Many companies are already using chatbots in the field of human resources, for different objectives or purposes, such as candidate selection, onboarding, or internal guides among employees.
There are also others that create technologies of this type for other organizations. This is the case with Avature, a company with two decades of experience in the development of HR software.
At Neosmart we spoke with Dimitri Boylan, CEO of the company, about how their new chatbot works and what opportunities it presents.
How was Avature founded and what objectives does it pursue?
We founded Avature in 2004, thanks to a group of professionals with extensive experience, with the aim of creating a more powerful and effective personnel selection software than the solutions that existed in the market. Our first project was based on the development of a federated search technology called WebSources, which quickly gained popularity among hiring professionals.
Next, we focused on candidate recruitment, designing email marketing functions, advanced segmentation, and personalized multichannel communication. We also created a portal for managers from different areas with active searches to follow the progress of recruitment and talent management projects.
In addition, we developed a flexible data model and a configurable workflow engine that adapts to the specific needs of each client. Currently, from Avature our main objective is to continue innovating and offering software solutions that help companies define pioneering talent management practices and gain a competitive advantage to be able to respond to market needs.
You just announced a chatbot for talent management. Can you detail exactly what it does and what its peculiarities are?
Our chatbot is designed on an advanced conversational model, which makes it able to understand and respond to users in a way that simulates human interactions. This approach facilitates dynamic conversations with candidates, and allows going beyond the prefabricated answers that are usually so common in these other chatbots.
Currently, the chatbot offers support to job seekers on career pages through recommendations of open opportunities. Also, it answers the questions that may arise in the job search process. Many of our clients have around 5,000 vacancies, so it can be difficult for a person to find the job that suits them best.
You assure that it is powered with proprietary technology. What does this chatbot offer in relation to other similar solutions? Can it be integrated into any employment platform?
Since the chatbot is native to our platform, it can use all customer data to generate its responses. For example, beyond offering support to candidates on career portals, Avature’s chatbot will be able to resolve interview scheduling with the selection team, onboarding of new employees, resolution of doubts for employees about the processes in which they are involved, among others.
Chatbots that are not native to a platform require very complex interactions if they want to use the platform’s data to formulate their responses. Ours, being native, only works with our employment platform.
What new features or versions of the Avature chatbot can we expect in the near future?
We are working on new versions that allow for an improved initial selection of candidates. Our goal is to learn to effectively review the user experience and evaluate their qualification levels in order to direct job seekers to the most suitable positions for them.
Specifically, we want to be able to guide the applicant to the next logical step in their career, while presenting an in-depth profile to the hiring team so that decisions can be made quickly and accurately.
How do you ensure that this technology and others developed by you for the HR sector are free of biases?
At Avature, we proactively prevent bias through various actions. We do not use personally identifiable information (name, contact information, race, age, place of birth, sex, among others) to train the models or to run them.
In addition, we build independent models based on objective information relevant to the position (positions, skills, education, etc.) and combine them with weights to achieve a meaningful and reliable indicator. So far we have not identified biased results, but in case a red flag of bias appeared, the traceability and transparency of our code would allow for corrections.
Currently, Avature’s AI models are not built from the direct inputs of end users, which prevents it from incorporating unconscious human biases into the algorithm and reproducing them throughout the system. In addition, AI-related functions are permission-based, which means that customers can decide whether or not to enable a specific feature.
What other solutions have you created for the People vertical that integrate artificial intelligence?
In the same way that the chatbot facilitates use cases throughout the talent cycle, Avature’s AI functionalities can be used across all solutions in the Avature portfolio. For example, the “Semantic Search” functionality helps recruiters in the search for talent within the database.
Instead of a keyword-based search, the AI understands the user’s intention and expands the results to include candidates that would not come out in a traditional search. This same capability applies on career portals to help candidates find relevant roles. Semantic Matching is another example that facilitates use cases for many solutions within the Avature portfolio. In talent search, it offers recommendations of relevant candidates for new roles. Thus, recruiters do not have to start the search from scratch, saving them a lot of time.
