Beyond The Desk: "Staffing vs. AI Fakes: How Recruiters Catch Cheating Candidates"

AI is a powerful tool.  It helps people and companies become more efficient.  It also has downsides too – particularly in candidate interviewing.  Staffing companies play a pivotal role in evaluating technical talent. With AI tools becoming mainstream, candidates are increasingly using them to enhance resumes or even assist with interview answers. While this may demonstrate an “entrepreneurial spirit”, it often conceals gaps in genuine skill.

Staffing firms are uniquely positioned to spot this. Unlike internal recruiters, who often focus on one company or industry, staffing firms assess candidates across varied roles and technologies that allows them to more quickly identify inconsistencies or scripted responses.  Their instincts and ability to detect red flags are very sharp.

These recruiters use deeper technical screenings apps that go beyond surface-level interviews. For example: tools like Codility, HackerRank, and Talview enable real-time coding tests, AI-plagiarism detection, and behavioral analysis. Features like keystroke monitoring, time tracking, and code originality scoring help confirm whether responses reflect true expertise or AI-generated answers. There are many testing/screening tools available like TestGorilla or Copyleaks that can help determine whether resumes, answers to interview questions are genuine or AI generated.

Beyond screening, staffing firms often place candidates in contract or temp roles, providing a low-risk, high-reward way to assess talent in a real-world setting. This “try-before-you-hire” approach is often the most accurate indicator of performance, particularly in high-stakes, high-dollar roles.

In a market where AI can empower or obscure, expert staffing partners are the gatekeepers of hiring integrity—bringing critical judgment, the right tools, and a proven process to ensure that technical talent is both real and ready.