For decades, resumes have been the cornerstone of recruitment. They’re familiar, easy to collect, and relatively quick to scan. But as hiring volumes increase, roles evolve faster, and remote work becomes the norm, recruiters are questioning whether resumes alone are still enough.
Enter video interviews, especially AI-powered, asynchronous video interviews which are changing how organizations assess talent early in the hiring funnel.
So which approach is better today: traditional resume screening or video interviews? The answer isn’t black and white. Both have strengths, limitations, and ideal use cases.
This blog explores how each method works, where they fall short, and how modern recruiters are combining both to make better hiring decisions.
The Traditional Approach: Resume Screening
Resume screening is often the first step in hiring. Recruiters review resumes to evaluate education, experience, skills, and career progression before deciding who moves forward.
Strengths of Resume Screening
- Fast initial filtering
Resumes make it easy to eliminate candidates who clearly don’t meet minimum requirements such as qualifications, certifications, or years of experience. - Standardized and familiar
Most recruiters and hiring managers know how to read resumes quickly. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) also rely heavily on resumes for keyword matching and filtering. - Low effort for candidates
Submitting a resume is relatively quick and familiar for candidates, making it a low-friction entry point into the hiring process.
Limitations of Resume Screening
Despite its popularity, resume screening has clear drawbacks:
- Limited context
A resume tells you what someone has done but not how they communicate, think, or solve problems. - Bias risks
Names, schools, locations, and career gaps can introduce unconscious bias, even with the best intentions. - Inaccurate representation
Resumes are self-reported. They may exaggerate skills, omit weaknesses, or reflect strong writing ability rather than actual job performance. - Poor signal for early-career roles
For entry-level or career-switcher candidates, resumes often look similar and offer little insight into potential.
As hiring becomes more skills-based and candidate pools grow, these limitations are becoming harder to ignore.
The Modern Alternative: Video Interviews
Video interviews, especially asynchronous video interviews allow candidates to respond to structured questions on their own time. Recruiters can then review responses when it suits them, often with AI-powered insights to support evaluation.
Strengths of Video Interviews
- Richer candidate insight
Video interviews capture communication style, clarity of thought, confidence, and motivation factors that rarely show up on resumes. - Better assessment of soft skills
For customer-facing, sales, leadership, or collaborative roles, how someone communicates can be as important as what’s on their resume. - Time efficiency at scale
Instead of scheduling dozens of screening calls, recruiters can review video responses asynchronously, saving hours each week. - Consistent and structured evaluation
Every candidate answers the same questions, creating a fairer and more comparable screening process. - Improved candidate experience
Candidates can record interviews at their convenience, without taking time off work or navigating time zones.
Limitations of Video Interviews
Video interviews aren’t perfect either:
- Higher initial effort for candidates
Recording responses takes more time than uploading a resume, which may deter some applicants if not communicated clearly. - Technology access concerns
Candidates need a stable internet connection and a quiet environment, which requires thoughtful implementation. - Requires transparency and trust
When AI is involved, candidates expect clarity on how their responses are evaluated and how data is used.
When implemented responsibly, these challenges can be mitigated, but they shouldn’t be ignored.
Resume vs Video Interviews: A Side-by-Side Comparison
| Aspect | Resume Screening | Video Interviews |
| Depth of insight | Limited | High |
| Bias risk | Higher | Lower (with structured design) |
| Time spent per candidate | Low initially | Higher per review, but fewer candidates |
| Soft skill evaluation | Poor | Strong |
| Candidate differentiation | Low | High |
| Scalability | Moderate | High |
| Best for | Qualification checks | Early-stage screening & fit |
Where AI Changes the Game
AI doesn’t replace recruiters, it enhances decision-making.
With AI-powered video interviews, recruiters can:
- Automatically summarize responses
- Highlight key skills or competencies
- Compare candidates using consistent scoring frameworks
- Reduce reliance on subjective “gut feel”
Importantly, responsible platforms use Explainable AI, meaning recruiters can see why a candidate scored a certain way and adjust or disable features that shouldn’t be used as decision filters.
This is especially important in regions like Europe, where transparency, fairness, and candidate rights are central to hiring regulations.
When Resume Screening Still Makes Sense
Resume screening isn’t obsolete. It still works well when:
- Hiring for highly technical roles with strict qualification requirements
- Verifying certifications or regulatory credentials
- Conducting initial eligibility checks before deeper assessment
- Screening very small applicant pools
Resumes are useful for baseline qualification. The challenge arises when recruiters rely on them as the only signal.
When Video Interviews Work Better
Video interviews shine when:
- Hiring at scale
- Recruiting for early-career or high-volume roles
- Assessing communication, motivation, and problem-solving
- Screening remote or global candidates
- Reducing time-to-hire without increasing recruiter workload
They help recruiters move from “paper-based assumptions” to real human signals earlier in the process.
The Best Approach: Not Either-Or, but Both
Modern hiring isn’t about choosing between resumes or video interviews. It is about using each at the right stage.
A common, effective model looks like this:
- Resume screening for basic eligibility
- AI video interviews for early-stage screening
- Live interviews for deeper evaluation and team fit
This layered approach:
- Reduces recruiter workload
- Improves candidate quality
- Shortens hiring cycles
- Creates a fairer, more consistent experience
The Candidate Perspective Matters
Candidates today want:
- Transparency
- Speed
- Fair evaluation
- Flexibility
Video interviews, when clearly explained and thoughtfully designed, often outperform resumes in candidate satisfaction, especially when they replace repetitive screening calls rather than adding extra steps.
Final Thoughts: Hiring Beyond the Resume
Resumes will always have a place in hiring but they’re no longer enough on their own.
As roles evolve and competition for talent increases, recruiters need better early signals. Video interviews, supported by responsible AI, offer a more human, more informative, and more scalable way to understand candidates beyond keywords and bullet points.
The future of hiring isn’t about removing resumes entirely. It’s about moving faster from paper to people.
When used together, resume screening and video interviews don’t compete; They complement each other, creating a smarter and more human-centric hiring process.
Interviewer.AI is a purpose-built technology platform designed to help recruiters and HR teams identify and hire the right talent with greater confidence and efficiency. We also partner with universities to support admissions and coaching, enabling them to use technology to better assess potential, skills, and readiness. Our mission is to make hiring more equitable, explainable, and efficient by enabling teams to screen candidates early and shortlist those who best meet role-specific criteria.
Schedule a demo today to learn more about how AI interviews can help your hiring.
Gabrielle Martinsson is a Content Writer at Interviewer.AI. She’s a tech geek and loves optimizing business processes with the aid of tech tools. She also loves travelling and listening to music in her leisure.
