Robots like Vera could replace your HR team

Chatbots and virtual assistants are streamlining recruitment and hiring

Spotted: A robot from Russian startup Stafory can take time and hassle out of your recruitment and hiring process. Vera, artificial intelligence software, scours job search sites for the best potential matches. She contacts them by phone (email and video chat are also possible) and asks predetermined questions. She evaluates the answers and provides companies with just the top candidates for the job. She does this ten times faster than a human, according to Stafory.

The programme (named after the mother of one of the developers) is not actually a physical robot and will not replace humans in HR departments, at least for now. Humans at the companies using Vera still do the actual hiring. But the computer program speeds up the process by weeding down the pool of applicants.

Vera is already being used at large multinational companies such as IKEA, Microsoft and Coca-Cola. The idea has inspired similar technologies. Startup chatbots like Mya and Paradox’s Olivia are also designed to streamline the recruitment process.