With AI in recruitment, hiring teams are moving away from manual, unstructured screening to intelligent systems that predict and execute tasks. In fact, 86% of talent leaders we surveyed agreed that AI adoption is of key importance in 2025.
However, choosing the right AI screening and assessment tool for your organization remains a significant challenge. From AI resume parsers to video assessments to full-stack ATS solutions, the options are endless.
To simplify your selection process, we compare 12 AI candidate screening and assessment software across 5 different groups and discuss each one's strengths and trade-offs.
What’s the best AI system to screen & assess candidates in 2025? Here are your options:
- AI-powered asynchronous video/audio screening & assessment: Best for high‑volume early screens for roles where verifying skill match is important.
- AI-powered résumé screening & matching: Best for large‑scale recruiting where human review is impossible (e.g., graduate programs, job boards).
- AI-assisted phone-based candidate screening: Best for organizations hiring for roles requiring strong verbal communication (call centres, sales).
- AI-proctoring tool for screening and assessment: Best for high-volume & high‑stakes technical assessments or certification exams where integrity is paramount.
- AI-powered ATS recruitment systems: Best for organizations that want ATS, CRM, & screening in one vendor.
Now, let’s review the best option for each category:
Best AI-powered tools for asynchronous video screening and assessment
1. Willo
Willo is a candidate screening platform that helps you find job-fit candidates faster without sacrificing quality or candidate experience. Thousands of companies—from tech startups to enterprise recruiting teams—use Willo to replace early-stage phone screens, cut time-to-hire by up to 66%, and maintain completion rates above 89% even at high volumes.
Why we chose Willo
Among all AI candidate recruitment tools, Willo stands out in three ways:
- All-in-one screening workflow: From candidate outreach to screening, right-to-work checks, assessment, and evaluation—Willo brings everything into one platform, reducing tool sprawl, data silos, and cost.
- Plug-and-play with your ATS/CRM: Use Willo for screening, assessment, or both—without ripping out your current system. It fits into your hiring flow, letting you scale fast with no downtime.
- AI that enhances—not replaces—your judgment: Willo’s AI surfaces insights from candidate performance, collaborative scorecards, and highlights top candidates so you can make confident, high-quality hires faster.
Here's how Willo’s AI-powered candidate screening platform helps you hire faster:
Willo’s key features
Automated candidate outreach & pre-screening
Willo helps employers reclaim hours by replacing manual scheduling and screening calls with an automated pre-screening workflow. Instead of wasting 10–15 minutes on a phone call that was never going to convert, you can simply:
- Launch screenings at scale with a single link sent to up to 20,000 candidates
- AI-automated email and SMS reminders keep candidates engaged, with completion rates up to 89.3%.
- Use instant knockout questions to dismiss mismatches in seconds instead.
- Verify eligibility within the flow with built-in right-to-work and ID checks, reducing third-party costs.
Once you’ve filtered for basic requirements, the real question is: can they actually do the job? With Willo, you move past keyword-matching and get direct proof of skills—without adding friction to your hiring speed.
AI-driven skill assessment & evaluation
You can create role-specific assessments fast with AI that learns from your past successful hires and job profiles to generate relevant, inclusive questions automatically. Or pick from 1,000+ templates and launch in minutes, not days.
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To assess candidates beyond a resume, use a mix of video and audio responses, multiple-choice questions, and task uploads to assess communication, problem-solving, and practical capability in one workflow.
And when it’s time to review and score performance, Willo’s AI handles the heavy lifting of reviewing hours of responses, so you can focus on high-impact evaluation.
- Searchable transcripts allow you to jump straight to when a candidate mentions Python, Salesforce, or a leadership challenge—even if they answered in Spanish, French, or Mandarin.
- Willo AI also highlights areas needing clarification and suggests follow-up questions so your hiring managers enter interviews prepared and aligned.
Selecting qualified candidates from a shortlist is equally easy with Willo AI’s natural-language filtering.
