In 2023, the world embraced the transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI) more than ever before. With the explosion of ChatGPT into individualsā pockets at the end of last year, weāve seen interest and trust in AI solutions from organizations skyrocket.
The year 2023 stands as a testament to the potential of AI in creating an enriched, unbiased, and empowering hiring experience.
Weāve compiled the highlights that have made this year our most exciting so far ā click the button below to immerse yourself in the year thatās been.
The Sapia.ai Difference: Our Candidate Experience
Numbers speak louder than words. And our 2023 candidate numbers resound with success. Almost 1.4 million candidates shared their stories this year in a Chat Interview, giving every one of them a fair and equal chance at success.
450,000 candidates completed a Video Interview, giving them the chance to share more about who they are, and enabling hiring teams to āmeetā shortlisted candidates at a time that suited them.
Of the candidates who started a Chat Interview, 91.8% completed it, showing that candidates appreciate the opportunity to open up and bring their real and best selves when applying for a job.
The impact that allowing candidates to interview, and receive personalised feedback that they can use in their lives and careers, is huge.
Not only did 96% of candidates find the feedback they received useful, but the follow-on effect to our customerās brands is a testament to the visionary talent leaders seeing the benefits of investing in their candidate experience.
79% employer brand advocacy and 84% consumer brand advocacy show how a candidateās experience with AI, when curated in a respectful, low-pressure way, can positively impact your consumer brand.
Reducing Bias: A Key Achievement in 2023
One of the most significant pillars of our mission that weāre proud of is our unwavering commitment to reducing bias in the hiring process. In 2023, weāve made substantial strides in ensuring that every candidate gets a fair chance, regardless of their background, making the hiring process more equitable and just.
In March of 2023, independent research was published that underscored the transformative impact of Sapia.ai in workplaces. The study highlighted how our platform significantly reduces the gender gap in technology hiring, a traditionally male-dominated sector. This research serves as a testament to our commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion, and our unwavering pursuit to level the playing field in the recruitment process.
The strides weāve made with Sapia.ai are not just about challenging the status quo; they are about shaping a future where opportunities are boundless, and talent is recognized, irrespective of gender, ethnicity, age, or any other irrelevant piece of information about a person other than their potential to perform in the role.
Customer Impact: The True Measure of Our Success
Our customerās satisfaction is the heartbeat of Sapia.ai. And in 2023, the pulse is strong. Our customer testimonials echo our commitment to excellence in the hiring process. They tell a story of transformed hiring experiences, saved time and resources, and how Sapia.ai has been a game-changer for businesses.
You can read our testimonials in our Year in Review highlight here.
By automating the screening and assessment of candidates, weāve made a remarkable difference in streamlining the recruitment process. This year, weāre proud to share that weāve saved each recruiter and hiring manager who uses Sapia.ai almost 30 hours per month. This has not only led to improved efficiency but has allowed hiring teams to focus more on their people. The time saved translates to increased productivity, enhanced candidate experience, and a more personable approach to hiring.
New Customer Partnerships: Strengthening Our Reach in 2023
This year, we had the pleasure of welcoming some esteemed brands to our growing network. These organizations are not just our valued clients; they are visionary leaders who embrace Responsible AI to make the hiring process better and more equitable.
Weāre proud to collaborate with Kmart and Target Australia, global entities renowned for their commitment to diversity and fairness. Starbucks Australia, another of our prestigious customers, is making strides in efficient, responsible hiring practices with our platform. Weāre also excited about our global partnerships with Joe & the Juice, a dynamic and innovative brand with a presence across the UK, Europe, and the US; Edge, an American organization known for its forward-thinking leadership; and Ecentric Payments, a pioneer in the South African digital payment solutions sector.
These partnerships demonstrate our shared vision to transform the hiring landscape, making it fairer and more efficient for all.
Expanding Our Integrations in 2023
This year, we also made meaningful strides in strengthening our partnerships with other major organizations in the HR space.
Weāre thrilled to announce the successful completion of our integrations this year with SAP SuccessFactors, LiveHire, iCIMS, and Avature.
These partnerships have been instrumental in expanding our reach and capabilities. Through these integrations, we can now offer a seamless, comprehensive experience encompassing every stage of the hiring process for users of these platforms.
This simplifies the recruitment workflow and ensures a smooth, hassle-free journey for both candidates and hiring teams.
Product Innovations of 2023
In April we introduced our multilingual capability, starting with French and Spanish, and rapidly expanding to Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Italian, and Swedish. This significant expansion in our language offering for candidates facilitates easier communication for speakers of languages other than English fostering inclusivity and paving the way for a more diverse talent pool. The ability to accommodate various languages is instrumental in meeting our goal of making hiring equitable and accessible on a global scale.
