AI Interview Assistant for Webex: Setup Guide

An AI interview assistant works with Webex in one of two ways: as a desktop app on the computer running the meeting, hearing Webex through your computer's audio, or as a phone app that hears the interviewer through your speakers. Webex needs no capture setting for this, but the audio option you pick when you join decides whether a desktop assistant hears the interviewer at all. Check the employer's rules first, then test the whole setup from a second device.

What the interviewer sees when you share in Webex

The interviewer receives three things from you in Webex: your camera, your microphone and whatever you share. Cisco's guide to sharing content in a Webex meeting sets out the choices in the Webex App on Windows and Mac.

What you share	What the interviewer gets	Watch for
Your screen	Everything on that display	Pop-ups from other apps, open files, desktop icons
One application window	That window only, even after you switch to another app	An interviewer who asks to see your whole workspace
All windows from an application	Every window that app has open, floating ones included	A second document in the same app
Several applications, picked with Shift	One of the chosen apps at a time	Which app is on show when you change focus
Include computer sound	Your computer's audio as well as your microphone	Alert sounds from other apps

Two Webex behaviors are worth knowing before the call. When you share your screen, Webex includes its own windows unless you untick Show my Webex app, so the interviewer sees your meeting window inside your share. And the Webex App holds back its own notifications for incoming messages and calls while you share in a meeting, which covers Webex but not your other apps.

Hosts and cohosts can also turn off sharing for everyone else. If the interviewer asks you to share and nothing happens, ask whether sharing is enabled for participants before you start changing settings.

The Webex App or the Webex web app

A Webex invitation can open in the installed Webex App or in a browser. Cisco's web app guide says the web app needs nothing installed, runs in Chrome, Chromium, Edge, Firefox and Safari, and offers basic meeting features, with guests not always getting the full list. For more, Cisco points you to the desktop or mobile app.

The two capture your screen differently. In the web app, the browser's own picker offers a tab, a window or the whole screen, and sound only travels if you tick Also share tab audio or Also share system audio. In the desktop app you get the share choices in the table above.

On a Mac, the Webex App can't share without macOS screen recording access. Cisco's fix for a share button that is greyed out or keeps asking for access is to open System Settings › Privacy and Security and turn on both Cisco Webex Meetings and Webex. If you join in a browser, that browser needs the permission instead. Cisco's sharing guide adds that Include computer sound on a Mac may ask to download an extension, which needs administrator permission, so install it before interview day.

For an interview with a shared exercise, use the desktop app if you can. Whichever you choose, test in exactly that app or browser.

Pick the audio option the assistant can hear

The preview screen before you join offers three ways to connect audio, as Cisco's guide to joining a Webex meeting lists them:

• Use computer audio, the default, through your headset or speakers.
• Call me, where Webex phones a number you enter. Some hosts' plans don't offer it.
• Call in, where you dial in from a phone.

With Call me or Call in, the interviewer's voice arrives on a phone call instead of your computer. A desktop assistant listens to computer audio and your microphone, so it never hears the interviewer, and a phone assistant can't hear a call taking place on the phone it runs on. Stay on Use computer audio. If you joined by phone by mistake, Cisco's audio switching guide shows the route back: Audio options › Switch audio › Use computer audio. A host who schedules the meeting as VoIP only leaves computer audio as the sole choice, which suits this setup.

Then check the devices. Under Audio options › Audio Settings, Webex's audio test plays a sound through your speaker and records a few words from your microphone and plays them back.

• Mac. Interview Pilot hears computer audio directly on macOS 14.4 or later, through headphones or speakers. On older versions it hears only what reaches the microphone; the Mac hearing checks cover both causes.
• Windows. Interview Pilot hears the default playback device. Choose that same device as the speaker in Webex's audio settings, and recheck after pairing Bluetooth headphones, using the Windows hearing checks if the transcript stays empty.
• Phone. Join Webex on the computer, not on the phone running the assistant, and play the meeting out loud near the phone. The guide to using a phone during an interview covers screen locks and interruptions.

Set up a desktop assistant with Webex

Interview Pilot is designed to stay hidden in Webex with no extra setting, according to its meeting apps guide, which still asks you to test with the exact app or browser you'll use.

On a Mac

1. Turn on screen recording access for Cisco Webex Meetings and Webex, and give Interview Pilot its Screen & System Audio Recording permission, which is how it hears the meeting.
2. If you plan to play sound to the interviewer, tick Include computer sound once now so any extension installs before the call.
3. Accept every macOS prompt during setup. A permission prompt that appears mid-call is a system window, and Interview Pilot can't keep it out of a full-screen share.

On Windows

1. Check the PC runs Windows 11 or Windows 10 version 2004 or later, which Interview Pilot requires.
2. Set Webex's speaker to the device Windows uses by default.
3. If Interview Pilot shows Screen-share protection needs attention, press Ctrl+B to hide it before you share.