Ask: “Show candidates with strong problem-solving and top customer-service examples.” Willo analyzes responses and ranks the best-fit talent as if you had a junior recruiter working behind the scenes.
When a candidate isn’t the right fit, Willo can automatically send tailored feedback—supporting a positive brand experience and acknowledging the time they invested.
Bottom line: You keep full control of hiring decisions—Willo just gives you the evidence you need to make them faster, more confidently, and based on real capability.
Built-in anti-cheat and proctoring measures
You don’t need to turn your screening process into an invasive, candidate-hostile interrogation to ensure authenticity. Willo helps you verify authenticity while maintaining a positive experience.
Willo’s AI-driven Real Talk detection runs on every response to flag scripted or AI-generated answers, so reviewers focus on genuine submissions and set aside questionable ones for human checks.
Additional technical safeguards also quietly block tab-switching and copy-pasting during interviews, deterring look-ups and collaboration tools without creating a Big Brother feel.
In short: Willo is the AI screening platform that adapts to your workflow, your industry, and your hiring philosophy—not the other way around.
Willo pros
- Eliminate candidate friction with a fully browser-based access– no login, sign-up, or app download required.
- Candidates control their pacing. They can pause and resume the assessment at will, reducing fatigue and accommodating different work styles.
- Eliminate scheduling lag between stages. Candidates provide their availability for the next live interview right at the end of the asynchronous screening.
Willo cons
- Willo doesn’t support live video interviews at the moment.
Willo pricing
Willo’s pricing has three tiers:
- $249/month. Ideal for teams that hire a few times annually.
- $399/month for teams scaling up their recruitment.
- Custom pricing for large companies hiring at volume.
Other software options in this category are:
2. HireVue
Best for: Large-scale enterprise hiring, combining video interviews with AI-driven predictive insights.
HireVue is an AI-powered video interviewing and talent assessment platform that lets candidates record answers to pre-recorded questions on their own schedule—no live interview required.
Why we chose HireVue
HireVue integrates one-way video interviews, technical challenges, and optional game-based assessments into one process that candidates can complete in under 30 minutes. This addresses your critical challenge of screening high volumes without forcing candidates through a multi-day, multi-platform process that kills completion rates.
The AI assesses candidates based on job-specific competencies that are proven to predict job performance. This approach ensures the focus remains on essential skills rather than subjective personal data like GPA, race, or gender.
HireVue key features
- AI-driven video interviews that analyze responses for role fit
- Advanced analytics dashboards that surface patterns across your candidate pool
- Predictive insights that forecast job performance before you extend an offer
- Game-based assessments that measure cognitive ability and problem-solving in interactive formats
- Major ATS integrations (Workday, Greenhouse, and others) so data flows automatically.
HireVue pros
- Enjoy a comprehensive library of science-backed assessments tailored to screen for specific skills and abilities.
- HireVue’s AI chatbot automatically matches candidates to the right positions, reducing misrouted applications and saving your team from manual sorting.
HireVue cons
- High barrier to entry with high pricing (estimated $35,000+ annually)
- HireVue’s broad feature set may be better suited for enterprise teams with complex workflows.
- HireVue’s AI-automated candidate scoring system might be subject to algorithmic bias.
HireVue pricing
- HireVue’s pricing starts around $35,000 per year for the "Essential" package, while a more comprehensive "Premium" package starts at $75,000 per year.
Need enterprise-grade features without the complexity? Explore our detailed comparison of HireVue alternatives that put the human back in hiring.
3. Vervoe
Best for: Skills-based hiring via hyper-realistic job simulations and personalized AI grading.
Vervoe is a machine learning-based skill assessment platform that tests real job skills in the context of your specific role and company, predicting job performance before you hire.
Why we chose Vervoe
With Vervoe, you can train the AI to match your exact hiring standards—not generic industry benchmarks that may not reflect what success looks like in your organization.
The way it works is that Vervoe's "Preferences Model" directs you to manually score a diverse sample of high, mid, and low-quality answers upfront. The AI then learns your unique scoring pattern, ensuring its automatic ranking aligns precisely with your values and expectations for that role.
