Classet

75% of HR leaders believe incorporating AI into their 2025 strategy is critical to stay competitive. But (checking the math here), that means 1 in 4 do not think AI will drive meaningful impact next year. It makes me wonder: Did 1 in 4 people think the internet wouldn’t be impactful back in 1995? And... how do you think that worked out for them?

Absolutely wild stat from American Staffing Association: 40% of Unemployed Job Seekers Report Not Having a SINGLE Job Interview in the Past Year How can this be, at a time where it seems nearly every business who hires hourly employees is *starved* for talent? Seems to me there is something incredibly broken with candidates going from the point of application to actually getting to a meaningful conversation with a recruiter...

Thanksgiving is a week away, but the job hunt never stops... Now I interview to be the guest of honor for a special celebration 🦃 Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Classet!

AI might be your next job interviewer. Interviewing is expensive. Companies pour time and $ on long, painful interview processes. New Andreessen Horowitz thesis from me and Olivia Moore on AI voice interviewers👇 1/ What’s wrong with interviewing today? Why would AI be better? Human interviews are costly. The average hire costs ~$5K, which is much higher for higher skill roles, and it doesn’t include hiring manager time (per SHRM data). Recruiters spend > 50% of their time on the screening process. Scheduling is slow - often taking weeks for a first screen, leaving candidates frustrated. AI agents, by contrast, can condense the process. 3/ But is AI good enough to conduct interviews? Voice and video calls have also made meaningful progress, just in the past 6 months. AI Interviewers can hold credible live conversations - and avatars are becoming indistinguishable from humans—far better than speaking into a void with the prior gen of video-recording interview software. 4/ AI interviewers are already being used for filling high volume roles. E.g. retail, QSR, temp, or customer service jobs - there’s a high volume of applicants, without great ways to quickly evaluate candidates (often resumes don’t help). Currently, many companies pay staffing agencies for this - it's a $654B global market, with 43 publicly listed staffing companies. 5/ AI can transform higher-skill hiring too.  Traditional recruiters often aren’t technical. An AI agent can be trained against specific skills and can screen candidates (like @lightscreenai does for coding) to complement the recruiter’s work. The experience can also be consistent across candidates, and they are timely with evaluation rubrics - and with as much detail as the company needs. 6/ Beyond interviewing more candidates, more efficiently, AI interviewers could improve decision-making quality. They can be more objective (unlike, say, a "hungry judge". No grading harshness due to bad sleep or personal issues. The notes are recorded real time and not based on recall several days later. 7/ So what happens to recruiters here? Recruiter can spend more time on the relationship building aspect. They can focus their time nurturing and selling the highest potential candidates. 7/ We expect many massive companies to emerge here, each tackling different recruiting aspects. We’re looking for startups with: - A strong POV on preserving (or even enhancing!) candidate experience - Integrations into the most relevant recruiting tools to sync data + make the AI recruiter as helpful as possible - Instincts on when to sell to staffing middlemen vs. going direct to employer 8/ If you're building in this space or you think we missed something, reach out to us at samble@a16z.com or omoore@a16z.com. 👋 Our DMs are open! Classet Layup Tengai ConverzAI HeyMilo AI Purplefish Ribbon Symphony (YC F24) Alpharun Apriora Wayfaster micro1 ScoreAI Talently.ai Mindely (YC S24) Lightscreen AI Screenify

Your next job interview may be with an AI. 🤯 Companies spend a ton of time and $ on interviews - often with low ROI. And, candidates suffer through long and painful processes. AI voice interviewers can fix this! Why are AI voice interviewers needed? Human interviews are costly. Per SHRM data, the average hire costs $5k - not including hiring manager time (this is way for higher skill roles!) They often take a while to schedule, and create a bad candidate experience. No one wants to wait weeks for a screening call. And for employers, these screening calls are low ROI - paying (expensive) humans to do a high volume of interviews, many of which have a fairly simple performance rubric. AI agents can handle an infinite number of interviews at once and at very low cost. And, AI can schedule (and even conduct) these interviews immediately after getting an application - catching candidates while they're "in market". In recent months, AI has progressed to the point where it can credibly conduct an interview. Most people who have had a real conversation with GPT-4o could imagine it directing a strong interview for many jobs. However, voice and video calls have also made meaningful progress - with some avatars approach near human standards. We expect several massive companies to be built in this space, targeting different types of recruiting. We're looking for startups with: - A strong POV on preserving (or even enhancing!) candidate experience - Integrations into the most relevant tools to "push" back data + make the AI interviewer as helpful as possible - Instincts on when to sell to staffing middlemen vs. going direct to employer If you're building here, reach out to me and Seema Amble. 👋 And if you're looking for an AI voice interviewer, there's a lot of exciting companies in this space already: Classet, Layup, Tengai, ConverzAI , HeyMilo AI, Purplefish, Ribbon, Symphony (YC F24), Alpharun, Apriora, Wayfaster, micro1, ScoreAI, Talently.ai, Mindely (YC S24), Lightscreen AI, Screenify.

