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Best Recruiting and HR Chatbots

10 Best Recruiting and HR Chatbot Software (Q1 2024)

The best HR chatbots reviewed and compared by HR tech experts. Find key metrics, features, pros and cons, ROI calculations and more below.

Phil Strazzulla
Written by
Phil Strazzulla
HR Tech Expert, Harvard MBA, Software Enthusiast
Contributing Experts
We are a reader supported site with strict editorial standards, clicks may earn a fee which supports our testing. Learn More
Last Updated: Dec 13, 2023
TOP
AI-driven conversational recruiting solution
Olivia
4.7
Popularity Score
4.5
User Score
4.7
Product  Score
Visit Website
TOP
AI-driven conversational recruiting solution
Olivia
4.7
Popularity Score
4.5
User Score
4.7
Product  Score
Learn More
TOP
Conversational AI for internal questions
MeBeBot
4.1
Popularity Score
4.9
User Score
4.2
Product  Score
Visit Website
TOP
Conversational AI for internal questions
MeBeBot
4.1
Popularity Score
4.9
User Score
4.2
Product  Score
Learn More
TOP
Chatbot-enabled career fair-like interactions
Radancy
4.3
Popularity Score
3.9
User Score
4.4
Product  Score
Visit Website
TOP
Chatbot-enabled career fair-like interactions
Radancy
4.3
Popularity Score
3.9
User Score
4.4
Product  Score
Learn More
Over 3 million HR leaders trust our advice

Introduction to Recruiting and HR Chatbots

You likely already know that a chatbot is a great way to decrease the time your recruiting team spends sourcing and screening candidates. This iteration of AI is also good for running other HR workflows internally, so adding a chatbot to your talent acquisition tech stack is worth at least some consideration.

Beyond the hype and the buzzwords though, let’s look at some stats that can help illustrate how AI-powered technologies bring tangible ROI to the organizations that implement them: 

  • Chatbots can help you save time by handling standard interview questions within minutes, which improves the rate at which job seekers become leads within a career site. A recent study found that career sites with chatbots get 95% more leads and 40% more job seekers complete applications.
  • Moreover, 37% of candidates expect a customized message after applying for a job, which chatbots are capable of curating as they leverage existing data, machine learning, and natural language processing to make interactions personalized.
  • On the HR side, a study by Gartner estimates that 75% of all HR inquiries will eventually be managed by conversational AI platforms. 
  • More companies are adopting AI-powered technologies to streamline their recruiting efforts. According to a recent McKinsey study, adoption has more than doubled since 2017, increasing from 20 percent to 60 percent in 2023.

Now that we’ve established that chatbot technology can very much be worth the investment, let’s take a look at the best recruiting chatbots available in 2023.

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Best Recruiting and HR Chatbots

Olivia

: AI-driven conversational recruiting solution

MeBeBot

: Conversational AI for internal questions

Radancy

: Chatbot-enabled career fair-like interactions

Ideal

: Top chatbot for saving recruiting time

HireVue

: AI-driven hiring platform

Eightfold

: AI-based talent intelligence platform

Humanly

: Great AI chatbot for mid-market

Espressive

: Great for HR and IT related questions

Symphony Talent

: Deep enterprise suite

Wade and Wendy

: Talent Sourcing AI

Our Criteria: Here's How We Chose The Best Recruiting and HR Chatbots

We select this shortlist of the best recruiting and HR chatbots by simply testing the tools, keeping in touch with their product teams, demoing when they have something new to show (which, in the AI space, is very often), and talking to our community of HR experts. We also gathered user feedback from several platforms.

Three key factors on which we compare these HR chatbot tools are the AI engine behind the conversational interface, the user-friendliness of the interaction, and its automation capabilities.

  • AI Engine: Artificial Intelligence is regularly used as a buzzword, so you have to be cautious of what companies mean when they say they are “leveraging AI.” The companies here are not afraid to shed light on what they have under the hood when it comes to this tech. Vendors with a bunch of manual backend processes under the guise of AI get a hard pass from us.
  • Ease of Use: Of course, once the AI capabilities are actually leveraged, they are hardly helpful if the interaction is clunky, prone to confusion, and cognitively heavy. We select tools with aesthetic interfaces that are easy to figure out, with chatbots that come across as friendly and warm while not trying to hide the fact that they are not actually human.
  • Automation: All of the above counts for little if it’s not saving you tons of time by taking over specific tasks and doing them properly. The tools we pick are all fairly impressive in their capabilities for handling myriads of recruiting and in-house HR tasks. Some may not blow your mind in the age of ChatGPT, but they are more than decent for the price point.

Whether you’re a solopreneur, a recruitment agency, or the head of a massive HR department, there are at least a couple of options here you’ll want to check out.