This moves you beyond one-size-fits-all scoring, enabling highly accurate candidate prioritization without importing external bias.
Vervoe key features
- Virtual job simulations that mirror actual work scenarios
- 300+ pre-built templates across industries and roles
- AI grading models trained on your specific preferences
- Question randomization to prevent answer-sharing and cheating
Vervoe pros
- You focus squarely on job-specific skills and performance, not credentials or pedigree.
- AI learns from your scoring decisions, improving accuracy with each assessment cycle.
- You launch faster by customizing pre-made questions instead of building from scratch.
Vervoe cons
- Customizing the AI to reflect your unique hiring standards requires some initial setup.
- The randomized format offers strong cheating deterrence but may require additional guidance for some candidates.
- Key customization features aren't included in the paid plan, requiring upgrades for full functionality.
Vervoe pricing
- Free trial: 7 days at $0
- Pay & Go plan: One-time $1,100 payment for unlimited assessments (up to 100 candidates)
4. Testgorilla
Best for: High-volume, non-technical screening with anti-cheating features.
TestGorilla is a talent assessment platform where AI suggests tests, auto-scores open-ended answers, conducts video interviews, and logs candidate behavior (tab focus, multi-monitor use) to help you evaluate integrity across hundreds of applicants.
Why we chose Testgorilla
For high-volume hiring, test integrity is paramount. TestGorilla layers multiple anti-cheating controls:
- Copy-paste is disabled
- Questions cycle from a large bank (candidates see different items)
- IP address tracking and full-screen monitoring (questions hide if candidates exit full-screen)
- Optional webcam snapshots and behavior logs provide evidence for review
This robust system, coupled with AI auto-scoring for custom questions and video interviews, ensures your shortlist reflects real capability.
Testgorilla key features
- 350+ science-backed tests covering cognitive, behavioral, and technical skills
- Full customization and custom question types (on premium plans)
- AI-powered auto-scoring for custom questions and video interviews
- AI resume scoring for rapid shortlisting
- Conversational AI interviews (Plus plan) for early-stage screening
- Comprehensive anti-cheating features, including behavior tracking and proctoring
Testgorilla pros
- Anti-cheating and proctoring capabilities give you defensible results.
- Extensive test library covers virtually any role, from warehouse to analytics.
- Intuitive interface lets you build and launch assessments in minutes.
Testgorilla cons
- Branded assessments, public invitation links, video responses, and user access management all require paid add-ons.
- All plans require a minimum 12-month commitment—problematic if your hiring is seasonal or project-based.
Testgorilla pricing
- Starts at $900/year (for teams of 1–15 employees)
- Contact for pricing on larger team sizes
Best AI screening software for resume screening and matching
5. Eightfold
Best for: Enterprise-scale talent teams that need AI to surface the strongest skill matches from massive applicant pools
Eightfold is an agentic talent discovery platform that sits atop your ATS/HRIS, matching people to roles by skills and capabilities (not just keywords) and ranking the strongest matches first to eliminate manual triage.
Why we chose Eightfold
Eightfold's core value is skills-centric matching: the platform analyzes profiles for transferable skills, upskilling potential, and role fit—then presents you with a prioritized shortlist. That way, you’d see rank-ordered candidates based on learned skills and adjacent capabilities instead of scrolling through hundreds of résumés playing keyword bingo. In high-volume scenarios, this directly translates into faster decisions and less "pattern matching" based on job titles alone.
Eightfold key features
- Skills and capability-based matching that goes beyond keyword searches
- Automated ranking for both inbound applicants and existing talent pools
- Bi-directional ATS integrations that keep your system of record current
- Talent rediscovery and internal mobility powered by a unified intelligence layer.
Eightfold pros
- Accelerate resume screening and matching at scale, without expanding your recruiting team.
- Keeps your ATS as the system of record, avoiding data silos and duplicate entry.
