TECH

Your next job interview will be via digital assistant
The initial idea was not to develop an AI to recruit, but this was what happened with Hélder Silva and Rui Costa, who saw a job opportunity in the job market.
The two founders of Newton.AI investigated, realized that there were some requirements that would have to be met and created Newton, what we call "chat bot", but in this case it is a technology with artificial intelligence that crosses deep learning and natural language processing.
This is because Newton's goal is to make the best match between recruiters and candidates. And quickly. Hélder Silva said the tool reduces to 15/20 minutes a task that would occupy eight hours or more for a human. "And I'm just talking about profiling profiles that might match the occupation. Everything else is missing: contact the candidate, know if you are interested or not ... ".
Typically, they try to have a shortlist of five to 10 "ready-to-go" candidates to present to the company within 48 hours, the CEO of Newson.AI said. Between the search and first choice and this delivery, the bot sends a contact message to inform the selected that the company is working on a shortlist for a given function and that offers such conditions and ask if there is interest.
If there is interest, the Newton interacts again with the candidate in two more moments: sending a small set of questions and, finally, a five minute call. "Sometimes, at the beginning, we have 600 candidates and in the end we give this shortlist of five to 10 perfect candidates." After these phases managed by the technology, the process of recruitment ficA tool initially began by being tested between the pairs of Newton.AI, that is, with other startups, and more for selection of trainees. Today it is already used by big companies, like Nike Innovation - being in the process of being extended to other units of the group - and for full time positions, including technical profiles.
He is helping to recruit in the United States and will start an identical task in Japan, and hopes the head of Newton.AI in Portugal, where in March or April the startup that resulted from a spin off of the University of Oxford and that today has in the Plug and Play Tech Center in California, USA, its main accelerator, should already have "assembled structure".
The Newton works "from LinkedIn and Facebook's Messenger. In the first case, and because personal accounts are used, people often do not realize that they are talking to an AI - or they may be surprised if they are not selected and receive a feedback and thank-you message - since this happens a few times when the process is totally human ...
Nevertheless, Hélder Silva reinforces that Newton is a tool to support decision. "It's important to get the idea that Artificial Intelligence helps solve some issues, but it's not going to replace humans." Sapo