In relation to internal mobility and efforts to retain employees, Avature customers can use this same functionality to show their employees relevant internal opportunities and measure this relevance based on their experience, interests, and skills, among other factors. Skills are the new currency in the world of talent, and Avature’s skills anthology supports all its solutions so that large companies can adopt a skill-based strategy.
How has your business changed since the advent of generative AI?
In the last year, we have witnessed an incredible explosion of generative AI, which is now being used in all areas, including talent management. This technology has amazing potential, but it also carries significant risks, especially in this area, where decisions are made that fundamentally affect human beings.
At Avature, our strategy with respect to generative AI is to seek opportunities that have high impact, but low risk, while we ourselves and the rest of the AI community better understand its potential. We will soon be launching new features that fit this strategy, such as an assistant for writing job descriptions and an intelligent knowledge base.
How are your customers receiving these AI innovations? Do you notice a higher demand or some reluctance towards them?
Our customers are not interested in the fashion of AI per se, but in identifying use cases in which it can provide significant value without exposing their organizations to unnecessary risks. After all, no one adopts a technology for the technology itself. What they are interested in is leveraging innovations that help them achieve their overall goal. For this reason, they are making cautious decisions about how to incorporate AI to improve the user experience, save time, and support DEI strategies, but they are by no means letting it replace human decision-making.
Thanks to Avature’s internal development, which guarantees them total visibility and control over AI, our customers are certain that they understand exactly how AI works and how it delivers the results it delivers. In the face of new regulations, this understanding and control are paramount.
Undoubtedly, there are many expectations regarding AI, but there is also a lot of ignorance. That said, our customers receive AI with optimism. At Avature we work to take advantage of everything AI has to offer us, and this certainly translates into our solutions and the service we provide to customers, something they always appreciate. In fact, our customers help us, with their feedback, to continue evolving around the innovations that this technological revolution can offer the sector.
Many startups, and particularly many in the HR field, are labeling themselves as doing AI when in reality they are not. What is your opinion on this ‘AI washing’?
It is true that AI is on everyone’s lips and there are many companies that have something to say about it. Although showing interest and curiosity in the face of a genuine technological revolution that will affect society as a whole is not a bad thing, it is important to be clear about how to take advantage of it and how it can align with our business model.
In the context of HR, there is no margin for error. No company should hire a solution that promises AI without understanding exactly how it works and what impact it will have. The rigorous evaluation process of this type of technology makes it clear which companies are really offering AI.
What can we expect from Avature in the medium term? What plans can you share with us?
In 2023, Avature launched more than 550 new features to the platform, in addition to two completely new solutions: HR Case Management and Social Learning. With more than 600 developers within the company, we are always working on improving our platform, an effort that ensures that our customers stay at the forefront of talent technology.
The roadmap for the remainder of the year includes many advances in the field of AI, notably the launch of several generative AI functionalities like the ones we mentioned earlier. The current focus of our development is on creating tools that give even more power to our customers, so that they have the ability to design solutions whose scope is defined by the needs of their company and not by those of the software market. In addition, we will announce a new solution in the last quarter of 2024.
Lastly, what role do you think artificial intelligence will play in the future of Human Capital Management (HCM)?
Undoubtedly, it will play a fundamental role. Just as the advent of the Internet marked a before and after, the same happens with artificial intelligence. The opportunity to optimize processes and reduce costs offered by AI is a factor to be explored by Human Resources.
Considering the current challenge of talent management, especially its retention, prioritizing solutions that allow teams to dedicate most of their resources to more qualitative functions can result in the quality of these teams growing exponentially.
We know that there is pressure from the top of companies to adopt AI only for novelty, not because it adds value. Undoubtedly, this is not the best practice. AI can help in reducing costs and increasing performance, but it should not make decisions. If it is used in line with a broader strategy, it will play a fundamental role.