For more specifics on how we vet tech vendors, here’s a blog covering our in-depth assessment process.

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Compare the Best Recruiting and HR Chatbots

Popularity Score
Best for
Key Differentiator
Pricing
Free Trial
Customers
Users Score
Product Score

Olivia

Most Popular
4.7
Medium and large companies
AI-powered conversational recruiting solution
Custom Pricing
No
N/A
4.5
4.7

MeBeBot

Most Popular
4.1
Medium and large companies
Conversational AI for internal Q&A
Starts at $2/user/month
No
N/A
4.9
4.2

Radancy

Most Popular
4.3
Medium and large companies
Virtual hiring events platform with chatbot
Custom Pricing
No
90+ companies
3.9
4.4

Ideal

Most Popular
4.1
Medium and large companies
Chatbot for candidate screening and engagement
Custom Pricing
No
100+ companies
4.9
4.7

HireVue

Most Popular
4.0
Large companies and enterprises with volume hiring needs
Enterprise-ready AI-powered hiring platform
Starts at $2,917/mo
No
1,150+ companies
3.9
4.0

Eightfold

Most Popular
4.1
Large companies and enterprises hiring 100+ people a year
AI-based talent intelligence platform
Custom Pricing
Yes
800+ companies
4.4
4.1

Humanly

Most Popular
4.7
Medium and large companies
Chatbot for screening, reference checking and engagement
Custom Pricing
Yes
N/A
4.7
4.6

Espressive

Most Popular
4.2
Medium and large companies
Conversation AI for employee employee self-help
Custom Pricing
No
N/A
4.0
4.3

Symphony Talent

Most Popular
4.0
Medium and large companies
Hiring tool with a candidate engagement and support chatbot
Custom Pricing
No
1000+ companies
3.8
4.0

Wade and Wendy

Most Popular
4.1
Medium and large companies
Chatbot for candidate evaluation and Q&A
Custom Pricing
No
30+ companies
3.5
4.1
Phil Strazzulla
HR Tech Expert, Harvard MBA, Software Enthusiast

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Detailed Reviews of the Best Recruiting and HR Chatbots

Olivia

Visit Website
Olivia
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Popularity Score
4.7 / 5
User Score
4.5 / 5
Product Score
4.7 / 5

Why we picked Olivia

Paradox distinguishes itself through its exceptional implementation team and the pioneering AI assistant, Olivia. Olivia's unique approach involves text-based interactions with job candidates, setting Paradox apart in the realm of Recruiting and HR chatbots.

PROS

  • Their implementation and customer service is very efficient and accessible. You will not only get a Customer Success Manager to help you with every step during your implementation phase but your issues will also likely be resolved within the same day. Unlike many vendors, you can contact their support team via phone and explain your issue in real-time. 
  • It’s very time-saving and cuts down on back-and-forth communication between job candidates and recruiters. As Derek B, Head of Recruitment at a large-sized enterprise puts it, “Olivia helped us shave our response time from 7 days to under 24 hours. This time saving ensured that the applicants we chose to interview were the best of the bunch.”
  • Olivia, their AI chatbot is programmed to respond to candidates in a way that feels personal, as if a real person is responding. What’s even better is that despite complete automation, you can see all chats and manually override them if need be.

CONS

  • Although you can get some data and feedback about your company and its processes, analytics is not very robust in Paradox. If you’re looking for advanced features that let you slice and dice your data in various ways, you’ll have to look for other applications. 
  • Their AI assistant is intelligent and has a human touch but at the end of the day, Olivia is still AI. At times when you want nuanced answers in conversations, you’ll have to manually operate the chat.

Olivia Review

Paradox’s flagship product is their HR chatbot, Olivia, named after the founder’s wife. The founding team at Paradox hated the idea of building a lifeless, robotic recruiting chatbot so they named their product after a real person in hopes of giving it some personality. Interestingly, the chatbot’s profile picture is the actual Olivia’s picture upon which the chatbot is based. 

Olivia performs an array of HR tasks including scheduling interviews, screening, sending reminders, and registering candidates for virtual career fairs – all without needing the intervention of the recruiter.

Olivia Customers

Unilever, McDonald’s, Amazon, 3M, CVS Health, Nestlé, Lowe’s

Olivia Pricing

Paradox adopts a personalized pricing approach. For a tailored quote aligned with your company's dimensions, you'll need to arrange a demo. Upon submitting a demo request on their official site, their team promptly responds within a single business day. Through this engagement, they gain insights into your team's specific challenges, subsequently arranging a customized demo session.

Best For

Paradox caters to large-scale organizations immersed in a steady influx of job candidates.

