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I'll be honest, I don't think they are as deep as that.

They are a great way of ensuring that someone can present themselves clearly and concisely, both are vital skills for communicating with clients or colleagues. I don't necessarily see it as an artificial environment - in many ways it is quite similar to leaving a voicemail for a client with clear instructions in a short period of time.

Depending on the questions firms ask, it helps to verify elements like motivation, commercial awareness or alignment to the firm's values - but all of those are subject to the question the firm asks.

In a day when anyone can write your application for you, it is a great way to verify an applicant. It ultimately tends to improve the number of candidates who are successful at the face-to-face interview stage, as you have whittled out those who cannot back up what they have said in their application in person.

Video interviews are also a great way of having to rely less on other criteria. I implemented video interviews for a firm in 2014 because they had shocking diversity statistics, and video interviews meant that rather than shortlisting 100 candidates to face-to-face interview stage and relying on really strict grading criteria like module grades, we were able to shortlist 300 candidates and give a greater range of candidates an opportunity to present themselves in person. It transformed the diversity of their intake because the initial sifting criteria wasn't overly harsh.