Over the last couple of years, there was a cost-cutting movement led by companies to reign in expenses. With high levels of inflation and costs rising, businesses needed ways to streamline operations. Historically, the go-to solution to pare down expenses is to facilitate job cuts. When this happens, human resources professionals and recruiters are one of the first groups to get laid off, as hiring activity typically slows down.
However, employers are faced with a conundrum. With a leaner HR and recruiting team, the workload becomes burdensome. For those who avoided getting a pink slip, they must now take on the additional work of those who have departed the company. In a 2022 study by Workvivo, an employee experience engagement app, 98% of HR professionals self-reported that they were experiencing burnout, while 94% said they felt overwhelmed and 88% of respondents said they dreaded work.
A new startup company, Apriora, aims to alleviate the recruiting burden with its artificial intelligence technology that handles scheduling, conducts real-time job interviews with applicants and provides immediate feedback.
Meet Alex, Your Interviewer
Apriora’s key product is a two-way AI interviewer called “Alex” that conducts live video interviews with job candidates.
Alex is able to manage interviews at a pace far exceeding what a human can do. It does not need coffee breaks, vacation days and paid time off, which reduces a company’s recruiting overhead, and can keep interviewing through rain, heat and snow days.
Humans only have so much time and energy to expend in a day interviewing. They’d burn out if they tried to replicate the pace of an AI tool.
The Abilities Of Apriora’s AI Interviewer
“By interviewing more candidates with Apriora’s AI, employers can widen their talent aperture and identify qualified applicants from non-traditional backgrounds that may have otherwise been screened out of the hiring process,” said Aaron Wang, cofounder of Apriora, in a Zoom interview. “Job seekers prefer interviewing with AI in many cases, since knowing the interviewer is AI helps to reduce interviewing anxiety, allowing job seekers to perform at their best.”
If you have spent any time searching for employment opportunities on LinkedIn, you may have noticed job listings that show hundreds or even thousands of applicants have applied to the role. It causes job hunters to feel that their odds of getting an interview or offer is miniscule, as human resources is inundated with high volumes of résumés. However, with AI, the applicant tracking system will pick out the top résumés that meet the requirements. If a human had to wade through all the résumés, it would take forever.
Meanwhile, Alex can review the résumés and interview non-stop all day long. With more interviews taking place, the odds of a job seeker getting interviewed increases. Also, you don’t have to worry about being ghosted, the interviewer coming in late with a bad mood, or bringing conscious and unconscious biases to the meeting.
Alex conducts a traditional type of personalized interview by asking relevant questions of the candidate and then following up on their answers in real-time. Each job position will be customized for the interview process, taking into account the career sector, specific role and company. The feature generates predictive hiring signals by analyzing multimodal interview data.
Additionally, interviews are automatically scheduled based on the candidate’s availability and Alex handles all the tedious calendar invites and email reminders. Interview feedback and insights are written immediately and sent directly to the company’s ATS.
Alex is available to interview everyday, all day. This frees up the already overloaded HR, recruiting and talent acquisition teams. The tool will also ensure that applicants aren’t cheating during interviews by monitoring tab changes, copy and pasting and generative AI usage.
The Pros And Cons Of AI Avatar Interviewers
Understandably, some people may feel uncomfortable by being interviewed by an AI avatar and would instinctively prefer another human being. However, the trajectory of the workplace is being driven by new technologies. AI is being infused in almost all aspects of the business world, as it cuts down on people needing to be bogged down and spending an inordinate amount of time dealing with boring, rote, routine and non-glamourous tasks.
Every generation bemoans changes, such as the shift from horse and buggies to automobiles, and worries about jobs being taken over. While it’s conceivable that some HR and related professionals may lose their jobs, there will be new roles created, particularly within the tech space.
Although job seekers may be wary of AI interviewers, there are benefits. I’ve interviewed thousands of job seekers over the last two-plus decades. One of the biggest irritants and annoyances cited by candidates is that interviewees say they are uncomfortable and nervous, sitting across the desk of the hiring manager or awkwardly getting through a Zoom video interview, making sure the lighting is and background is okay and the tech is working.
Applicants have confided in me that they are paying too much attention to their appearance, whether it’s in person or on video calls. They feel judged about their looks, hair, facial expressions, blemishes on their face and the extra pounds added after the holidays. These self-defeating thoughts harm their chances to excel in the interview.
With AI asking the questions, there’s no personal judgment. AI won’t go back to their co-workers and laugh about how there was food stuck in the teeth of the candidate or their choice of clothing was embarrassing. With Alex, a job hunter can be more relaxed in a no-judgment environment, with one less thing to be concerned and obsessed about.
Apriora is a fast-growing startup from the latest Y Combinator batch. The startup raised $2.8M in seed funding from 1984 Ventures, participation from Y Combinator, HOF Capital, Pioneer Fund and several angel investors. The company is actively hiring founding engineers.
