AI-powered HrTech of the Week - KWIKS

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HrTech startup: KWIKS

1. Can you tell us about yourself and your role?

Hello, I am Amine Khayatei, founder & CEO of KWIKS.

2. When was KWIKS founded?

KWIKS was founded in 2022.

3. Can you give us a brief introduction to your company and its mission?

KWIKS is a SaaS recruitment platform that offers fast and seamless access to a global network of independent headhunters who specialize by sector and region.

Our mission is to transform the hiring process by making it more accessible, efficient, and fair for both businesses and candidates.

At KWIKS, we combine technological innovation with fairness. Through advanced AI solutions like our R2DS system, we streamline the process of matching talent with companies, eliminating biases, and empowering independent recruiters to earn income in a flexible, global environment.

Our goal is to reshape the global recruitment landscape, connecting businesses with the right talent regardless of their location.

4. What is your company's North Star metric?

Our North Star metric is the number of successful hires made through our platform.

This metric directly reflects the core value we provide to businesses—connecting them with the right talent, quickly and effectively.

It allows us to measure the tangible impact we are making in solving recruitment challenges for our clients, while ensuring a quality experience for both companies and candidates.

5. How did KWIKS get started, and what inspired its creation?

KWIKS was born out of 2 main observations: businesses were struggling to find the right talent quickly, especially across borders, while independent headhunters, despite their expertise, had difficulty connecting with clients and securing steady income.

We envisioned a platform that could bridge this gap by connecting businesses with specialized, independent recruiters on a global scale.

Leveraging AI technology, we sought to make recruitment faster, more accessible, and more equitable—helping companies find the best talent and empowering recruiters to thrive in a flexible work environment. KWIKS brings this vision to life, enabling businesses to scale efficiently by accessing top talent, while giving independent recruiters the tools they need to succeed.

6. What HR solutions does KWIKS offer, and how are they AI-powered?

KWIKS offers a range of AI-powered HR solutions aimed at simplifying recruitment for businesses:

1. Global Marketplace for Independent Recruiters: We provide businesses access to a global network of independent headhunters, specialized by sector and region. Our AI-driven platform analyzes job requirements and matches companies with the most relevant recruiters for their specific needs.
2. AI-Driven Candidate Matching: Our AI algorithms evaluate and structure candidate data, creating anonymized profiles that eliminate biases. This ensures companies focus on the most qualified candidates based on skills and experience.
3. Real-Time Reporting and Analytics: Companies can track their recruitment progress through our real-time dashboard, with AI analyzing performance metrics to help optimize recruitment strategies.
4. Talent Marketplace: Businesses can build their own pre-vetted talent pools within KWIKS, with our AI continuously updating candidate profiles to ensure relevance for future hiring needs.

By harnessing AI for recruiter matching, candidate screening, and bias elimination, KWIKS helps companies save time and improve the quality of their hires, while accessing top talent globally.

7. What are some key milestones?

KWIKS’s major milestone came in 2024 when we secured an investment of $817,000, helping us accelerate our growth and product development.

8. What is your strategic approach to AI technology?

At KWIKS, we employ a hybrid approach to AI, combining in-house development of proprietary models with the integration of external AI solutions.

1. Proprietary AI Models: We develop customized AI solutions, such as our R2DS system, tailored specifically for recruitment. This gives us full control over the precision, scalability, and ethical standards of our algorithms. We're also working on an AI-driven interview solution that analyzes both verbal and non-verbal communication to assess candidates’ soft skills.
2. Integrating External AI: We leverage external AI technologies, such as those from OpenAI and Microsoft Azure, for tasks like natural language processing (NLP) and speech-to-text conversion. This allows us to integrate cutting-edge technologies while focusing on our unique, specialized AI advancements.

This combination allows KWIKS to remain agile, innovative, and scalable, delivering recruitment solutions that meet the evolving needs of our clients.

9. What is your strategic approach to AI technology? Developing proprietary models in-house versus integrating external AI solutions?

At KWIKS, our approach to AI technology follows a hybrid model, combining the development of in-house proprietary AI solutions with the integration of external AI technologies where it adds significant value.

1. Developing Proprietary AI Models:

• We prioritize building our own AI models, like R2DS, to fully customize the recruitment experience for our users. Our proprietary AI is designed to address the complexities of recruitment, including candidate matching and bias elimination. By developing these solutions internally, we maintain full control over the precision, ethics, and scalability of our algorithms, ensuring they meet our platform’s unique objectives.
• For example, our upcoming AI Visio solution will automate and enhance candidate interviews, analyzing both verbal and non-verbal communication to provide deeper insights into candidates' soft skills.

2. Integrating External AI Solutions:

• Simultaneously, we leverage external AI technologies from trusted providers like OpenAI and Microsoft Azure for specific functionalities such as natural language processing (NLP) and speech-to-text conversion. This enables us to incorporate cutting-edge technologies into our platform without duplicating efforts, driving faster innovation and helping us remain competitive in an evolving market.

Why this approach?

• Customization: In-house development allows us to tailor AI features to meet our specific needs and values.
• Efficiency: By using external solutions for general AI tasks, we can focus our internal efforts on specialized, proprietary advancements.
• Scalability: This combined approach enables KWIKS to scale rapidly while continually refining our AI capabilities to meet the demands of our clients.

This hybrid strategy allows KWIKS to stay agile, delivering innovative recruitment solutions while utilizing the best available technology.

10. What were the biggest challenges in integrating AI into your products, and how did you address them? Buy vs Build?

Integrating AI into KWIKS has been both exciting and challenging. The major challenges we encountered revolved around data quality and bias in candidate matching, and the buy vs build decision for our AI solutions.

