Hire Smarter: Use AI to Decode Candidate Emotions in Interviews

Hiring decisions often happen fast—sometimes within the first 15 minutes. Candidates' résumés and rehearsed answers don’t always reveal how they think, adapt, or connect with others. Our multimodal emotion recognition technology helps hiring managers assess candidates’ true strengths and behaviors by analyzing their facial expressions, voice tone, and verbal cues. These Emotion AI insights uncover key traits of the candidate, such as self-awareness, empathy, and adaptability, guiding more informed hiring decisions.

The Problem with Traditional Recruitment

Subjective Decisions: Humans naturally favor candidates who feel right (similar backgrounds, personalities, etc.), leading to unconscious biases that affect diversity and hiring quality.

Overlooked Non-Verbal Cues: Since 93% of communication is nonverbal, relying solely on what candidates say can lead to missed insights. Most interviewers overlook subtle red flags in body language and facial expressions, further contributing to biased or incomplete evaluations. 

Time Constraints: Rushed evaluations often result in costly mis-hires, with companies spending significant resources to replace the wrong candidate. Without enough time to assess verbal and nonverbal cues effectively, hiring decisions become even more prone to bias and errors.

The Solution: Emotion AI in Action

At Imentiv AI, our multimodal approach empowers HR professionals to:

• Identify inconsistencies across facial expressions, voice tone, and verbal cues – Detect mismatches between what candidates say and their emotional state.
• Assess personality traits in alignment with role requirements – Gain deeper insights into candidates’ personality to ensure the best cultural and job fit.
• Enhance hiring objectivity with data-driven insights – Reduce bias by relying on multi-modal emotion analysis instead of subjective intuition.
• Refine AI-driven assessments with human expertise – Strengthen evaluation accuracy by having our in-house psychologist review emotional insights.

With our Emotion AI technology, hiring managers gain key insights into candidates’ emotional engagement. This includes understanding their  stress responses, communication styles, and adaptability. These insights help assess how candidates handle pressure, interact in social settings, and build connections effectively.

Understanding Emotions through Video, Audio, and Text

Our AI-powered emotion analysis integrates a valence-arousal model to detect eight emotions from video and audio, offering insights into candidates emotional intensity and sentiment based on facial expressions and voice tone. 

This helps you gauge candidates’ emotional state and level of engagement during the conversation in real-time. 

In addition to video and audio, we also analyze text data, detecting 28 different emotions from the transcript. This gives you a more detailed understanding of how a candidate communicates, beyond just their facial expressions or voice. 

For large-scale hiring, our tool can process thousands of files quickly and accurately, ensuring unbiased evaluations

Breaking Down a Job Interview with Emotion AI

To see our multimodal emotion recognition technology in action, let’s analyze a job interview using real data. We processed a mock interview from YouTube through our system, extracting emotional insights from facial expressions, voice tone, and verbal cues.

This analysis reveals how the candidate engages emotionally, the personality trait of the video, and key emotional shifts throughout the conversation. The following sections will include insights interpreted by our in-house psychologist for a deeper analysis. 

By looking at this breakdown, we can understand how emotions play a big role in hiring decisions (even expert recruiters might miss). 

Let’s explore the results.

Our Emotion AI identified two faces in the video, and assigned a unique face ID to each face for precise tracking and analysis. Face 1, the interviewer, has a dominant neutral emotion with an intensity of 44.18%, while face 2, the candidate, Chris Sauer, also shows a dominant neutral emotion at 43.24%. 

_{This is the Imentiv AI dashboard displaying the processed video and the detected faces. On the right, the Emotion Graph shows neutral as the dominant emotion for the entire video and the average of the detected faces.}

Facial Emotion Analysis

Throughout the interview, the predominant facial expression displayed by Chris Sauer is neutral. This is not uncommon in professional settings, as it suggests that Chris is maintaining composure and control over his emotions. 

A neutral expression generally reflects professionalism, signaling that he is focused and measured in his responses.

However, neutrality can sometimes be misinterpreted as a lack of enthusiasm. In this case, though, it appears that Chris is consciously managing his emotional display to present himself as thoughtful and deliberate. The absence of overly expressive facial cues suggests that he’s not seeking to impress through visible excitement but rather through the substance of his answers.

There are subtle facial movements that add nuance to his expression. Small shifts, such as slight upward movements of the lips or the raising of his eyebrows during key statements, likely indicate sincerity and highlight important points he is making. 

These small, understated expressions give a sense of emphasis, subtly reinforcing the sincerity behind his words.

Audio Emotion Analysis

_{Imentiv AI dashboard displaying Audio Emotion Analysis data}

Easily switch between video, audio, and text tabs to explore emotion data across modalities

Chris’s audio emotion analysis also mirrors the facial expression, as the predominant tone of his speech remains neutral throughout the interview. His voice remains calm and composed, without any drastic fluctuations in pitch or emotional intensity. This steady tone reinforces the impression that Chris is maintaining control of his emotions and taking a balanced approach to the conversation.

