Web and phone AI interview agent for a high-volume labour hire company

The challenge

ScoutUp, a high-volume labour hire company, was screening hundreds of candidates every week. Recruiters spent most of their time running first-round screens, asking the same qualifying questions and writing up notes, which left little room for the judgement calls that actually needed a human.

Two problems compounded each other. The manual screening load was heavy and repetitive, and because interviews were run by different people under time pressure, the questions and the scoring were not consistent from one candidate to the next. That made it harder to compare candidates fairly and slowed every downstream decision.

The solution

Calico built an AI interview agent that candidates could complete by phone or on the web, so people could be screened whenever it suited them rather than waiting for a recruiter to be free.

For phone interviews, the agent calls the candidate directly. For candidates who cannot use a phone, there is a web-based interview that works like a Teams call with the agent instead of a person, including real-time transcription and the ability to repeat a question or go back. Either way the candidate answers a structured question set configured for the specific role, so everyone applying for the same job is asked the same things in the same way.

Those question sets range from how the interview itself is structured through to deep, role-specific technical questions. Each candidate’s answers are then assessed with LLM-based evaluations against consistent criteria, producing a structured summary and score rather than free-form notes. Results connect through to the recruiter’s existing tools: the system integrates with a number of applicant tracking systems, such as Loxo, to keep candidate records up to date automatically.

The outcome

The agent now runs more than 200 interviews a week, screening candidates around the clock without adding recruiter headcount. Administrative time on screening dropped by 72%, freeing recruiters to focus on the candidates and decisions that need human judgement.

Because every candidate answers the same structured questions and is assessed against the same criteria, screening is more consistent and easier to compare. Satisfaction held up on both sides, with customers and candidates rating the experience 4.4 out of 5.