One of our customers recently shared a story that truly captures the impact Classet is having on their team. A recruiter on their team felt confident taking an extended PTO, knowing that Joy was taking care of the heavy lifting. Instead of returning to a mountain of resumes and uncontacted applicants, Joy ensured that every candidate was pre-screened and ready for next steps.  ✅ Peace of mind while away.  ✅ Every candidate feeling engaged immediately.  ✅ Time saved where it matters most. At Classet, we’re not just building tools—we’re transforming the way recruiters work, giving them back time to focus on what they do best: connecting with the right candidates. What would it mean for your team to leave the admin behind and put the joy back into recruiting? #Recruiting #AI #TalentAcquisition #Classet #Innovation

Kevin Wheeler at ERE conference: Big opportunity for RPO to become defacto resource for employers to leverage cutting edge AI #recruiting

Ever wondered what it’s like to be a Snowcat Mechanic? Keeping runs groomed is no easy task. One day you’re working on a million-dollar snowcat, the next on a 90's snowmobile. There are an insane number of skilled trades jobs involved in running a ski resort. All the infrastructure involved in crazy harsh environments kind of makes the $200 lift ticket price make sense: - Lift Mechanics - Snowcat Operators - Snowmakers - Electricians - HVAC Technicians - Carpenters - Plumbers - Vehicle Mechanics - Heavy Equipment Operators - Rope Technicians - Patrol Rescue Technicians - Landscape Technicians - Welders - Masonry Workers - Painters - IT and Network Technicians - Construction Crews - Those retired dudes who stand around in ski boots all day and greet guests (pretty sure that is a skilled trade, can you confirm Paul Newby?) Pretty hard to imagine AI scaling a ski slope and fixing a snowcat at -6 degrees anytime soon but maybe Classet can help you hire these yeti experts 😉. #TradeLife #MechanicLife #SnowcatMechanic #HeavyEquipment #TradesJobs #SnowLife #SkiPassPerks #MountainMechanic #Classet #JobsInTrades #skilledtrades #mechanic #careeradvice

Really enjoyed getting to present at the RPOA Conference! #rpoacon2024 It was exciting to hear how RPOs and their clients are thinking about leveraging AI not only to streamline their hiring processes but also to enhance the candidate experience. Building an engaging candidate experience is core to our mission at Classet, so it was great to see these priorities being discussed and embraced by industry leaders. Shoutout to Lamees Abourahma and Jason Krumwiede for running a really engaging and fun conference. Looking forward to staying connected and building on the great conversations from the conference!

🚀 Biggest Takeaways from HR Tech, American Staffing Association, Staffing Industry Analysts & Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association (RPOA) Conferences! 🚀 Reflecting on an eye-opening few weeks in HR Tech, here’s what stood out: 1️⃣ AI Overload: "AI vomit" was everywhere—seems every tool has an AI sticker slapped on it now, making it hard to separate true innovation from fluff. At its core, AI should automate repetitive tasks, freeing us up for the human touch that matters. 2️⃣ The top question we heard: What AI software is best? Many know they need AI but aren’t sure how it truly fits. The best place to start isn’t with "AI," but with real, recurring pains. Recruiters know their pain points well, and starting there makes for a smoother AI adoption vs. adding AI for the sake of AI. 3️⃣ Audit Time-Drains: Before investing, do a team time audit. Find where the real time syncs lie. Do a week long audit of your time or you teams time to see where you spend the most time. Sometimes your admin work like chasing down candidates, responding to messages, and phone tag can take longer than you think. 4️⃣ Test Before Trusting: AI products often come with big promises, but we’ve learned the hard way: always demand a demo or pilot. This avoids exaggerated claims and surprises down the line especially when dealing with integrations which can come with hidden fees from your ATS. 5️⃣ Pilot with KPIs: Once a problem is identified, set clear KPIs that tie back to your team time audit. A small test can reveal real efficiency gains—or lack thereof—before scaling up. Test if savings scale with rollout to avoid surprise bills that don’t translate to real ROI. 6️⃣ Bias & Legal Concerns: Bias in AI is still misunderstood in recruiting. With regulations on the horizon, keeping humans in the loop is essential. AI should assist, not replace, human review, ensuring fairness and legal compliance. 7️⃣ No Replacement for In-Person Connections: In a world flooded with cold emails and LinkedIn spam, genuine in-person connections are invaluable. While conferences come with a price tag, B2B industries are a bit behind on AI adoption—meeting people directly and seeing real demos is unmatched for building trust and getting the word out. There’s a lot to navigate when trying to add AI to your recruiting workflow, but these insights will help shape our approach. Looking forward to seeing where HR tech takes us next! #HRTech #AIBestPractices #Recruiting #FutureOfWork #HR #AIInterviews #AIHiring Johnny Rooney Nick Jones