In July we uplifted the review section of our Video Interviews, enabling a panel-style review process with multi-assessor capability. With new permissions sets that ensure hiring managers can only see their ratings, this feature helps to reduce the possibility of conformity bias, encouraging hiring managers to rate candidates solely based on their perspective and not be influenced by othersā opinions.
Also in July, we achieved a significant milestone with the development of our first proprietary large language model, which played a crucial role in the creation of our innovative Artificially Generated Text Detector. This language model, built with advanced machine-learning techniques, represents a significant leap forward in our commitment to innovation in AI. It can differentiate human-like text from artificially generated text, thanks to our large collection of human answers.
The detector can efficiently and effectively scan for artificial content, created with tools like ChatGPT. This innovative feature has been instrumental in ensuring the authenticity of our Chat Interview, reducing plagiarism by an astounding 78% almost overnight. By curbing plagiarism, we ensure each candidate has a fair opportunity to showcase their unique skills and competencies; and preserve the integrity of our platform in maintaining fairness in the recruitment process.
In October we launched Talent Hub, a game-changing feature that has accelerated the shortlisting process for recruiters and hiring managers. This tool provides a central hub for all Sapia.ai insights and data, reducing the clicks to review and progress a candidate by an impressive 75%. Now, the entire recruitment process is faster, smoother, and more efficient than ever before.
This month we released SMS reminders, which will help to boost our already industry-leading completion rates, enabling our customers to assess a broader talent pool.
Lastly, one of the most exciting innovations to have kicked off in 2023 was the proof of concept of Phai, our career site chatbot powered by generative AI.
Our customers have been crying out for us to bring the power of chat earlier in the candidate journey, connecting with candidates on a personalized level from the moment they land on the career site. Phai is the first step in this direction, with general availability slated for Q1, 2024; and a roadmap of functionality planned that will elevate the candidate experience even further.
To interact with Phai, simply click the chat button on the bottom left of your browser window.
Global Recognition: Our Scientific Research
In 2023, our efforts in scientific research and practical application of AI garnered global recognition, amplifying our commitment to innovation and responsible AI. We were profoundly honored to have had the opportunity to present four research papers at the 2023 Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) annual conference, the leading global event for I/O psychologists.
This recognition underscores our dedication to rigorous scientific research and our quest for knowledge, driving us to continue exploring new frontiers. We are also thrilled to announce the news that 6 research papers from Sapia.ai have been accepted for presentations at the 2024 SIOP conference and a poster at the NVIDIA GTC conference, one of the leading venues for showcasing Gen AI innovations.
Moreover, our work has been acknowledged by the National AI Centre in Australia, emphasized in a recent paper on the countryās expanding AI ecosystem. This recognition serves as a testament to our impactful contributions to the Responsible AI ecosystem in Australia and beyond. It also highlights our pivotal role in shaping the future of AI and its practical applications, further reinforcing our commitment to enhancing the recruitment process using ethical AI.
Looking Forward to 2024
As we reflect on an extraordinary 2023, weāre filled with immense gratitude for our partnerships, innovations, and recognitions that have shaped the year.
Leaping into 2024, we have some incredibly exciting plans shaping up that will elevate the experience for candidates and hiring teams and move us closer to achieving our mission of using ethical AI to make hiring fairer, more efficient, and more effective.
Related
Blog
New Research Proves the Value of AI Hiring
A new study has just confirmed what many in HR have long suspected: traditional psychometric tests are no longer the gold standard for hiring.
Published in Frontiers in Psychology, the research compared AI-powered, chat-based interviews to traditional assessments, finding that structured, conversational AI interviews significantly reduce social desirability bias, deliver a better candidate experience, and offer a fairer path to talent discovery.
Weāve always believed hiring should be about understanding people and their potential, rather than reducing them to static scores. This latest research validates that approach, signalling to employers what modern, fair and inclusive hiring should look like.
The problem with traditional psychometric tests
While used for many decades in the absence of a more candidate-first approach, psychometric testing has some fatal flaws.
For starters, these tests rely heavily on self-reporting. Candidates are expected to assess their own traits. Could you truly and honestly rate how conscientious you are, how well you manage stress, or how likely you are to follow rules? Human beings are nuanced, and in high-stakes situations like job applications, most people are answering to impress, which can lead to less-than-honest self-evaluations.
This is known as social desirability bias: a tendency to respond in ways that are perceived as more favourable or acceptable, even if they donāt reflect reality. In other words, traditional assessments often capture a version of the candidate thatās curated for the test, not the person who will show up to work.
Worse still, these assessments can feel cold, transactional, even intimidating. They do little to surface communication skills, adaptability, or real-world problem solving, the things that make someone great at a job. And for many candidates, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, the format itself can feel exclusionary.
