There's an old saying: "To err is human, to really screw things up requires a computer."

This week, a Philadelphia-based consulting firm discovered a new corollary: "To really, REALLY screw things up requires AI-powered scheduling software."

The company, which we'll call "Strategic Solutions Group" (because all consulting firms have bland names like that), recently implemented an AI scheduling tool to automate their interview coordination process.

The tool promised to eliminate the back-and-forth of scheduling, automatically find times that work for candidates and interviewers, and send calendar invites without human intervention.

What the tool actually did: Invite 47 different candidates to show up for interviews at the exact same time on a Tuesday morning.

All of them showed up.

The Morning Of Chaos

Tuesday, 9:00 AM. The Strategic Solutions Group office lobby.

The receptionist, Linda, noticed something odd: there were a lot of people waiting in the lobby. More than usual.

By 9:05 AM, there were 12 people sitting in the waiting area, all dressed in interview attire, all looking slightly confused.

By 9:10 AM, 20 people.

By 9:15 AM, 30+ people, with more arriving every minute.

Linda checked the schedule. Every single person was scheduled for a 9:00 AM interview with the same hiring manager, Robert.

Robert was supposed to be conducting one interview at 9:00 AM. His calendar showed one interview. The candidates' invitations, however, all said 9:00 AM.

Linda's reaction: "Oh no. Oh no no no no no."

How Did This Happen?

After the disaster was contained (more on that shortly), the IT team investigated what went wrong.

Here's what they pieced together:

The AI scheduling tool was supposed to:

1. Look at available interview slots
2. Check interviewer availability
3. Send calendar invites to candidates for different time slots
4. Prevent double-booking

What actually happened:

The tool had a bug. When it queried Robert's calendar for "available time slots on Tuesday," it found that 9:00 AM was available.

The system then sent calendar invites to all 47 candidates in the pipeline for that role, all scheduled for 9:00 AM, because technically that slot was available when the first invite went out.

The tool didn't check whether it had already booked that slot for 46 other candidates.

Classic race condition. The AI moved so fast it competed with itself and lost.

The Candidate Experience

Imagine showing up for an interview and seeing 46 other people in business casual attire sitting in the same lobby, all checking their phones nervously, all scheduled for the same time slot.

One candidate later posted on LinkedIn:

"Showed up for what I thought was a normal interview. The lobby looked like a casting call for 'The Apprentice.' I counted 30+ people. Someone joked that maybe this was a group interview for a cult. We all laughed nervously. Nobody knew what was happening."

Another candidate:

"I thought maybe this was some weird 'speed dating' style interview process. Turns out it was just a software bug. Still the most memorable interview experience I've had."

Strategic Solutions Group's Response

Linda immediately called Robert, the hiring manager, who was in another building preparing for his 9:00 AM interview (singular).

Linda: "We have a situation."

Robert: "What kind of situation?"

Linda: "There are 47 people in the lobby. All of them are here to interview with you. At 9:00 AM."

Robert: "I'm sorry, WHAT?"

Robert arrived at the main office to find absolute chaos. The lobby was packed. Candidates were standing because there weren't enough chairs. Some had started talking to each other, swapping war stories about recruiting processes.

The HR Director, Janet, made an emergency decision:

Option 1: Send everyone home and reschedule (logistical nightmare, terrible candidate experience)

Option 2: Do speed interviews with every single candidate, right now

Janet chose Option 2.

The Speed Interview Marathon

Strategic Solutions Group mobilized every available conference room and every manager who wasn't in an external meeting.

They created an interview assembly line:

• 6 conference rooms running simultaneously
• 15-minute interview slots per candidate
• Managers tag-teaming to avoid anyone doing 47 consecutive interviews
• Linda at the front desk managing the queue like an air traffic controller

One manager later described it as: "The most exhausting four hours of my professional life. By interview 20, I forgot what role we were hiring for."

The candidates, to their credit, were incredibly understanding. Most found the situation hilarious once they understood what happened.

One candidate brought coffee for everyone waiting. Another started a group chat so people could network while waiting. Several candidates later reported that the group chat led to job opportunities at other companies.

What The Candidates Said

The experience became an immediate topic on recruiting Twitter and LinkedIn.

Positive takes:

"Honestly, props to Strategic Solutions Group for not just sending us home. They owned the mistake and made it work."

"I got interviewed. It was only 15 minutes, but the manager was thoughtful and asked good questions. Better than some 'normal' interviews I've had."