Olivia in action
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MeBeBot

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MeBeBot
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Popularity Score
4.1 / 5
User Score
4.9 / 5
Product Score
4.2 / 5

Why we picked MeBeBot

MeBeBot is a no-code chatbot whose main function is helping IT, HR, and Ops teams set up an internal knowledge base with a conversational interface. It integrates seamlessly with various tech and can provide push messaging, pulse surveys, analytics, and more.

PROS

  • No-code tool, easy to maintain. The customer portal makes it very straightforward to find and edit your knowledge base and keep the chatbot up to date.
  • If an area of your knowledge center is in the works, we found it simple to set up placeholders for the entire topic.
  • SOC-certified for data privacy
  • 4-6 weeks implementation
  • API availability
  • No-code tool, easy to maintain. The customer portal makes it very straightforward to find and edit your knowledge base and keep the chatbot up to date. 
  • If an area of your knowledge center is in the works, we found it simple to set up placeholders for the entire topic. 
  • SOC-certified for data privacy
  • 4-6 weeks implementation
  • API availability

CONS

  • Not a good match for companies with less than 250 employees
  • Mainly aimed for companies that use Slack and/or Teams
  • No multi-lingual support at the moment
  • Not a good match for companies with less than 250 employees
  • Mainly aimed for companies that use Slack and/or Teams
  • No multi-lingual support at the moment

MeBeBot Review

MeBeBot started in 2019 as an AI Intelligent Assistant (as an App in Slack and Teams) so that employees could get instant, accurate answers from IT, HR, and Ops. The goal has always been to help companies develop a robust library of questions and set up a conversational interface where employees can find answers in an easy manner. This way, HR and IT support don’t get bombarded with the common and repetitive questions they answer several times a year.

The tool has grown into a no-code chatbot that can live within more platforms. It crowdsources its questions and answers from your existing knowledge base, and you now get a portal where you can get admin access to this growing database.

We were able to see this inside and out during a demo with one of their team members, and found the platform to be a noteworthy twist on an internal knowledge base. It can effectively function as a screen for customer support queries, and can also replace traditional survey tools.

Further, since employees access it through the tools they already use for collaboration (Slack and Teams, for instance),  engagement rates for customers have been known to spike after MeBeBot’s swift implementation.

MeBeBot Customers

As of early 2023, MeBeBot is accessed by over 22,000 employees globally, MeBeBot currently partners with employers including: Epicor, e2open, Ziff Davis (RetailMeNot, Spiceworks, IGN, and more), HireVue, Abrigo, CrowdStreet, Terminal, Massage Envy, Toyota Insurance Management Solutions, Care.com and IGT.

MeBeBot Pricing

MeBeBot is sold as an annual SaaS subscription license. The average pricing is $2.00-$5.00 per employee per month (tiered, based on number of employees), and $250-1,000 per month for AI Portal license. There are no implementation fees.

There’s no free trial, but employers interested in the tool should ask about the MeBeBot paid pilot program.

Best For

Companies growing fast in sectors like technology, finance, and consulting, or similar.

MeBeBot in action
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Radancy

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Radancy
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Popularity Score
4.3 / 5
User Score
3.9 / 5
Product Score
4.4 / 5

Why we picked Radancy

Radancy's recruiting chatbot lets you save time by having live chats with qualified candidates anytime, anywhere. One of its standout features is that the chatbot provides candidates with replies in not only text but also video form.

PROS

  • Excellent customer support, particularly through chat assistance for prompt responses and step-by-step guidance in setting up online events.
  • Monthly calls held between customers and dedicated account representatives to ensure smooth operations.
  • Quick response time to customer queries, typically within the same day.
  • Radancy is also a virtual career fair platform. They can provide multiple booths for attendees to interact with employers via text, voice, and, of course, chat.
  • Detailed analytics and data are provided before, during, and after each event, including information on signups, candidates, attendance, and other relevant metrics.
  • They perform regular updates and feature releases based on client and end-user feedback.
  • Their customer support is great, especially the chat support. When it comes to creating online events, their team would give you a step-by-step walkthrough of the entire process. Every month, their team arranges a monthly call between their customers and their appointed account representative to make sure everything is working fine. Their response time for customer queries is also fairly quick and you will usually hear back from them within the same day.
  • Radancy makes networking easier. There are multiple networking booths for events where attendees can talk to employers via text, voice, or chat. Attendees can also easily switch between different booths.
  • Before, after, and during each event, you’re provided with detailed analytics and data about signups, candidates, attendance, and other such metrics.
  • Their team comes up with updates on a frequent basis and not only asks for client feedback but also takes end-user feedback into mind when rolling out new features.