1. Challenge: Data Quality and Bias in Candidate Matching

• Problem: Recruitment depends on accurate and unbiased data. A significant challenge we faced was ensuring that our AI models were trained on diverse, high-quality data to prevent reinforcing biases in candidate selection (e.g., based on gender, race, or background).
• Solution: We developed proprietary data cleaning and structuring models, such as R2DS, to anonymize candidate profiles and focus on skills and experience. This ensures that candidates are evaluated on merit alone. We regularly test our algorithms for bias and make adjustments to uphold fairness.

2. Challenge: The Buy vs Build Dilemma

• Problem: Deciding whether to build AI models in-house or integrate external solutions was a key strategic decision. While proprietary AI offers more customization, it requires significant resources, whereas external AI solutions can be quickly integrated but limit control.
• Solution: We adopted a hybrid approach. For specialized features core to our recruitment process, like candidate matching and recruiter allocation, we developed proprietary AI models to maintain control and ensure precision. For more general tasks, such as NLP or speech-to-text conversion in our upcoming AI Visio solution, we integrated external AI platforms like OpenAI and Microsoft Azure to accelerate development.

Buy vs Build Strategy:

• Build: We created proprietary AI models for candidate anonymization, skill-based matching, and recruiter validation to ensure these features met our users' needs.
• Buy: For non-core tasks, we integrated best-in-class external solutions, allowing us to focus internal resources on the areas that make KWIKS unique.

This flexible hybrid strategy has allowed us to balance control, innovation, and speed, ensuring KWIKS leverages the best AI technologies while staying true to our vision.

11. How does your company ensure its AI systems are unbiased and ethical?

At KWIKS, ensuring our AI systems are unbiased and ethical is a top priority. We are committed to creating recruitment solutions that promote fairness, diversity, and inclusion. Here’s how we address these critical issues:

1. Anonymized Candidate Profiles:

• Our AI-driven R2DS system anonymizes candidate profiles, removing personal identifiers such as name, gender, age, and location. This ensures that recruiters evaluate candidates purely based on their skills, qualifications, and experience, minimizing unconscious bias during the initial screening process.

2. Bias Testing and Continuous Monitoring:

• We conduct regular bias audits on our AI models to identify and correct any discriminatory patterns. This includes testing for skewed outcomes based on demographic factors such as gender or ethnicity. If bias is detected, we adjust the training processes to eliminate it. Our algorithms are retrained frequently with diverse data to prevent biases from influencing the system.

3. Inclusive Data Sources:

• We carefully curate and source data from diverse and representative pools to ensure our AI models cater to a wide range of candidates across different backgrounds, industries, and regions. This prevents our algorithms from being overly influenced by any specific demographic or industry.

4. Human Oversight and Expertise:

• We maintain a human-in-the-loop approach, ensuring that AI works alongside independent headhunters who validate the final candidate selections. This dual evaluation—AI plus human expertise—ensures that hiring decisions are ethically reviewed and not solely driven by algorithms.

5. Transparency and Accountability:

• We are committed to transparency in how our AI systems make decisions. Clients have visibility into the criteria and data points used to match candidates, fostering trust and ensuring accountability throughout the recruitment process.

By combining anonymization, ongoing bias testing, inclusive data, and human oversight, KWIKS ensures that our AI systems are both unbiased and ethical, promoting fair and inclusive hiring practices for all.

12. What feedback have you received from clients about your solution(s), and how has it shaped your product going forward?

Client feedback at KWIKS has been instrumental in shaping and refining our solutions. Here’s a summary of the key feedback and how it has influenced our product development:

1. Need for Faster Recruitment Turnaround:

• Client Feedback: Many clients initially expressed a need for a faster recruitment process, especially when filling multiple roles in a short timeframe.
• Our Response: We enhanced our real-time candidate matching capabilities through our R2DS AI system. By refining our algorithms and expanding our network of independent recruiters, we significantly reduced the time needed to find and present qualified candidates.

2. Desire for Greater Transparency in the Recruitment Process:

• Client Feedback: Clients wanted more visibility into how candidates were matched and the status of each search.
• Our Response: We introduced a real-time recruitment dashboard where clients can track job postings, view matched candidates, and monitor recruiter performance. This feature has been praised for increasing transparency and control.

3. Bias-Free Candidate Selection:

• Client Feedback: Clients were concerned about unconscious bias in the recruitment process and wanted assurance that selections were fair and merit-based.
• Our Response: We strengthened our anonymized candidate matching process, ensuring that personal identifiers like gender, age, or ethnicity are excluded, and focusing solely on skills and experience. This has been particularly valued by clients who prioritize diversity and inclusion.

4. Global Talent Access:

• Client Feedback: Several clients needed to recruit across borders and access talent in different regions without navigating local recruitment complexities.
• Our Response: We expanded our network of local, independent recruiters across multiple regions, enabling clients to recruit efficiently in international markets.

5. User-Friendly Interface:

• Client Feedback: Some clients expressed a need for a more intuitive user interface, particularly for users less familiar with technology.
• Our Response: We improved our user interface by streamlining navigation, enhancing the dashboard design, and making it easier for clients to post jobs, track progress, and communicate with recruiters.

13. How This Shaped Our Product:

Client feedback has been vital in driving improvements in:

• Speed and Efficiency: Faster recruitment through better AI matching and recruiter coordination.
• Transparency: Real-time dashboards give clients more control.
• Diversity and Inclusion: Anonymized profiles ensure bias-free hiring.
• Global Expansion: Access to international talent via local recruiters.
• Usability: A more intuitive and user-friendly platform.

By actively listening to clients, KWIKS continuously adapts to better meet their needs, improving speed, transparency, and accessibility.

14. Please provide relevant financial data and KPIs (e.g., growth rate, ROI).

We acquire over 60 new companies each month, with a goal of surpassing 600.

15. Provide a link to your product demo