates using AI in the interview itself?

Decide your policy and tell candidates in advance. Many teams ask about work habits instead, because the stated rules for the interview and the job can differ.

Interview questions

Interview questions to assess working with AI tools.

Updated 5 October 2026

Working with AI tools means using them to do better work while keeping responsibility for the result. Listen for how the candidate checks AI output, what they decide not to use it for, and how they protect confidential information. Strong candidates describe both a useful result and a time the tool was wrong.

What is working with AI tools?

Working with AI tools is the skill of using AI assistants and similar software in real tasks with good judgement. The behaviours that show it are choosing suitable tasks, writing clear instructions, checking the output against trusted sources, correcting errors, keeping private data out of tools that should not hold it, and following company rules. It is not the same as knowing the latest tool names, and a candidate does not need to have used any specific product.

Working With AI Tools interview questions

Tell me about a task where an AI tool made your work better. How did you use it? Listen for: a specific task, a clear request to the tool and a result they can describe.
Describe a time an AI tool gave you a wrong or weak answer. How did you notice? Listen for: checking against another source and a willingness to correct it.
Tell me about a task you chose not to use an AI tool for, and why. Listen for: sound reasons such as confidentiality, accuracy or the need for personal judgement.
How do you decide what information is safe to put into an AI tool? Listen for: awareness of client data, personal data and company rules.
Describe how you write instructions to get a useful result from an AI tool. Listen for: giving context, examples and constraints, and refining after the first answer.
A colleague pastes an AI written summary into a client report without checking it. What do you do? Listen for: raising the risk politely and suggesting a review step.
Your team has no rules on AI use. What would you suggest? Listen for: practical ideas, such as approved tools, a review step and a data list.
How have you kept up with changes in the tools you use? Listen for: regular, practical learning, not a list of names.

What does a strong answer look like?

Signal	Strong answer	Weak answer
Checking output	Compares AI output against a trusted source before using it.	Copies the result straight into the work.
Judgement on use	Names tasks where the tool helps and tasks where it should not be used.	Uses it for everything or refuses to use it at all.
Data care	Keeps client and personal data out of unapproved tools.	Has not considered what the tool does with the data.
Ownership of the result	Says the final work and its errors are theirs.	Blames the tool when something goes wrong.

How do you score working with AI tools fairly?

Score working with AI tools on judgement and care, not on enthusiasm or the number of tools named. A candidate who uses AI rarely but checks everything may score higher than one who uses it constantly without review.

Ask every candidate the same questions, and accept examples from any tool, including none they used at work.
Write criteria for checking output, choosing tasks and protecting data before the interviews.
Score each answer against those criteria before comparing candidates.
Quote the example of a checked or rejected output as the evidence for the score.
Never score on the use of a particular product, because tools change and company access differs.

How does an AI interviewer assess working with AI tools?

With AI Interview Agents (AIIA), the AI interviewer speaks with each candidate in their browser, in English, Hindi or Arabic, and asks questions built from your job description and the areas you choose. You can list working with AI tools as one of those areas.

If a candidate says they use AI for everything, the interviewer follows up on how they check the results. The report scores the answer with written reasoning tied to what the candidate said, and a person on your team makes the hiring decision. A starting set of questions is available from the interview kit generator.