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Chipotle has a new addition to its staff: Ava Cado, an AI recruiter that slices the time it takes to hire a new restaurant employee by 75%.
Chipotle announced the AI system on Tuesday, stating that Ava will talk to prospective hires, get the necessary information, schedule interviews, and even send out offer letters. Managers at 3,500 Chipotle restaurants across the world will use the AI technology, which will be rolled out in phases by the end of the month.
Chipotle Chief Human Resources Officer Ilene Eskenazi said in a press release that the big-picture goal is to have 7,000 restaurants in North America using the tech.
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The AI "operates as if we've hired additional administrative support for all our restaurants," Eskenazi said.
Chipotle is tapping into AI technology already in use at some of the biggest restaurants in the world, including McDonald's and Wendy's. Giants in other industries, such as Pfizer, FedEx, and Disney, are also using the same AI recruiting platform. Pfizer, for example, said it brought down the time it takes to schedule an interview with a candidate from seven days to less than five minutes.
AI recruiting carries its own set of challenges, though, such as the possibility of automating bias. If the AI system was trained on a biased data set, it could inadvertently amplify that bias.
AI also runs the risk of alienating candidates who could be penalized if they use AI themselves to prepare materials. Human candidates may respond better to human recruiters who give clear social prompts, say on an initial recruiting call.
Related: AI Is Changing How Businesses Recruit for Open Roles — and How Candidates Are Gaming the System
For Chipotle, Ava Cado has the clear benefit of letting managers spend more time supporting human team members and less on hiring.
"We're excited about the early improvements we're seeing," Eskenazi stated.