CONS

  • Limited customizability, particularly with system automated emails for events, which restricts the ability to showcase brand voice.
  • The built-in audio and video tool may be less stable compared to other popular video conferencing tools. Occasional bugs were reported.
  • Initial setup can be confusing, requiring trial and error to optimize the structure and maximize the benefits of virtual events.
  • Lack of transparency in pricing, with no availability of self-signup free trials at the moment.
  • Customizations are limited. For instance, emails for the events are system automated and that can limit you from displaying your voice and brand.
  • Compared to other popular video conferencing tools, Radancy’s built-in audio and video tool is not as stable and there can be occasional bugs.
  • Initial setup can be a little confusing and it takes some trial and error to figure out a structure that helps you make the most out of your virtual events.
  • The pricing of the platform isn’t transparent and self-signup free trials aren’t available at this time.

Radancy Review

Radancy is primarily a virtual hiring events platform and RadancyBot, their HR chatbot is one of the recruiting solutions they offer in their suite of products. RadancyBot performs multiple functions including promoting your career events, answering candidates’ frequently asked questions, and routing qualified candidates to chat with the hiring manager.

One interesting feature about Radancy’s chatbot is that it provides replies to candidates not only in text but also in video format.

Radancy Customers

Radancy serves universities, companies, associations, workforce development organizations, and more. Notable customers include Spectrum, CVS Health, Temple University, KPMG, Lincoln Financial Group, and Houston Methodist.

Radancy Pricing

Pricing is not disclosed upfront. You have to request a price quote by filling out a form online with details about your company.

Best For

Radancy works best for large organizations, such as universities or large companies, with hiring needs that are ongoing and high in volume.

It’s a good potential choice for those who want a chatbot to automate certain tasks and route qualified candidates to real conversations. If you’re looking for a ‘smarter’ chatbot that can be trained and has more modern AI capabilities, their current offering may not satisfy your needs.

Radancy in action
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Ideal

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Ideal
Learn More
Popularity Score
4.1 / 5
User Score
4.9 / 5
Product Score
4.7 / 5

Why we picked Ideal

Ideal lives up to its name. It's an exemplary recruitment chatbot that lets you send questionnaires, gauge a candidate's competency based on the replies, and help you screen qualified candidates.

PROS

CONS

Ideal Review

Ideal’s chatbot saves recruiting time by screening and staging candidates throughout the hiring process, all done through their AI powered assistant. Also worth checking out is their ATS re-discovery product which will go into your ATS, see who is a good fit for your existing reqs, resurface/contact them, screen them, and put them in front of your recruiters.

Ideal Customers

Bell, Dish, Staples, Novant Health, Purolator.

Ideal Pricing

Pricing and plans are not disclosed on the vendor's website.

Best For

Ideal is made for high-volume hiring in any industry.

Ideal in action
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HireVue

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HireVue
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Popularity Score
4 / 5
User Score
3.9 / 5
Product Score
4 / 5

Why we picked HireVue

Although more of a video interviewing tool, HireVue also excels at providing AI-powered chat interviews to automate the screening process of numerous candidates. This can translate to an up to 4 times faster time-to-hire.

PROS

  • HireVue’s text-based virtual assistant can match candidates to good-fitting jobs while providing a conversational interaction.
  • On top of this, the software does pack on-demand video interviewing, which means recruiters can catch the interviews asynchronously and zero in on certain key moments of the conversation.
  • HireVue is also notable for the responsiveness of the implementation and customer support teams.
  • HireVue is very useful when it comes to screening a large number of job candidates in a short frame of time. Its virtual assistant can do an initial screen of applicants on its own, leave messages for them, and get responses in return. All of this frees up recruiters’ time. 
  • It has a great on-demand interviewing feature. Recruiters can sit and watch candidates’ interviews as per their convenience. The ability to change the speed of the interview while watching can also help recruiters save time. 
  • Their implementation team and customer support is extremely responsive or in the words of a Global Talent Attraction Director, “I love the support, tenacity and just constant desire to do the right thing. They take the time to understand our business and I never feel like it is a ‘catch and release’ relationship that is so common in this space”

CONS

  • When compared to similar software, HireVue is not the most affordable bet. Their pricing is aimed at companies with more than 2,500 employees, so it’s not precisely SMB-friendly.
  • We’ve found that the integrations they offer are limited, as they mostly connect to popular ATS products.
  • For those looking for a simpler text-based screening tool, HireVue might pack more than they need.
  • HireVue is not very affordable compared to its alternatives, especially when you factor in the functionality. Their pricing plans are geared towards companies with at least 2500 employees and even then, you only get a small set of features. 
  • HireVue does not have a lot of integration partners and the range of software it integrates with is also very limited (mostly ATS). 
  • Too much automation can at times lead to unwanted candidates. For instance, the asynchronous interview feature can allow candidates to adjust their responses in order to fit the job criteria. However, HireVue wouldn’t screen such candidates out and your company may need human intervention to pick up on visual cues and body language.

