Every recruiter I’ve met says the same thing: first-round screening eats their week.
You schedule, repeat the same questions, take notes — and still wish you had more signal, less noise.
In early 2025, I decided to fix that by building an AI recruiter that conducts voice and video interviews automatically, analyzes responses, and delivers instant scoring.
This is how I built TalentSprout.ai — from architecture to lessons learned and what’s next for AI hiring.
The Problem: First-Round Interviews Don’t Scale
Who it affects: Talent teams and recruiters screening dozens of applicants weekly.
The pain points:
- Repetitive early-stage interviews that test the same basics
- Inconsistent notes and bias creeping into evaluations
- Slow time-to-hire due to manual scheduling
Why AI: The first 10 minutes of every interview are structured and predictable — perfect for automation.
How: Make it human, keep evaluations structured, and show your work with transparent scoring.
The Core Idea: A “First-Round” That Runs Itself
I didn’t want another chatbot. I wanted a conversational interviewer that speaks, listens, and produces a structured scorecard.
Core principles:
- Natural voice & video — no robotic lag
- Transparent scoring for communication, problem-solving, and culture fit
- Human-in-the-loop — recruiters decide; AI assists
- Consent and privacy first
The Stack (in Simple Terms)
Frontend: Next.js for speed and smooth UX
Realtime AI: Low-latency OpenAI Realtime API for natural flow
Transcription: Streaming STT → semantic parsing → rubric scoring
Storage: Encrypted, multi-tenant
Integrations: ATS + webhook sync
These choices balance speed, fairness, and reliability.
Resources:
The Interview Flow
- Invite & Consent → Candidate opens secure link
- Warm-up → AI sets tone & confirms expectations
- Interview → Adaptive questions escalate by complexity
- Understanding Check → AI summarizes response for accuracy
- Scoring → Communication, problem-solving, and culture contribution
- Report → Structured scorecard with highlights
👉 Try it live at TalentSprout.ai
Making It Fair: From “Gut Feel” to Transparent Criteria
We wanted to reduce bias without pretending AI eliminates it.
We do:
- Use consistent question sets
- Define “good” in advance with rubrics
- Exclude demographic signals
- Flag low-confidence outputs for review
We don’t:
- Auto-reject candidates
- Rank people — only responses
📖 For deeper reading: EEOC Guidance on AI in Hiring
Lessons From Shipping TalentSprout
- Start narrow. Nail one role type before scaling.
- Over-communicate. Transparency builds trust with candidates.
- Show your work. Timestamped evidence makes AI insights auditable.
- Tune interview length. Short = efficient; too long = fatigue.
- Build multilingual early. 50+ languages opened global demand.
What It Means for Hiring Teams
- Save hours per week with automated first-rounds
- Consistent, structured evaluations
- Faster feedback loops → shorter time-to-hire
- Better candidate experience — interview anytime
🔗 Learn more about scoring and reports here: TalentSprout.ai/how-it-works
The Future of AI Recruiting
Next frontier:
- Smarter follow-ups that probe deeper
- Richer signals (tone, pacing, context — transparently used)
- Custom rubrics teams can version and tune
- Human-in-the-loop always
AI won’t replace recruiters — it’ll give them time back to connect with people and make smarter hiring decisions.
That’s why I built TalentSprout.ai — to automate the repetitive first ten minutes so humans can focus on what actually matters.
Let’s Talk
If you’re building in HR tech or curious about AI in hiring, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Drop a comment below or DM me on LinkedIn.
Or try an AI interview yourself at TalentSprout.ai
Top comments (1)
Hey everyone - I’m Matthew, the founder and engineer behind TalentSprout.ai. I built it earlier this year to solve a problem I saw everywhere: recruiters spending hours on first-round interviews that could easily be automated.
This piece walks through how I approached it, from the architecture to the human-in-the-loop design. I’d love to hear what you think about where AI fits best in the hiring process.