Sure it is, most phones have outstanding ambient noise cancellation, something that AirPods does not seem to have.

Ambient noise cancellation is not the same thing. Most headphones do it passively by having a closed-back design. It blocks noise from reaching your ears, not the microphone.

Active noise cancellation is not the same thing either. See https://krisp.ai/ for what you really need, and this is not something best done at the physical device level.

Pretty sure they're referring to ambient noise cancellation using the microphones to make it so the background noise doesn't come through your microphone to the other participants while on a call.

Airpods are much worse than Earpods for conference calling, no matter what the situation.

Maybe there are some headphones with better ambient noice cancellation, but AirPods don't seem any worse than the wired headphones I've used until this point. I just stopped doing conference calls at Starbucks or I go outside where noise cancellation works a lot better.

When I got hired for my current job I did both interviews from the parking lot of a local Starbucks for exactly this reason.

I'd argue it is -- my earbuds stick the mic right near my mouth, and I can hold it nearer if needed. Not so with airpods?