HireVue Review

HireVue is a hiring software that’s powered by AI. Their HR chatbot makes use of text messages to converse with job candidates and has a variety of use cases. Their chat-based job matching can help you widen your talent pool by finding the most suitable candidate for a particular opening. After a candidate initially chats with HireVue’s HR chatbot, HireVue continues conversing with them throughout their hiring lifecycle. It schedules, sends reminders, and reschedules with candidates on its own, thereby saving your time and bandwidth.

HireVue Customers

HireVue has customers in a variety of industries ranging from aviation to retail. Some popular names include Amazon, Unilever, Vodafone, Beacon Health System, SmartLynx Airlines, The Co-operative Bank, and National Safety Apparel.

HireVue Pricing

HireVue has two pricing plans:

  • Essentials: This plan starts at $35,000 per month for a company with 2500-7500 employees. It includes live and on-demand interviewing features, custom branding, and single language configuration. 
  • Enterprise: This plan is suitable for companies with over 7500 employees. Pricing is custom and you would have to request a demo to receive a quote. In addition to all the features of the Essentials plan, this plan comes with scheduling, chatbot, pre-built ATS integrations, analytics, among others.

Best For

HireVue is a great bet for large organizations with ongoing hiring needs.

HireVue in action
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Eightfold

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Eightfold
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Popularity Score
4.1 / 5
User Score
4.4 / 5
Product Score
4.1 / 5

Why we picked Eightfold

Eightfold’s AI chatbot can answer candidates' questions on your behalf. The chatbot can also help interviewers schedule interviews, manage feedback, and alert candidates as they progress through the hiring process.

PROS

  • Eightfold's AI technology analyzes job postings to find well-fitting candidates and ranks them based on skills and potential.
  • You can filter candidate searches by experience or salary range to focus on suitable matches.
  • Their anonymous screening feature attempts to reduce unconscious biases during screening.
  • Tailored training opportunities based on individual skills and interests
  • Eightfold uses AI technology to analyze your job postings and find the best fitting candidates. It can also rank those candidates based on their skills, experience and potential.
  • You can filter candidate searches by experience level or salary range so that you only see candidates that fit your hiring criteria.
  • The platform encourages diversity hiring and enables you to eliminate hiring bias through anonymous screening, aka profile masking
  • It improves overall employee experience by providing tailored training and development opportunities based on their skill sets and interests.
  • It has a built-in CRM to store and manage HR data about potential candidates, current employees, and previous employees.

CONS

  • You can’t add notes within candidate profiles, which isn’t ideal for collaborative recruitment.
  • The mobile app focuses on employees and skills development, but not on the hiring and recruiting workflows.
  • Eightfold’s pricing isn’t disclosed up front and there is no free version or trial.
  • There isn’t a way for hiring managers and recruiters to leave notes on candidates profiles within the system which is rather inconvenient.
  • Eightfold has a mobile app that employees can access for skills development but doesn’t currently have one for hiring managers and recruiters to manage their pipeline and perform other actions relating to the hiring process.
  • Several users reported that the tool does not search for candidates outside its database.
  • The platform’s pricing isn’t transparent and there is no free trial at this time.

Eightfold Review

Eightfold’s built-in HR chatbot can help hiring teams automate candidate engagement and deliver better hiring experiences. The technology schedules interviews and keeps candidates updated regarding their hiring process, saving time for both parties. This way, candidates are always aware of their application status without having to call or email recruiters repeatedly. The chatbot can also answer questions about applying for positions, job benefits, company’s culture, and even walk candidates through their applications.

Eightfold Customers

Eightfold’s client list includes prominent enterprises like TATA Communications, LG, Vodafone, Bayer, Chevron, Morgan Stanley, and more.

Eightfold Pricing

Eightfold's pricing plans are not disclosed on its website. Contact their Sales team for a custom quote.

Best For

Eightfold’s best fit are companies looking to hire more than 100 candidates per year.

Eightfold in action
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Humanly

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Humanly
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Popularity Score
4.7 / 5
User Score
4.7 / 5
Product Score
4.6 / 5

Why we picked Humanly

Humanly's HR chatbot for professional volume and early career hiring is simple, personalized, and quick to deploy. You can automate tasks like screening, scheduling, engagement, and reference checks using this chatbot.

PROS

  • Humanly’s interface is easy to navigate, both for candidates and hiring managers.
  • The platform facilitates candidate sourcing from LinkedIn, Indeed, Facebook, and other platforms, with a seamless organization in ATSs such as Bullhorn, ADP, Greenhouse, Lever, and more.
  • Its ability to automate the initial screening and interview scheduling process saves hiring teams a significant amount of time.
  • You can take notes and view interview transcripts that Humanly generates and stores for you.
  • Users highly commend the helpfulness and responsiveness of Humanly's customer support team.