Eightfold cons
- Smaller teams may find they benefit most from platforms with a lighter, more focused feature set.
Eightfold pricing
- Contact Eightfold for custom pricing
6. SeekOut
Best for: Teams that need AI search across external profiles to cut fresh sourcing.
SeekOut is an AI recruiting platform that searches 1B+ external profiles and your ATS/CRM, with a built-in Talent Rediscovery workflow so you can locate past applicants by updated profiles and re-engage quickly.
Why we chose SeekOut
Your lowest-cost, fastest hires often sit in the ATS you already own—past runners-up, near-misses, or candidates who applied before you had the right opening.
SeekOut's Talent Rediscovery applies its AI search and filtering to your existing ATS candidates, answering practical questions like "Where did last year's strong applicants land?" and "Who's now qualified for this opening?"
The integration catalog covers major ATSs (Greenhouse, iCIMS, Jobvite, Lever, SuccessFactors), so you push rediscovered profiles back into live requisitions without manual exports or duct-tape workflows. This results in less cold sourcing, faster time-to-contact, and warmer candidate relationships.
SeekOut key features
- Talent Rediscovery against ATS/CRM with AI search & filters.
- Large-graph AI search across external + internal pools.
- ATS integrations (Greenhouse, iCIMS, Jobvite, Lever, SuccessFactors, etc.)
SeekOut pros
- You directly target resume screening and matching inside your ATS, not just the open web—maximizing the value of data you've already paid to collect.
- Broad integration coverage makes pushing candidates into live reqs practical and fast.
- You reduce spend on net-new sourcing by prioritizing warm pipelines over expensive cold outreach.
SeekOut cons
- Pricing isn't public, requiring sales conversations that can slow evaluation.
- Value depends on ATS data quality—if your historical candidate data is poorly tagged or incomplete, rediscovery yields diminish.
SeekOut pricing
- Contact SeekOut for pricing.
Best AI screening tools for phone-based hiring
7. Qualifi
Best for: High-volume, frontline, or hourly recruiting teams that need asynchronous phone screens at scale with minimal candidate friction.
Qualifi is a virtual interview platform that lets you send on-demand phone interviews: candidates dial in (or the system calls them), hear your pre-recorded questions, and answer on their own time—no app, login, or video required.
Why we chose Qualifi
Most drop-off happens before you ever speak to a great candidate. Qualifi's phone-first flow removes app logins, camera anxiety, and scheduling friction, so more people actually complete the screen.
The platform auto-transcribes every response and surfaces insights, giving you fast, comparable notes you can skim in minutes—without booking a single live call. This is how you scale frontline hiring without proportionally scaling your recruiting headcount.
Qualifi Key features
- On-demand, asynchronous phone screens with pre-recorded questions
- Automated transcription and insights that accelerate reviewer speed
- ATS integration to sync candidate data and stage progression
Qualifi Pros
- Low candidate friction due to zero scheduling, app downloads, or camera requirements—just a phone call.
- Consistent question sets make it easy to compare answers at volume and identify top performers quickly.
Cons
- Audio-only means no work sample signal: You'll need to pair phone screens with a short task or video assessment later to verify hands-on skills.
- ASR and transcription can struggle with accents or non-native speakers, requiring manual review for fairness.
Qualifi pricing
- Contact Qualifi for pricing
8. Fountain AI recruiter
Best for: High-volume frontline or hourly hiring businesses that need voice-based auto-screening.
Fountain AI Recruiter is a high-volume hiring platform with an AI agent that auto-screens via voice conversations, asks custom questions, evaluates answers in real time, and fast-tracks qualified applicants to interviews—24/7.
Why we chose the Fountain AI recruiter
When frontline pipelines move quickly, speed and fit matter more than long, multi-stage interviews. That’s where Foundtain’s AI stands out. The AI voice agent asks eligibility and fit questions by phone and scores responses in real time.
After that, it immediately accelerates top candidates to the next step—reducing leak-off between application and interview. This blends the accessibility of a phone call with the workflow control of a modern ATS, purpose-built for mobile-first applicants.