On either system, learn to show and hide the window with ⌘B or Ctrl+B. Then quiet Webex itself: Settings › Notifications › Meetings lets you turn off optional in-meeting alerts for chat messages, raised hands, role changes and alerts while sharing. Cisco's notifications guide notes that alerts about recording, the AI assistant and the lobby always show. For other apps, use Focus on a Mac or Do Not Disturb on Windows.

What Webex announces to everyone in the meeting

Webex tells participants when certain features start, and most of them depend on the host's account and the employer's admin settings.

Feature	Who controls it	What you'll notice
Cloud recording	Host or cohost on a paid account; attendees can't record	A recording alert that notification settings can't hide
AI Assistant meeting summary	Host and cohosts by default	An audio and visual notice that AI Assistant is active
Recording with AI summary	Host, with cloud recording chosen	An audio and visual notice that the meeting is recorded and summarized
Explicit consent	The organization's admin; off by default	A request for consent before recording, summaries or transcripts start
Closed captions	Each participant, for themselves	Captions for each person who turns them on, saved only if the meeting is recorded
Visual watermarks	Host, when scheduling	A pattern with your own email address over video and shared content

On the Webex Suite meeting platform, the AI Assistant also answers private questions. A participant can ask it to catch them up on the last 15 minutes or check whether their name came up, and Cisco says those questions and answers are visible only to the person asking and aren't saved. After a recorded and summarized meeting, the host gets an email with the summary and action items, and a transcript is generated once the meeting ends. Assume anything you say may be summarized and reread.

The consent prompt deserves a plan. Cisco says a participant who declines can still listen, but their audio, video, sharing and chat are turned off, which makes answering questions impossible. If you object to an interview being recorded, raise it with the recruiter beforehand instead of at the prompt.

Test checklist before a Webex interview

Run this on the computer, network and Webex app or browser you'll use on the day. Interview Pilot's two-minute test explains each check and what to do if one fails.

1. Run Webex's audio test. Under Audio options › Audio Settings, test the speaker and the microphone.
2. Start a meeting and join it from your phone. Host one from your own Webex account, or ask a friend to host a short call. Keep the phone muted with the volume low.
3. Confirm the audio connection. The computer should be on Use computer audio, not a phone call.
4. Share the way the interviewer will ask. Try your screen and then a single application window, and decide whether to untick Show my Webex app.
5. Watch the share on the phone. Move a window to prove the share is live, and check the assistant doesn't appear.
6. Prove it hears the meeting, not the room. With the phone in another room, say a sentence into it and confirm the words appear in the transcript, then speak at the computer and confirm again.
7. Test computer sound if you'll need it. Tick Include computer sound and play a short clip.
8. End the test before asking for an answer. Checking audio and sharing alone doesn't count against the free plan's weekly sessions.

Responsible use in a Webex interview

Cisco, the company behind Webex, publishes its own generative AI practices for candidates, updated November 10, 2025. It lists asking for tips on preparing for interviews, structuring your thoughts and brainstorming approaches to a coding or system design problem as good uses. Its poor uses include reading from an AI-generated script to answer an interview question, generating the solution to a coding or design question in real time, and creating imaginary or inaccurate experiences.

That page governs Cisco's own hiring. Employers that run their interviews on Webex set their own rules, so a short written question to the recruiter about notes and tools is the only reliable answer.

• Expect a record. With recording, summaries and transcripts available to hosts, keep every answer to something you'd be comfortable seeing in a summary email.
• Keep answers to your real background. Interview Pilot's Assume Experience option starts switched on and can claim experience your profile lacks; the response styles guide shows how to turn it off.
• Speak, don't read. Take the point from a suggestion and say it in your own words while looking at the camera.
• Rehearse unaided. Practice answers to common video interview questions until they hold up to a follow-up without anything on screen.

Frequently asked questions

Can the interviewer see my AI assistant in Webex?

The interviewer sees your camera, hears your audio and sees what you share. Interview Pilot's desktop app is designed to stay out of Webex shares without a setting, but only a test share viewed from a second device confirms what your setup shows. A window on your physical screen is always visible to a camera or a person in the room.

Does Webex tell participants when a meeting is recorded or summarized?

Yes. Cisco lists recording and AI assistant alerts among the in-meeting notifications that always show, and the AI Assistant summary starts with an audio and visual notice. If the organization requires explicit consent, everyone is asked before recording, summaries or transcripts begin.

Why can't my AI assistant hear the interviewer in Webex?

The most common Webex-specific cause is joining audio with Call me or Call in, which moves the interviewer's voice onto a phone call. Switch to Use computer audio, then check the Webex speaker matches your system default on Windows, or that the macOS version and audio permission are right on a Mac.

Should I join a Webex interview in the browser or the app?

The Webex App is the safer choice for an interview with screen sharing, because Cisco describes the web app as basic functionality and points to the desktop app for more. The browser works if you can't install anything, but test sharing and audio in that same browser beforehand.

Can I turn on Webex captions during an interview?

Yes. In the desktop app, Show closed captions sits at the lower left, and Cisco says captions are available to each person individually when they turn them on. They're saved only when the meeting is recorded, and they show what was said without suggesting answers.