"The other candidates were great. I networked more in that lobby than I have at professional networking events."

Negative takes:

"I took a day off work and rearranged my schedule for this interview. A 15-minute speed round wasn't what I signed up for."

"The whole thing felt chaotic and unprofessional. If they can't manage scheduling, how do they manage client projects?"

"I got hired, but I still don't know if I should be concerned about their technology choices."

The Technology Vendor's Response

Strategic Solutions Group immediately contacted the AI scheduling tool vendor (whose name we're withholding because their lawyers probably have enough to deal with).

The vendor's initial response:

"Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We're investigating the issue."

Translation: "Oh god, this is bad. How did this get past testing?"

48 hours later, the vendor issued a statement:

"We identified a race condition in our booking logic that could result in multiple candidates being assigned to the same time slot when scheduling requests were processed in rapid succession. We have deployed a fix and implemented additional safeguards."

Translation: "Our code had a bug. We fixed it. Please don't sue us."

The vendor also offered Strategic Solutions Group three months of free service as an apology.

Strategic Solutions Group declined and switched to a different scheduling tool.

The Aftermath

Despite the chaos, Strategic Solutions Group actually hired 3 candidates from that Tuesday morning disaster.

The HR Director, Janet, sent a personal apology email to all 47 candidates, explaining what happened, thanking them for their patience, and offering to conduct full-length follow-up interviews for anyone who wanted one.

12 candidates took them up on the offer.

The company also posted a LinkedIn update about the incident:

"This week we learned that AI scheduling tools are fallible, that our team is incredibly adaptable under pressure, and that our candidates are more understanding than we deserve. Thank you to everyone who showed up on Tuesday. We promise our technology is better at client work than it is at scheduling."

The post got 5,000+ reactions and 300 comments. Several other companies shared their own scheduling disaster stories.

What This Tells Us About AI Tools

This disaster highlights important lessons about AI and automation in recruiting:

Test Your Tools Before Full Deployment

Strategic Solutions Group rolled out the scheduling tool to their entire recruiting pipeline without adequate testing. A pilot test with 5-10 candidates would have caught this bug.

Lesson: New technology should be tested in controlled environments before production use.

Automation Needs Oversight

The scheduling tool ran completely automated—no human reviewed the calendar invites before they went out. One human reviewing the schedule would have noticed 47 people booked at 9:00 AM.

Lesson: Automation should assist humans, not replace human oversight entirely.

Have Backup Plans

When the system failed, Strategic Solutions Group had to improvise. A backup plan could have made the recovery smoother.

Lesson: Technology fails. Always have a Plan B.

Candidate Experience Still Matters

Despite the disaster, Strategic Solutions Group earned goodwill by handling the situation transparently and professionally. Candidates remembered how the company responded more than the initial mistake.

Lesson: How you handle failures matters more than avoiding failures entirely.

Other Companies' Scheduling Disasters

After Strategic Solutions Group's story went viral, other companies shared their own horror stories:

Tech startup: AI scheduler booked every interview at 3:00 AM because it didn't account for time zones

Financial services firm: Tool scheduled all interviews on February 30th (which doesn't exist)

Retail company: System booked candidate interviews during holidays when the office was closed

Healthcare org: Scheduler sent calendar invites with the wrong Zoom links, resulting in candidates joining random meetings

Turns out, scheduling automation is harder than it looks.

The Bottom Line

AI-powered scheduling tools can save time and reduce coordination hassles. When they work.

When they don't work, you get 47 people showing up for interviews at the same time, chaos in your lobby, and a story that will be told at your company for years.

Before implementing AI scheduling:

1. Test thoroughly with small groups first
2. Monitor the system during initial deployment
3. Have human oversight for critical processes
4. Maintain backup plans for when technology fails
5. Communicate clearly with candidates when things go wrong

And maybe, just maybe, don't let your scheduling tool run completely unsupervised until you're absolutely certain it won't book 47 interviews at once.

Update: One of the candidates from that Tuesday morning is now working at Strategic Solutions Group. When asked about the experience, they said: "It was chaotic, but it showed me the company handles pressure well and doesn't take itself too seriously. Plus, I got a great networking opportunity out of it."

So at least one person benefited from the AI scheduling disaster.

Sources:

• The 47 candidates who experienced this firsthand
• Reddit: r/recruiting Scheduling Disasters Megathread
• SHRM: When Recruiting Technology Fails
• Linda the receptionist's trauma-induced stress leave request