Job seekers will face more initial screening interviews, but this does not mean the number of job positions has increased. Instead, it is because recruiters are outsourcing routine screening tasks to AI systems.
The startup Alex provides AI hiring officers for businesses, helping with video interviews and phone screenings. Co-founder Aaron Wang founded the company 18 months ago, and he told TechCrunch that the company's voice AI tool can conduct autonomous interviews immediately after an applicant submits their application. "Our AI hiring officers conduct thousands of interviews every day, helping job seekers land jobs at some of the largest companies in the world."
Wang, who previously worked at Facebook and as a quantitative analyst at a hedge fund, refused to reveal specific client names, but stated that clients include Fortune 100 companies, financial institutions, national restaurant chains, and the Big Four accounting firms.
Investors view the rise of AI interviewers as an inevitable trend that many companies will adopt. This belief contributed to Alex's $17 million Series A round led by Peak XV Partners. The round also included participation from Y Combinator and Uncorrelated Ventures, as well as support from chief human resources officers of several unnamed Fortune 500 companies. This funding round followed a $3 million seed round led by 1984 Ventures last year.
Image source note: The image was generated by AI, and the image licensing service is Midjourney
Alex is not the only company offering AI recruitment services. The startup's competitors include early-stage companies such as HeyMilo, ConverzAI, and Ribbon. Previously reported fast-growing AI data annotation startup Mercor, which is seeking a new round of financing at a valuation of $10 billion, originally started with AI recruitment services.
Alex's long-term vision is to build a more comprehensive and in-depth career profile database than what LinkedIn currently offers, by interviewing millions of job seekers. Wang said, "Our theory is that the information obtained from a 10-minute conversation with you tells me much more than your LinkedIn profile."
However, Alex currently focuses on helping recruiters save time to build relationships with pre-screened qualified candidates and provide recommendations to hiring managers.
From a technical application perspective, AI interview systems can handle standardized screening tasks such as background checks, salary requirement confirmation, and availability verification, theoretically increasing the efficiency of the hiring process. However, this trend has sparked discussions about the job seeker experience and fairness in recruitment.
The limitations of AI interview systems should be noted. Automated screening may not capture candidates' soft skills, cultural fit, or unique value brought by non-traditional backgrounds. Additionally, algorithmic bias could affect the fairness of the screening results.
For job seekers, this means adapting to a new mode of interaction with AI systems. Traditional interpersonal interaction skills may not be fully applicable in AI interviews, and job seekers need to learn how to effectively demonstrate their abilities and experience within automated systems.
From an industry development perspective, the application of AI in the recruitment process is expanding, but completely replacing human judgment still faces challenges. Recruitment decisions involve complex interpersonal assessments and cultural judgments, which currently still require the professional experience and intuition of human recruiters.
Alex emphasizes that its service allows recruiters to focus on more valuable work, such as building relationships with candidates and providing strategic advice. This human-machine collaboration model may be a more sustainable direction for AI recruitment tools, rather than completely replacing the human recruitment process.