Key features
- Voice conversations for auto-screening that engage candidates where they are
- Custom questions and instant evaluation tailored to your role requirements
- Automatic advancement of qualified candidates to interview slots
Fountain AI recruiter pros
- Purpose-built for high-volume, mobile-first applicant flows, meeting candidates on their terms.
- Voice and rules engine shorten the application to interview time, keeping momentum high and reducing drop-off.
Cons
- As with all voice AI, monitor ASR accuracy for fairness across accents, dialects, and candidates with speech disabilities.
- Pricing not public.
Pricing
- Contact Fountain for a custom quote
Best AI screening tools for technical hiring and remote proctoring
9. Mercer Mettl
Best for: Organizations that need AI proctoring for hiring non-tech and mixed roles.
Mercer Mettl is a pre-employment assessment suite with AI-assisted remote proctoring, optional live human proctoring, and a secure lockdown browser, paired with extensive libraries for cognitive, behavioral, and technical tests.
Why we chose Mercer
If your hiring spans many job families, you need flexible proctoring: light automation for volume roles, live supervision for high-stakes positions, and lockdown where policy demands it. Mercer offers that range, plus candidate authentication (OTP, ID verification, email) and AI cheat-flagging with improved accuracy to reduce false alarms. This speeds up post-test quality control and gives you defensible results when hiring decisions are questioned.
Mercer key features
- AI-based proctoring with automated flags for suspicious behavior
- Live and record-review modes for different risk levels
- Candidate authentication (OTP, ID upload, email verification)
- Large test library covering cognitive, behavioral, and technical areas
Pros
- You cover non-tech and tech roles with adjustable proctoring depth matched to each role's stakes.
- Practical admin options let you dial proctoring intensity (AI-only → hybrid → human) based on budget and risk tolerance.
Cons
- Heavy lockdown can increase candidate drop-off.
- Pricing isn't transparent, requiring custom quotes that can slow procurement.
Pricing
- Contact Mercer for custom pricing
10. CodeSignal
Best for: Engineering/data hiring teams that need assessment, built-in online proctoring, and ID verification in one place.
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CodeSignal is a technical skills assessment and development platform used for hiring and upskilling talent. Its features focus on evaluating technical talent based on job-relevant tasks and providing a realistic, objective hiring process.
Why we chose CodeSignal
When first-round tech screens move remote, the real risk isn't speed—it's result credibility. Can you trust that the person who aced the assessment is the same person who'll show up on day one?
CodeSignal's stack (proctoring + ID verification + plagiarism checks) aims to make each score defensible while keeping the candidate flow familiar. This means fewer re-tests, faster hand-offs to hiring managers, and confidence you can justify results in an audit or when defending hiring decisions.
CodeSignal's key feature
- AI-powered proctoring and plagiarism detection to verify result integrity
- Comprehensive skill assessment library for technical roles
- AI-assisted coding assessments that adapt to candidate skill level
- Advanced cloud IDE that mimics real development environments
- Built-in video and audio for live technical interviews
CodeSignal pros
- Strong ATS integrations (Greenhouse, Lever, others) streamline your overall hiring workflow, keeping technical assessment data in your system of record.
- Work simulations in a cloud-based IDE closely mirror real-world coding environments, giving you signal into how candidates will perform on the job.
CodeSignal cons
- Some users occasionally report slow loading times or minor glitches within the platform, which can potentially disrupt the assessment or interview process.
- While strong for technical hiring, CodeSignal focuses narrowly on technical assessments.
CodeSignal pricing
- Contact CodeSignal for pricing
Best AI-powered ATS recruitment systems for candidate screening & assessment
11. Ashby
Best for: High-growth teams that want a modern ATS with ready-to-use AI for application review, content, and interview notes.
Ashby is an all-in-one, AI-powered recruiting platform for modern talent teams. The system combines various hiring functions—including an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), Candidate Relationship Management (CRM), scheduling, and analytics—into a single product.