CONS

  • The platform lacks a mechanism for candidates to reschedule interviews if necessary.
  • Interview reminders are not currently sent to candidates or interviewers from Humanly.
  • The range of prebuilt third-party integrations isn’t impressive.
  • Pricing information isn’t publicly disclosed, and free plans / free trials aren’t offered either.

Humanly Review

Humanly.io’s AI recruiting platform comes with a chatbot that can streamline various parts of your recruitment process. Specifically designed for mid-market companies, this chatbot is easy to implement and helps efficiently engage candidates, screen them, and schedule their interviews while maintaining a DEI-friendly approach. Additionally, the platform seamlessly integrates with your Applicant Tracking System (ATS), eliminating the need for manual data entry in separate systems.

What we’ve found particularly interesting about Humanly.io is that it can use data from your performance management system to continuously improve candidate screening, which leads to even better hiring decisions. Overall, we think Humanly is worth considering if you're a mid-market company looking to leverage AI in your recruitment process.

Humanly Customers

The Key, Microsoft, Fazoli’s, Mossadams, and World Flight Services are a few of the companies among Humanly’s clientele.

Humanly Pricing

Humanly’s pricing is disclosed upfront. You may contact their Sales team for a price quote.

Best For

Because of what it does, we think Humanly is best suited for medium and large businesses needing to screen and interview a high volume of applicants.

Humanly in action
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Espressive

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Espressive
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Popularity Score
4.2 / 5
User Score
4 / 5
Product Score
4.3 / 5

Why we picked Espressive

Espressive's employee assistant chatbot aims to improve employee productivity by immediately resolving their issues, at any time of the day. But that's not all. It also walks employees through workflows, such as vacation requests and onboarding.

PROS

CONS

Espressive Review

Espressive’s solution is specifically designed to help employees get answers to their most common questions (PTO, benefits, etc), without burdening the HR team. Employees can access Espressive's AI-based virtual support agent (VSA) Barista on any device or browser. Barista also has a unique omni-channel ability enabling employees to interact via Slack, Teams, and more.

Espressive Customers

Dexcom, Guardant, First American, Survey Monkey

Espressive Pricing

Pricing details are not provided by Espressive upfront.

Best For

Enterprise level companies looking for a top HR chatbot should take a look at Espressive.

Espressive in action
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Symphony Talent

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Symphony Talent
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Popularity Score
4 / 5
User Score
3.8 / 5
Product Score
4 / 5

Why we picked Symphony Talent

After acquiring Smashfly, Symphony Talent added an HR chatbot to their offering, covering CRM-functionality, career sites, programmatic advertising, and talent assessments on a single tool.

PROS

CONS

Symphony Talent Review

The team that pioneered the recruitment marketing software space is back with the first chatbot that is tightly integrated into a leading candidate relationship management (CRM) offering.

Please note, this solution is only for companies who’re using Symphony Talent and is not available as a standalone offering.

Symphony Talent Customers

Dick's Sporting Goods, FCA, RioTinto, Mars.

Symphony Talent Pricing

Pricing is undisclosed.

Best For

This solution is designed to work with businesses of all sizes, but it's particularly good for recruitment teams that see digital advertising as a big component of their recruitment strategy.

Symphony Talent in action
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Wade and Wendy

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Wade and Wendy
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Popularity Score
4.1 / 5
User Score
3.5 / 5
Product Score
4.1 / 5

Why we picked Wade and Wendy

Wade and Wendy focuses on automating recruitment processes. It's available to chat with talent 24/7 and will source, screen, and recommend qualified candidates to your team in an instant.

PROS

CONS

Wade and Wendy Review

Wade & Wendy’s recruiting chatbot helps your team by sourcing passive candidates, and screening candidates that come in via your careers page or sourcing activities. Their solution learns over time which profiles are a good fit for a given role which results in better and better matches. Overall this is designed to save your TA team time, and allow them to focus on more strategic initiatives.

Wade and Wendy Customers

Randtsad, Comcast, E-Trade Financial Corporation

Wade and Wendy Pricing

The pricing of Wade & Wendy’s plans isn’t disclosed on their website.

Best For

Wade & Wendy is a good bet for large recruiting teams within companies and recruitment agencies.

Wade and Wendy in action
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Benefits and Use Cases of Recruiting Chatbots

An HR Chatbot is one major category within AI recruiting software that allows job seekers and employees to communicate via a conversational UI via SMS, website, and other messaging applications like What’s App.  The platform allows for meaningful exchanges without the need for HR leaders to take time out of their day.

