Across 10 Care Hero clients, 36.6% to 49.7% of AI phone interviews happen after hours, when no recruiter is at the desk. Caregivers pick the time, and many pick the evening or the weekend.
Owners and recruiters often ask us the same thing before they switch: will caregivers feel put off by an AI interview? This article answers with what applicants actually do. It is written by Care Hero, which builds AI phone screening for home care agencies.
How do caregivers feel about AI phone interviews?
Many caregivers take them at the hour that suits them. That choice tells you a lot about how they feel.
Here is how it works with Care Hero. An applicant applies on Indeed or your careers page. Within minutes they get a message with a number. They call in when they are free and answer a short set of screening questions in a natural conversation. The interview is open 24/7 and works in multiple languages.
Caregivers often work shifts with clients. They cannot always answer a recruiter's call at 2 p.m. An interview they can start after a shift, or on a Sunday morning, removes that problem. It also means no phone tag and no waiting for a callback.
When do caregivers choose to take an AI phone interview?
Often outside office hours. At every one of the 10 offices below, more than a third of AI interviews happened before 8 a.m., from 4 p.m. or on weekends.
At BrightStar Care of Birmingham in Michigan, it was 49.7%, almost half. At HomeWell Care Services in Florida, 45.6%. At Michael Boyd's three Home Instead offices in Owasso and Vinita, Oklahoma, and Round Rock, Texas, 45%.
These are applicants who would otherwise have waited until the next business day to talk to anyone. Some of them would have taken another job by then.
How many caregivers take AI phone interviews?
Enough to carry the full first round of screening at busy offices. Two examples:
Home Instead, Oklahoma and Texas
Michael Boyd's three Home Instead offices completed 998 AI phone interviews from June 1 to October 17, 2026. That is 998 first-round conversations the office team did not have to schedule or chase.
Impact Home Health, Kansas
Impact Home Health ran 895 AI phone interviews from April 2 to October 29, 2026. Every first-round screen since April went through the AI interview, and none had to be run by the recruiter.
What still needs a human recruiter?
Everything after the first round. The AI interview handles the repeat screening questions so your recruiter can focus on the right candidates.
- Reviewing results. You can set an automatic score threshold: applicants who score above it go straight to interview scheduling. For applicants below it, your recruiter reviews the phone interview scores and decides who moves forward.
- The in-person interview. Meeting the caregiver, answering their questions and judging fit stays with your team.
- The relationship. Offers, onboarding and the first weeks on the job are where a recruiter's care matters most.
Here is how one recruiter puts it.
At Platinum Care Group in Chicagoland, every applicant is invited to the AI interview first. Jill, the recruiter, then meets the candidates who move forward.
“It's been really good at capturing information that caregivers say during screening. I can focus more on capturing information during the interview.”
How should you introduce an AI phone interview to applicants?
Keep it simple and honest. Tell applicants what the next step is, how long it takes, and that they can do it any time.
- Send the message right away. The first message should arrive within minutes of applying, while the applicant is still thinking about your job.
- Say it is an AI interview. Be clear that a short automated phone interview comes first and a person from your team follows up.
- Stress "any hour". Tell applicants they can call in tonight, before their shift or on the weekend.
- Offer their language. If many of your applicants speak Spanish or another language, say they can take the interview in it.
- Follow up fast. Review the scored results each morning and invite the best candidates in. A quick human follow-up is what makes the process feel personal.
For more on keeping applicants engaged, read why caregiver applicants stop responding and how to screen caregiver applicants faster.
After-hours share: Care Hero data for each office, periods as shown in the chart. After hours = before 8 a.m., from 4 p.m. or weekends, in each office's local time. Home Instead: three franchise offices owned by Michael Boyd (Owasso and Vinita, OK; Round Rock, TX); AI interviews and after-hours share, Care Hero data, Jun 1 to Oct 17, 2026. Impact Home Health: Care Hero data, Apr 2 to Oct 29, 2026. Platinum Care Group: Care Hero data, May 15 to Oct 29, 2026. Integrity In-Home Care is a small sample. BrightStar Care and Home Instead are registered trademarks of their owners. Individual results vary.