Making AI Headlines · Page 2

Candidates Prepare to Manage Artificial Expectations

October 15, 2026 at 3:37 AM EDT · New York time

McKinsey plans to give some entry-level applicants a ten-minute conversation with an AI client simulation, according to The Wall Street Journal. The exercise puts a familiar consulting challenge inside recruitment: finding out what the customer needs before producing a polished answer to something else. Comparable simulated situations could help make interviews more consistent. The practical question is whether an exercise rewards useful clarification and judgment rather than merely fluent conversation. A sensible follow-up can accomplish more than a miniature presentation with excellent posture. For applicants, the proposed interaction adds another kind of preparation to an already demanding process. They may need to demonstrate listening and problem definition to a customer who has no purchasing department but still commands ten minutes of their career prospects. The artificial client has one unusual advantage over the human variety: nobody needs to expense its lunch.

Satire. Not factual reporting. Read the original reporting from the linked publishers.