This is certainly a new way to recruit. How has it affected you as recruitment professionals?

We've really had to look at ourselves to understand how we conduct interviews – which movements, facial expressions, and words we use to confirm talent as humans and as candidates. We've gone to great lengths to analyse the questions that the robot should ask. It has been very important that the questions are as clear and as concrete as possible. Tengai struggles with ambiguity, so the less vagueness there is in a candidate's answer, the better Tengai is to evaluate and validate the skill sets.

You have said that it would be good for all recruiters to partake in this work. Why?

All recruiters work old-school – and old-school skills need to be questioned in a world where the tech development gets faster by the day. It's useful to evaluate yourself, the way you work on a daily basis and your interview techniques. Even if we tend to think that we do a great job for our clients and candidates, there are always things that can be better. You just need to dare to challenge yourself. We need lifelong learning, even in the recruitment industry. As we've taught Tengai social codes, we've become aware of how we behave in similar situations with people, both that we know and don't know.

How does a series of questions asked by Tengai differ from one by a human?

There's no capacity for extra words or narrative that isn't directly linked to a question that Tengai has asked. All questions are asked in exactly the same way, in the same tone and typically in the same order. That way, it's a more fair and objective interview. A hiring manager would deviate from this formula, adjusting to the candidates' responses and thereby extracting more from them, which makes the process unfair. Additionally, as a human, they are also influenced and affected by unconscious bias about the candidates, and subject to their own preconceptions and subjective interpretations. With Tengai, this is avoided.

Learn more about Tengai's progress at tng.se/blogg/tengai