Setting Up AI Interviews

The AI Interviewer conducts voice screenings with candidates — asking questions, following up in real time, and producing a scored transcript you can review later. Setup happens at the pipeline-stage level.

Adding an AI Interview stage#

Open the job whose pipeline you want to update and go to Pipeline → Edit stages.

1. Click Add stage.
2. Pick the stage type AI Interview.
3. Give the stage a name (e.g., "Initial Screen").
4. Choose where in the pipeline order it goes. Typically after "Application Review" and before a human interview round.

Save the pipeline. The stage is now live but may be paused by default — toggle it to active when you're ready to start sending interviews.

Interview duration#

Set the target length of the interview, between 5 and 60 minutes (default: 15).

The AI paces itself based on this target. Shorter durations force tighter, more focused questions; longer durations allow more depth per topic. For most screening use cases, 15 minutes is the right starting point.

Questions#

Elly auto-generates 4–6 questions based on the job title and description. These appear in the stage settings, where you can:

• Edit each question.
• Reorder them.
• Remove questions you don't need.
• Add your own.

A minimum of one question is required. Mix role-specific questions with a general opener ("Tell me a bit about yourself") for best results.

The AI will ask follow-up questions dynamically based on the candidate's answers — you don't need to pre-script every follow-up.

Scorecard template#

Alongside questions, Elly generates a scorecard template of 3–5 evaluation criteria specific to the role. Every interview is scored against this template automatically.

You can:

• Edit the criteria directly from the stage settings.
• Swap in a different template from your saved templates library.
• Reuse the same template across multiple jobs for consistent evaluation.

See Scorecard Templates for how templates work.

Invitation email#

Candidates are invited through the stage's automated email, set up in the Email tab of the stage editor:

• Email on — When a candidate enters this stage (manually or automatically), they're sent an interview invitation with their interview link.
• Email off — Candidates enter the stage but no email is sent. You send invitations manually or share the generic link.

The AI Interview stage comes with ready-made invitation copy sent from Elly. To change the wording, switch the sender to one of your connected mailboxes (see Automated stage emails).

See Invitation Methods for the full picture.

Previewing the interviewer#

Before enabling a stage for real candidates, click Preview Interviewer from the stage settings. You'll experience exactly what a candidate experiences — the device check, the voice conversation, the sign-off — using the questions and scorecard you've configured.

Previews don't create candidate records, don't cost credits, and don't produce scores.

Pausing the stage#

Each stage has an Active / Paused toggle. Pausing:

• Stops new automated emails from going out.
• Leaves existing scheduled interviews in place.
• Lets candidates who already received a link still complete it.

Use pause when you need to tune questions or scorecards mid-flight without tearing down the stage.

Next steps#

• Invitation Methods →