Matthew Stewart: From Resume Pile to Shortlist in Minutes | Ep 1241

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:04][music] >> Welcome to Corazon Technologies, home of the Digital Executive Podcast. Do you work in emerging tech working on something innovative? Maybe an entrepreneur? Apply to be a guest at www.corazon.com/brand.

[00:00:23]Welcome to the Digital Executive.

[00:00:26]Today's guest is Matthew Stewart.

[00:00:28]Matthew Stewart is the founder of Talent Scout, an AI recruiter that automates first-round interviews for companies hiring at volume. Built on conversational voice AI, the platform runs natural human-sounding screening interviews 24/7 in more than 50 languages, then scores and ranks candidates across communication, domain experience, problem-solving, cultural fit, and professionalism, turning what used to be weeks of phone screens into that same-day shortlist. Well, good afternoon, Matthew. Welcome to the show.

[00:00:57]Hey, Brian. Thanks a lot for having me.

[00:00:59]Absolutely, my friend. I appreciate it.

[00:01:01]You're hailing out of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I'm in Kansas City. Appreciate you jumping on, making this work. I know you're just an hour ahead, which makes it a little bit easier, but again, most appreciated. And Matthew, if you don't mind, I'm going to jump right into your first question. You've built a career as a software engineer and product builder before founding Talent Scout. What experiences led you to focus on solving hiring challenges with AI? Yeah, so before founding Talent Scout, I had about a decade of experience building software and internet businesses. So, I spent a lot of time doing hiring, specifically offshore hiring. And for anyone who's done a lot of hiring, they know you just get like absolutely bombarded with applicants, and it's really hard to sort through the noise to see who's qualified or even who's real.

[00:01:50]So, I'm just finding I was spending hours on flipping through resumes, clicking on profiles, and if I was able to get a candidate on the call, it was very repetitive first-round screening calls where I was asking the same questions. And so, that's actually where the initial idea for Talent Scout came from. It was just a problem that I was experiencing in previous businesses. And yeah, the timing was was really perfect because the conversational AI technology is is finally good enough to actually conduct end-to-end voice interviews and evaluate candidates effectively. So, it was just kind of the perfect timing of problem and an opportunity identified and the technology, as well. Thank you.

[00:02:30]Appreciate that. And you found a gap there. Obviously, there's a lot of things we could fix in this world, but with your background in software development, and of course, helping with that hiring process, and a lot of times offshore developers, you you're just inundated with that those resumes, like you said, and and sorting through all that. But combining your experience with that, your your background as a developer, again, finding that gap in the market and and closing it. So, I really appreciate the backstory.

[00:03:01]And Matthew, Talent Scout automates first-round interviews using conversational voice AI. What specific inefficiencies in traditional recruiting were you most determined to eliminate?

[00:03:12]Yeah, so the problem or or bottleneck or inefficiency that Talent Scout really solves is not only saving the recruiter time that they spend on the actual interview process itself, but all the scheduling and admin work that goes into that first-round interview. So, the traditional flow for a recruiter would be a would reach out to the candidate, exchange a back-and-forth messaging to schedule a first-round interview, and then half the time a candidate might not show up or cancel last minute. And if they do finally show up to the interview, often times they're completely unqualified, or the recruiter finds himself asking the same questions over and over. And then after the call, they're forced to kind of evaluate the candidate on their memory. It's not a very structured or efficient process.

[00:03:58]With Talent Scout, so candidates simply get a link to an interview, they conduct it on their own time, and our AI conducts a natural-sounding conversation with the candidate, actually evaluates their responses in real time, and then delivers the recruiter or the hiring team a ranked shortlist with the recording and evaluation scorecard for every single candidate. So, it's a massive time-saver just on the interview process itself. All the scheduling and admin time is saved, as well. So, it's a huge time-saver, and it's also just more consistent at evaluating candidates at scale. That's awesome. And nowadays, especially if you're working offshore, different time zones, when you you move people to that self-service model, and in this case, you have a 100 to 1 or a 1,000 to 1 from a recruiter to candidates, right? So, that big bottleneck, you're absolutely saving the recruiter a ton of time with scheduling, etc. And I just like this model, and it's it's just great. So, thank you. And Matthew, many organizations worry that AI is in hiring may feel impersonal. How do you design voice AI experiences that still feel natural, human, and engaging for candidates? Yeah, so honestly, that's a a common response that using AI in hiring is a bit impersonal. And honestly, I I agree with a lot of it. AI is never going to feel as personal as talking to a human, and we're not trying to pretend otherwise. But there are a few things that we do at Talent Scout to make it as human as an experience as possible for the candidates. The first is our conversational format. So, like other options, this isn't a traditional one-way video recording. Our AI actually listens and conducts a conversation with smart follow-up questions with the candidate. And the second thing we do is we allow our users to upload a welcome video that candidates sees when they click on the interview link. So, this is usually just a short recording introducing a company and their team, and it just really adds a a human, personal feel to the interview experience. And the third thing that we do is we try to frame this actually as an opportunity and and communicate that to the candidates that this is an opportunity for them to showcase their personality and communication skills.

[00:06:18]And traditionally, you know, they would often just get rejected or screened based on a resume alone. So, what I actually would argue and and try to communicate to the candidates that this is actually an opportunity for them to showcase their personality, and I think actually adds a more human element often to the hiring process, not less. So, yeah, I think just overall, like we're not trying to replace recruiters at all.

[00:06:43]Our AI is is meant to help streamline their workflow and surface the top candidates, and then recruiters ultimately can make the final hiring decisions. Thank you. And I like how you said you're doing as much as you can with AI because, you know, you're not trying to replace the human, but you're trying to make it as human as possible, right? Trying to work hard to make this a conversational flow. I like how you also provide information, like a company introduction video for the candidate.

[00:07:11]Also, the candidate, this allows them to showcase their talent and and what their experience and knowledge is about. And again, I I just love the format. It really takes a lot of the extra work out of it, makes it more efficient, but also, I would say from my personal experience, it makes the candidate be a little bit more at ease, and therefore providing a better presentation of themselves. So, thank you.

[00:07:34]And Matthew, as we look ahead to the future, how do you see AI reshaping recruiting, talent evaluation, and the candidate experience over the next decade? And what role will platforms like Talent Talent Scout play in that transformation? Yeah, so I think, you know, like every industry, AI is going to be really transformational in recruiting over the next decade. For me, the way I look at it is AI is a tool that will be used by humans, not a replacement. So, I feel personally that human decision-making and the human feel and touch will still play a very big role in this process moving forward. But platforms like Talent Scout that implement AI will, again, help save recruiters time, cut through the noise, and same on the candidate side. I think it'll it'll save them a lot of time in their application process, as well. So, honestly, I'm I'm very optimistic about AI in recruit and over the next decade, I think it's going to lead to a better candidate experience and also a better hiring experience for companies. And I think overall, it's going to connect companies with the right talent more efficiently and ultimately lead to a more connected workforce. That's awesome. Appreciate that. Humans, obviously, will still play a big role in this process, as you mentioned, but AI is going to help and enhance the process. Again, having that machine-human team together, you're going to make this process not only more efficient, but a better customer experience. And AI is here to stay, as you know, good or bad, and that's another discussion, another another podcast, but I get into about the ethics and guardrails of of AI. But I I really appreciate your insights today, Matthew.

[00:09:13]And again, Matthew, it was such a pleasure having you on today, and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.

[00:09:19]Thank you so much, Brian. It was an absolute pleasure.

[00:09:21]Bye for now.

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