In professional settings, a consistent and controlled tone can be seen as an asset. It communicates reliability and dependability, both highly valued traits in customer-facing roles, such as the ones at REI. 

While his speech lacks dramatic rises and falls in pitch, this steady tone is a positive reflection of his ability to communicate calmly and effectively, particularly when discussing complex or challenging topics.

_{Imentiv AI- Audio summary of the job interview}

Personality Analysis

_{Personality trait analysis by Imentiv AI using the Big Five Personality Model}

The content and delivery of Chris’s responses give us valuable insight into his personality traits, particularly openness, and agreeableness, which play a significant role in his candidacy.

• Openness: Chris demonstrates high levels of openness, which is reflected in his curiosity and willingness to learn. For example, he talks passionately about his interest in the outdoors and his alignment with REI's values. He shows creativity in thinking about how his personal experiences and interests align with the company’s mission. His openness is further highlighted when he discusses his eagerness to engage with employees' ideas, suggesting he’s adaptable and open to new perspectives.
• Agreeableness: Another strong trait visible in Chris’s responses is agreeableness. He speaks with warmth and compassion, especially when talking about his desire to help others. These qualities are essential for positions at REI, where teamwork and customer relationships are central to the job. Chris’s patience and compassion align well with the company’s focus on creating positive customer interactions.

Underlying Major Emotion: Enthusiasm

While the facial and vocal cues are mostly neutral, there is an underlying emotion that runs through Chris’s responses: enthusiasm. This emotion, although not overtly displayed through facial expressions or vocal tone, comes through in his choice of words and the passion with which he talks about his interests and values.

For example, his discussion about the outdoors and his alignment with REI’s mission reveals a genuine excitement that, though subtle, is integral to his message. Enthusiasm can often be most effectively conveyed through the content of what is said, rather than through dramatic emotional outbursts. Chris’s enthusiasm for the role is woven into his responses, demonstrating a deep engagement with the company’s values and mission.

Principles and Context

This video is set within the context of a job interview, which requires a careful balance between authenticity and professionalism. Chris manages this balance well by presenting himself as genuine yet composed. 

He follows certain principles that enhance his candidacy:

• Highlighting strengths while addressing weaknesses: Chris does not shy away from discussing his strengths, such as patience and compassion, which directly align with the customer-focused nature of REI. He also acknowledges areas for growth, adding credibility to his application.
• Linking personal experiences to company values: He ties his background in education and his love for the outdoors directly to the mission of REI. This connection reinforces his fit for the company culture.
• Inquiring about company openness: Chris asks questions about how the company values employee ideas and contributions, indicating his desire to engage with the company and suggesting that he is thinking long-term about his role.

Key Observations

• Strengths: Chris effectively highlights his interpersonal skills, his achievements, and his adaptability. These are all qualities that would make him a strong fit for REI’s customer-centric roles.
• Potential Weaknesses: While his neutral tone and composed demeanor are generally positive, they may lead some interviewers to underestimate his enthusiasm. Some might expect more dynamic emotional expressions, especially when discussing his passions or personal values.
• Future Orientation: Chris also demonstrates forward-thinking by discussing his career goals within REI, as well as his interest in similar companies like Bass Pro Shops. This shows that he is not only focused on the present but also thinking about his future in the industry.

Why trust gut feelings when AI can measure enthusiasm? Discover how Emotion AI analyzes candidates’ emotions to predict job success.

Transcript (Text) Emotion Analysis in the Job Interview

_{Text emotion analysis of the video shows curiosity as the dominant emotion in the transcript}

Along with video and audio analysis, our AI technology analyzes the transcript sentence by sentence to detect emotions. Our text-emotion AI is capable of analyzing 28 categories of emotions, offering a deeper look into the human psyche. 

In this interview, the prominent emotions detected include admiration, curiosity, realization, caring, and approval.This detailed analysis helps in understanding the candidate’s feedback and emotional tone, providing valuable insights into their overall engagement and mindset during the interview.

Recommendations for Chris

To further enhance his candidacy, Chris could consider incorporating more visible moments of excitement or emotional warmth into his interview responses. A smile when talking about his passions, for example, could add to the authenticity of his enthusiasm.

Additionally, storytelling could help make his achievements and challenges more memorable. By describing past experiences with more emotional depth, he could engage the interviewer’s emotions, making his responses feel more impactful and relatable.

Our Emotion AI technology empowers recruiters to evaluate candidates' emotional intelligence, social skills, and leadership potential, providing real-time insights for more informed decision-making. By minimizing biases, it helps you focus on what truly matters—identifying the right candidates to strengthen your team and drive long-term success.

Ready to see Emotion AI in action?

Watch our demo video and see how we decoded a CEO’s leadership style using multimodal analysis!

_{Note: Using AI in recruitment doesn’t replace human judgment—it enhances the ability to ask better questions and gain deeper insights. It assists in areas where human perception may not fully capture a candidate’s emotions, which is crucial for making informed hiring decisions.}