If you’re going to use chatbots for recruiting, you probably have one or two things in mind already that it can do to add value to your recruitment process.  Here’s a list of the key ways this segment of recruiting software can help:

  • Interview Scheduling: HR chatbots are wonderful at scheduling screens and interviews.  They can easily update calendars, look across multiple people’s openings, and of course can do this while taking the burden of the cumbersome back and forth off the plate of an HR coordinator.
  • Automated Screening: Chatbots are great at screening candidates with rudimentary questions (are you available to work starting in 4 weeks, does this comp align with your expectations, etc).  They can also leverage natural language processing to have a deeper conversation with your job seekers about their experience, expectations, and how well they align with the open roles.  This is a core use case for all of the best recruiting chatbots.
  • Candidate Sourcing: Most of the sourcing capabilities we’ve seen revolve around re-engaging your talent pool members and ATS database.  The bot will look at open reqs, match them to people in the database, and then reach back to see if they want to engage.  It will also screen them, and schedule the ones who make it through the screen.  Not bad!
  • Career Site Conversions: This is a page out of marketing’s playbook.  The bot’s conversational interface can help people who land on your career site get key questions answered, and then guide them either to the relevant job postings in your ATS, or send them direct to a recruiter to engage (imagine a software engineer with the right experience hits your page - you want them to talk to a human ASAP).
  • Text Based Recruiting: Chatbots can communicate over many different mediums, and of course SMS is one of those.  Probably are favorite use case here is text to apply where you can drive candidates to apply via texting a shortcode, and then screen candidates all via text.  This is especially useful for places where you’re engaging candidates where texting is easiest (billboards, PR, presentations), or for candidates that don’t necessarily have a resume and are more likely to text than apply via ATS.
  • Employee Referrals: The best recruiting chatbots now enable employees to make referrals through their interface - and will actually ping your employees with reminders about open roles, and how much the bounty is for each.  There is most likely a day in the not too distant future when these bots will leverage a bit of machine learning to reach out to employees and ask if they’d make an intro to a person in their network for an open role that seems to be a good fit.
  • Candidate Experience: Candidates have questions, job application bots have answers.  Throughout the interview process a chatbot can easily answer applicant questions on status of application, or many of the pertinent info you may find in an employee handbook (benefits, PTO policy, etc).
  • Employee Onboarding: Most HR chatbots will also have a module that allows you to onboard new employees.  Many of these workflows are pre-built, but allow the easily accessible “virtual assistant” interface that you get with the chatbot.  Also, the bot will learn over time answers to various questions that come up during onboarding - providing for a better employee experience and less strain on your HR team.

Artificial intelligence: This is sort of a large bucket of benefits. And, perhaps the biggest benefit is that you can join the club of next-generation talent acquisition leaders using AI in their recruiting. Most of these recruiting chatbots use some form of AI to more effectively communicate with candidates via natural language processing, or do things like vet candidates via machine learning. The bottom line is that AI is an evolving force in human resources that most HR leaders should want to take advantage of.

Pro Tips on Recruiting and HR Chatbots

HR Chatbot Pitfalls

There are a few major pitfalls we’ve seen with HR Chatbots.

  • Human interaction is key to making sure your candidate experience doesn’t degrade.  AI and chatbots should augment what your team is doing, not replace it.  And never loose site of the person who matters most, the applicant.
  • Don’t get overwhelmed with the many ways a chatbot can help.  You came to this page most likely because you have one or two use cases in mind.  Start there, but try to pick a vendor with a broad offering you can leverage further over time.
  • Many companies are interested but haven’t pulled the trigger (see “where to start” below - it’s super easy to get started).  Start exploring how AI can start taking tasks off the to-do list of your hr department today.
  • Next is that some chatbot offerings can be setup easily, but take a long time to do it “right.”  Instead of “AI” they are regurgitating the hundreds of responses you had to input into a spreadsheet when you get setup - be warned that these offerings are not that functional and can take a ton of your time to get started.
  • Don’t get caught up in the hype around AI.  It’s here, it’s helping, but it will not solve all of your problems by any means.  At least, not for another few decades.
  • Engage your hiring managers to help you understand what’s important to them.  Definitely get sales and marketing’s take on how they’re thinking about using chatbots to engage customers.  There are a lot of parallels and ways you can learn from chatbot examples across your business.

ROI of HR Chatbots

The Return On Investment (ROI) driven from HR Chatbots is fairly straightforward.  These bots allow you to get more quality applicants into your funnel that otherwise would’ve bounced from your page without applying through the ATS.

So, you can see the effectiveness through the number of new hires you’ve made that came through this channel as well as the amount of time saved by utilizing a chatbot where recruiters would’ve had to be involved previously.

Other potential drivers of value are saving recruiter time, and decreasing time to fill.  But, these aren’t contemplated in the calculator (don’t worry, these are icing on the cake).

Click here to download our ROI calculator.

