A robotic performance on residency interview day is unlikely to help any applicant stand out. Still, using engineered insights in the residency-interview preparation process can help medical students and other applicants optimize their performance.
During a presentation at the 2026 AMA IMG Distinguish Yourself Summit, an expert on augmented intelligence (AI) outlined how—with proper guardrails and human guidance—AI tools can help applicants rehearse tough questions, sharpen answers and identify weak spots before they meet with a residency program.
“You can ask AI to interview you and get unlimited mock-interview reps,” said Ankita Bhatia, who recently concluded her tenure as the AMA’s director of AI strategy and engineering. “This is a high-value use of the technology with little risk.”
Bhatia’s presentation offered a framework for using AI in residency-interview prep. Here are some key takeaways for applicants eagerly awaiting residency interviews.
In all use cases highlighted throughout her presentation, Bhatia said that baseline information should be provided by the user. If residency applicants ask a chatbot a broad question about a program, their own candidacy or what a residency interviewer will care about, they may get a cogent answer—but not necessarily an accurate one.
Instead, applicants should feed AI the same material a real interviewer is likely to review or care about. That includes a residency program description pulled from the program’s own website, along with the applicant’s CV and personal statement. You should also give key background on metrics and personal attributes such as board-exam scores and your path toward a career in medicine.
While you shouldn’t dump every piece of information available into an AI chatbot, there should be enough content and context for the AI tool to understand your personal journey.
“The things that make you unique, that make you special, AI cannot create,” Bhatia said.To get the most useful inputs, Bhatia also advised applicants to prompt their AI chatbot to question them about experiences on their resume and throughout training. That can give residency applicants a stronger set of real examples to draw from when interview questions arise.
From AI implementation to digital health adoption and EHR usability, the AMA is fighting to make technology work for physicians, ensuring that it is an asset to doctors and the patients they care for. That includes the AMA Center for Digital Health and AI, which works to ensure physicians help shape how AI is developed, implemented and regulated across the healthcare system, with patient safety and physician-led care remaining at the center of those efforts.
With the rest of this article, medical students and other residency applicants will learn about:
- How to build strong AI chatbot mock-interview prompts.
- Using AI chatbots for honest residency interview feedback.
- Flagging vague, generic or rehearsed residency interview answers.
- How AI chatbots can improve answer specificity, structure and relevance.
- The advantages of practicing aloud with AI voice-mode mock interviews.
- What AI mock residency interviews aren’t equipped to assess.
- When and why bring a human into the mock-interview process.