The platform is designed to help scaling organizations and enterprises connect their hiring processes, automate repetitive tasks, and make data-driven decisions.
Why we chose Ashby
Ashby focuses on "adoption-ready" AI—the tooling recruiters actually touch every day, not futuristic features that sit unused.
- AI-assisted application review speeds up resume triage inside your ATS workflow.
- AI Content Assistant accelerates job descriptions and outreach copy using requisition context.
- AI Notetaker shortens review cycles by summarizing interviews right next to the scorecard.
As a result, you spend less time in your inbox and calendar– more time moving qualified candidates forward.
Key features
- AI-Assisted Application Review for faster screening and ranking
- AI Content Assistant for job descriptions, emails, and outreach sequences
- AI Notetaker for recording, transcription, and interview summaries
Pros
- Practical, built-in AI boosts day-to-day recruiter throughput without requiring separate tools or manual copy-paste.
- Transparent public pricing for smaller teams lets you start quickly without lengthy sales cycles.
Cons
- Fewer global/edge-case features than very large enterprise suites (e.g., complex shared services).
- Advanced analytics or CRM-scale needs may require add-ons or third-party integrations.
Pricing
- Foundation price starts at $400/month for companies with up to 25 employees.
- Plus/Enterprise are quoted.
12. iCIMS Talent Cloud
Best for: Enterprises that need a mature ATS with baked-in AI matching across high-volume and corporate hiring, plus a broad ecosystem.
iCIMS Talent Cloud is a scalable, cloud-based platform offering a comprehensive suite of talent acquisition software to attract, engage, hire, and advance your workforce—all from a single system managing the entire recruitment lifecycle.
Why we chose iCIMS Talent Cloud
iCIMS' AI matching addresses your core triage problem: aligning job requirements with qualified profiles so you don't drown in inbound applications. By consolidating candidate data (internal + external) and applying machine learning to scan job descriptions and surface best matches, you shortlist faster and screen out unqualified applicants early—a practical win for both volume and hiring manager satisfaction.
iCIMS key feature
- Recruitment marketing tools to attract candidates at scale
- AI job-candidate matching and recommendations that prioritize best fits
- AI-powered chatbots for candidate engagement and FAQ handling
- AI candidate ranking to surface top applicants automatically
iCIMS pros
- Detailed reports and analytics enable data-driven decisions on metrics like time-to-hire and sourcing effectiveness.
- Over 800 integration partners in the marketplace let you connect seamlessly with HR systems, job boards, and other tools—avoiding vendor lock-in.
iCIMS cons
- Administrators find navigation difficult, with a steep learning curve for advanced reporting and configuration.
- Limited flexibility in certain areas, such as the candidate portal or specific application forms, can frustrate teams with unique workflows.
iCIMS pricing
- Contact iCIMS for pricing
Next steps: Get started with the best AI candidate screening and assessment software for your business
When you compare AI screening tools across categories, a clear pattern emerges: most platforms force you to choose between depth and flexibility.
- Phone screeners like Qualifi and Fountain give you volume, but no visual signal.
- Proctored assessment platforms like CodeSignal and Mercer deliver integrity, but narrow use cases.
- Enterprise ATSs like iCIMS and Ashby offer integration, but "good at many, best at few" capabilities.
- Resume screeners like Eightfold and SeekOut accelerate triage, but still can't verify soft skills or culture-add.
Willo bridges these trade-offs.
- You get asynchronous video and audio screening that replaces phone calls and captures what resumes hide.
- You get AI-powered review tools that cut triage time by 80%+ without replacing your judgment.
- You get anti-cheat measures and right-to-work verification without turning your process into a surveillance ordeal.
- And you get all of this in a platform that plugs into your existing ATS—not one that forces you to rip and replace your entire stack.
Whether you're hiring 10 customer support agents in a seasonal surge or scaling a 1,000-person engineering org, Willo adapts to your workflow, your industry, and your hiring philosophy—not the other way around.
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