Stay Organized

If you’re looking at adding an HR chatbot to your recruiting efforts, you’re probably looking at specific criteria to judge which vendor you should actually move forward with. We highly recommend staying organized as you vet various providers by using a simple spreadsheet (here’s a template to use) that keeps track of which vendors meet which criteria, along with other key considerations such as pricing and rep likeability. Below is a spreadsheet you can modify to your needs. It has some sample questions, but the most important aspect is the structure that we’ve setup.

Recruiting & HR Chatbot FAQs

What is an HR chatbot?

An HR chatbot is a virtual assistant used to simulate human conversation with candidates and employees to automate certain tasks such as interview scheduling, employee referrals, candidate screening and more.

How does an HR chatbot work?

HR chatbots use AI to interpret and process conversational information and send appropriate replies back to the sender.

What is a recruiting chatbot used for?

A recruiting/HR chatbot is used for many purposes, including:

  • Interview scheduling
  • Candidate sourcing
  • Automated screening
  • Employee referrals
  • Career site conversations
  • Text based recruiting
  • Candidate experience
  • Employee onboarding

Why use an HR chatbot?

You can use an HR chatbot to automate processes that normally require employee attention to make HR operations more efficient. This means saving recruiters time and decreasing time to fill. Besides time gains, companies also see a return on investment from getting more quality applicants in their funnel.

What major companies are using HR and recruiting chatbots?

Some major companies using HR and recruiting chatbots include:

  • IKEA
  • Netflix
  • Heineken
  • Hot Topic
  • McDonald’s
  • Arby’s
  • Cheesecake Factory

Key Metrics for HR Chatbots

Yes, we are data nerds here at SelectSoftware Reviews.  Here are the metrics we think you should be tracking for HR Chatbots, and why:

  • Conversion rate: What percent of career site visitors are converting into your ATS and talent communities - “We were getting 5% of traffic into the ATS prior to implementing the chatbot, and are now getting 7% which means 250 more applicants/week, 3 of which we hire on average.”
  • Quality of applicants: How many applicants are interview/hire worthy - “We were hiring 1% of applicants that applied through our career site, now it’s 3%.”  Many times HR bots can convince better talent to apply by answering questions and ushering them to the right place on a career site.
  • Chat engagement: What percent of visitors interact with your chat - “15% of career site visitors chat with our bot, which is around 200/month.”  You should look at this for different talent demographics, and different use cases.  Perhaps your sourcing to high volume candidates is great, but not so much for engineers.  Maybe your chatbot is great at entry level employee onboarding, but messes up when it comes to more senior hires.
  • Candidate NPS: Do candidates enjoy engaging with your chatbot - “Our candidate NPS for applicants has increased from 10% to 15%.”  Job seeker and employee experience are two of the most often overlooked (hence why most ATS’s on the market are terrible), but most important aspects of any WorkTech tool.
  • Time saved: HR and recruiting chatbots will save your team time, period.  How you measure this is an other story.  One way is to look at all of the tasks the hr bot was able to accomplish in a given period, and how long your team would’ve taken to do the same.  Another is to see the relative effectiveness of your team post-implementation: are recruiters hiring more people, are HR leaders able to get more done.  HR chatbots will take tasks off the plate for your HR department.

Beyond metrics, it’s important to make sure you are keeping your recruiting process human, despite your new found efficiency.  While unconscious bias should be eliminated through standardized automated screens, this can actually be exacerbated in edge cases.  Make sure you have sanity checks in place via metrics you track as opposed to letting artificial intelligence start to dominate your recruiting process.

Our Advice

Getting an HR Chatbot is a no brainer for talent acquisition teams.  This concept has absolutely exploded in the marketing realm during the last few years - how many times a day do you see a chatbot pop up on your screen from a company’s site?  They’re so popular because they work in driving leads down the funnel.  In the world of talent attraction, it’s the same concept - get more leads down the funnel by engaging passive candidates.

Beyond conversion, there are so many use cases a recruiting chatbot can help with.  What we have glossed over above are the non-recruiting jobs like onboarding, answering employee questions, new hire checkins, employee engagement, and internal mobility.  The best hr chatbots are extremely powerful, and only getting better.

If you’ve made it this far, you’re serious about adding an HR Chatbot to your recruiting tech stack.  Whether it’s to cut down on scheduling, and screening time, drive more applicants into the ATS, or one of the many other use cases, the next step will be to get a demo with one of our pre-vetted vendors to take a deep dive into their product.  You can use this spreadsheet to stay organized as you do demos.

About Us

  • Our goal at SSR is to help HR and recruiting teams to find and buy the right software for their needs.
  • Our site is free to use as some vendors will pay us for web traffic.
  • SSR lists all companies we feel are top vendors - not just those who pay us - in our comprehensive directories full of the advice needed to make the right purchase decision for your HR team.

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