Is a Critical Hive score a recommendation to hire someone?

No. It's a summary of how fully the candidate's own answers covered the skills in the role, with the evidence shown alongside it. It is not a recommendation, a prediction of job performance, or a decision of any kind. The recruiter or hiring manager reads the evidence and decides.

Does Critical Hive verify anything the candidate says?

No. The AI scores the content of the answer, not whether the claim is true. If a candidate says they led an incident response or built a detection rule, Critical Hive does not check that against any external record. Verifying claims — reference checks, portfolio review, a technical interview — stays with your team.

Who is responsible if a hiring decision based on an AI interview goes wrong?

The employer or recruitment agency using Critical Hive. We built the product so a person always makes the final call and the evidence is always visible, specifically so that responsibility is clear: it sits with the human decision-maker, not the AI.

What if a candidate doesn't want to do an AI interview?

They can ask for a human interview instead, from a button on the first screen of the interview, before they answer anything. Choosing this is recorded for the recruiter to see and act on, and never affects how the candidate is assessed.

AI Interview Disclaimer | Critical Hive

What the score is

Critical Hive scores each answer against the skill it was designed to test, using only what the candidate said in that interview. Every score comes with the verbatim quotes that justify it, so nothing is a black-box number.

What the score is not

Not a hiring decision. Critical Hive never advances, holds or rejects a candidate. Those actions exist only for a signed-in recruiter or hiring manager to take, and every one is logged with who made it.
Not independently verified. The AI assesses the content of an answer, not whether it's true. It does not check claims against a CV, a reference, a portfolio or any external record.
Not a measure of future job performance. A strong structured-interview score is associated with stronger hiring outcomes in general — it is not a guarantee for any individual candidate.
Not a substitute for your own process. Technical tests, reference checks, right-to-work and clearance verification, and a human interview remain yours to run.

Whose responsibility is the decision

It is the employer's or recruitment agency's responsibility to read the evidence behind each score — not just the number — and make their own informed decision about every candidate. Critical AI provides the tool, the evidence and the audit trail; your team provides the judgement. We are not responsible for hiring outcomes, and nothing on this platform should be treated as advice on who to hire.

The candidate's option

Every candidate can ask for a human interview instead of the AI one, from a button on the very first screen, before they answer a single question. Choosing it is recorded for the recruiter to see and act on, and is never used to assess or disadvantage the candidate.

Integrity signals, kept separate

Signals like a pasted answer or a virtual camera are shown next to the score, never folded into it. They're flags for a person to look at, not automatic penalties — see how we use AI for the full list.

What a Critical Hive score is — and isn't.