← The Digital Executive
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- [00:00]
A
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C
Technologies, home of the Digital Executive Podcast. Do you work in emerging tech? Working on something innovative? Maybe an entrepreneur? Apply to be a guest at www.corazon.com brand welcome to the Digital Executive. Today's guest is Matthew Stewart. Matthew Stewart is the founder of Talent Sprout, an AI recruiter that automates first round interviews for companies hiring at volume built on conversational voice AI. The platform runs natural human sounding screening interviews 247 in more than 50 languages, then scores and ranks candidates across communication, domain experience, problem solving, cultural fit and professionalism, turning what used to be weeks of phone screens into that same day shortlist. Well, good afternoon Matthew. Welcome to the show.
- [01:58]
D
Hey Brian, thanks a lot for having me.
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C
Absolutely my friend. I appreciate it. You're hailing out of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I'm in Kansas City. Appreciate you jumping on making this work. I know you're just an hour ahead, which makes it a little bit easier, but again, most appreciated. And Matthew, if you don't mind, I'm going to jump right into your first question. You've built a career as a software engineer and product builder before Founding Talent Sprout with what experiences led you to focus on solving hiring challenges with AI?
- [02:29]
D
Yeah, so before founding Talent Sprout, I had about a decade of experience building software and Internet businesses, so I spent a lot of time doing hiring, specifically offshore hiring. And for anyone who's done a lot of hiring, they know you just get like absolutely bombarded with applicants and it's really hard to sort through the noise to see who's qualified or even who's real. So I'm just finding I was spending hours on flipping through resumes, clicking on profiles and if I was able to get a candidate on the call, it was very repetitive first round screening calls where I was asking the same questions. And so that's actually where the initial idea for Talents Pro came from. And it was just a problem I was experiencing in previous businesses. And yeah, the timing was, was really perfect because the conversational AI technology is finally good enough to actually conduct end to end voice interviews and evaluate candidates effectively. So it was just kind of the perfect timing of a problem and an opportunity identified and the technology as well.
- [03:30]
C
Thank you, appreciate that. And you found a gap there. Obviously there's a lot of things we could fix in this world, but with your background in software development and of course helping with that hiring process and a lot of times offshore developers, you're just inundated with that, those resumes like you said, and sorting through all that, but combining your experience with that, your background as a developer, again finding that gap in the market and, and closing it. So I really appreciate the backstory. And Matthew Talent Sprout automates first round interviews using conversational voice AI. What specific inefficiencies in traditional recruiting were you most determined to eliminate?
- [04:12]
D
Yeah, so the problem or bottleneck or inefficiency that Townsprout really solves is not only saving the recruiter time that they spend on the actual interview process itself, but all the scheduling and admin work that goes into that first round interview. So the traditional flow for a recruiter would be they would reach out to a candidate, exchange a back and forth messaging to schedule a first round interview, and then half the time a candidate might not show up or cancel last minute. And if they do finally show up to the interview, oftentimes they're completely unqualified or the recruiter finds themselves asking the same questions over and over. And then after the call they're forced to kind of evaluate the candidate from their memory. It's not very structured or efficient process with Talent spro. So candidates simply get a link to an interview they conducted on their own time and our AI conducts a natural sounding conversation with the candidates, actually evaluates their responses in real time, and then delivers the recruiter or the hiring team a ranked shortlist with the recording and evaluation scorecard for every single candidate. So it's a massive time saver just on the interview process itself. All the scheduling and big time is saved as well. So it's a huge time saver. And it's also just more consistent on Evaluating candidates of scale, that's awesome.
- [05:35]
C
And nowadays, especially if you're working offshore different time zones, when you move people to that self service model and in this case you have 100 to one or a thousand to one from a recruiter to candidates. Right. So that big bottleneck, you're absolutely saving the recruiter a ton of time with scheduling, etc. And I just like this model and it's just great. So thank you. And Matthew, many organizations worry that AI in hiring may feel impersonal. How do you design voice AI experiences that still feel natural, human and engaging for candidates?
- [06:12]
D
Yeah, so honestly that's a common push fact that using AI in hiring is a bit impersonal. And honestly, I agree with a lot of it. AI is never going to feel as personal as talking to a human. And we're not trying to pretend otherwise. But there are a few things that we do at Talent Sprout to make it as human as an experience as possible for the candidates. The first is our conversational format. So like other options, this isn't a traditional one way video recording. Our AI actually listens and conducts a conversation with smart follow up questions with the candidate. And the second thing we do is we allow our users to upload a welcome video that candidate sees when they click on the interview link. So this is usually just a short recording and introducing the company and their team and it just really adds a human personal feel to the interview experience. And the third thing that we do is we try to frame this actually as a opportunity and communicate that to the candidates that this is an opportunity for them to showcase their personality and communication skills. And traditionally, you know, they would often just get rejected or screened based on a resume alone. So when I actually would argue and to communicate to the candidates, this is actually an opportunity for them to showcase their personality and I think actually adds a more human element often to the hiring process, not less so. Yeah, I think just overall, like we're not trying to replace recruiters at all. RAI is meant to help streamline their workflow and surface the top candidates and then recruiters ultimately can make the final hiring decisions.
- [07:54]
C
Thank you. And I like how you said you're doing as best you can with AI because you know, you're not trying to replace the human, but you're trying to make it as human as possible. Right. Trying to work hard to make this a conversational flow. I like how you also provide information like a company introduction video for the candidate, also the candidate. This allows them to showcase their talent and what their experience and knowledge is about. And again, I just love the format. It really takes a lot of the extra work out of it, makes it more efficient, but also I would say from my personal experience, it makes the candidate be a little bit more at ease and therefore providing a better presentation of themselves. So, thank you. And Matthew, as we look ahead to the future, how do you see AI reshaping recruiting, talent evaluation and the candidate experience over the next decade? And what role will platforms like TalentSprout play in that transformation?
- [08:50]
D
Yeah, so I think, you know, like every industry, AI is going to be really transformational and recruiting over the next decade. For me, the way I look at it is AI is a tool that will be used by humans, not a replacement. So I feel personally that human decision making and the human feel and touch will still play a very big role in this process moving forward. But platforms like Talent Sprout that implement AI will again help save recruiters time, cut through the noise. And same on the candidate side, I think it'll save them a lot of time in their application process as well. So honestly, I'm very optimistic about AI and recruitment and over the next decade, I think it's going to lead to a better candidate experience and also a better hiring experience for companies. And I think overall it's going to connect companies with the right talent more efficiently and, and ultimately lead to a more connected workforce.
- [09:45]
C
That's awesome. Appreciate that. Humans obviously will still play a big role in this process, as you mentioned, but AI is going to help enhance the process again, having that machine human team together, you're going to make this process not only more efficient, but a better customer experience. And AI is here to stay, as you know, good or bad. And that's another discussion, another podcast, but I get into about the ethics and guardrails of AI. But, but I, I really appreciate your insights today, Matthew. And again, Matthew, it was such a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
- [10:19]
D
Thank you so much, Brian. It was absolute pleasure.
- [10:22]
C
Bye for.