The Rise of Chat-Based Interviews
Enter conversational AI.
Organisations have been using chat-based interviews to assess talent since before 2018, and they offer a distinctly different approach.
Rather than asking candidates to rate themselves on abstract traits, they invite them into a structured, open-ended conversation. This creates space for candidates to share stories, explain their thinking, and demonstrate how they communicate and solve problems.
The format reduces stress and pressure because it feels more like messaging than testing. Candidates can be more authentic, and their responses have been proven to reveal personality traits, values, and competencies in a context that mirrors honest workplace communication.
Importantly, every candidate receives the same questions, evaluated against the same objective, explainable framework. These interviews are structured by design, evaluated by AI models like Sapia.aiās InterviewBERT, and built on deep language analysis. That means better data, richer insights, and a process that works at scale without compromising fairness.
Key Findings from the Latest Research
The new study, published in Frontiers in Psychology, put AI-powered, chat-based interviews head-to-head with traditional psychometric assessments, and the results were striking.
One of the most significant takeaways was that candidates are less likely to āfake goodā in chat interviews. The study found that AI-led conversations reduce social desirability bias, giving a more honest, unfiltered view of how people think and express themselves. Thatās because, unlike multiple-choice questionnaires, chat-based assessments donāt offer obvious ārightā answers ā itās on the candidate to express themselves authentically and not guess teh answer they think they would be rewarded for.
The research also confirmed what our candidate feedback has shown for years: people actually enjoy this kind of assessment. Participants rated the chat interviews as more engaging, less stressful, and more respectful of their individuality. In a hiring landscape where candidate experience is make-or-break, this matters.
And while traditional psychometric tests still show higher predictive validity in isolated lab conditions, the researchers were clear: real-world hiring decisions canāt be reduced to prediction alone. Fairness, transparency, and experience matter just as much, often more, when building trust and attracting top talent.
Sapia.ai was spotlighted in the study as a leader in this space, with our InterviewBERT model recognised for its ability to interpret candidate responses in a way thatās explainable, responsible, and grounded in science.
Why Trust and Candidate Agency Win
Today, hiring has to be about earning trust and empowering candidates to show up as their full selves, and having a voice in the process.
Traditional assessments often strip candidates of agency. Theyāre asked to conform, perform, and second-guess what the ārightā answer might be. Chat-based interviews flip that dynamic. By inviting candidates into an open conversation, they offer something rare in hiring: autonomy. Candidates can tell their story, explain their thinking, and share how they approach real-world challenges, all in their own words.
This signals respect from the employer. It says: We trust you to show us who you are.
Hiring should be a two-way street ā a long-held belief weāve had, now backed by peer-reviewed science. The new research confirms that AI-led interviews can reduce bias, enhance fairness, and give candidates control over how theyāre seen and evaluated.
Blog
AI Maturity in the Enterprise
Barb Hyman, CEO & Founder, Sapia.ai
Itās time for a new way to map progress in AI adoption, and pilots are not it.
Over the past year, Iāve been lucky enough to see inside dozens of enterprise AI programs. As a CEO, founder, and recently, judge in the inaugural Australian Financial Review AI Awards.
And hereās what struck me:
Despite the hype, we still donāt have a shared language for AI maturity in business.
Some companies are racing ahead. Others are still building slide decks. But the real issue is that even the orgs that are ādoing AIā often donāt know what good looks like.
You donāt need more pilots. You need a maturity model.
The most successful AI adoption strategy does not have you buying the hottest Gen AI tool or spinning up a chatbot to solve one use case. What it should do is build organisational capability in AI ethics, AI governance, data, design, and most of all, leadership.
Itās time we introduced a real AI Maturity Model. Not a checklist. A considered progression model. Something that recognises where your organisation is today and what needs to evolve next, safely, responsibly, and strategically.
Hereās an early sketch based on what Iāve seen:
The 5 Stages of AI Maturity (for real enterprises)
- Curious
- Awareness is growing across leadership
- Experimentation led by innovation teams
- Risk is unclear, appetite is cautious
- AI is seen as ātechā
- Reactive
- Gen AI introduced via vendors or tools (e.g., copilots, agents)
- Some pilots show promise, but with limited scale or guardrails
- Data privacy and sovereignty questions begin to surface
- Risk is siloed in legal/IT
- Capable
- Clear policies on privacy, bias, and governance
- Dedicated AI leads or councils exist
- Internal use cases scale (e.g., summarisation, scoring, chat)
- LLMs integrated with guardrails, safety reviewed
- Strategic
- AI embedded in workflows, not layered on
- LLM/data infrastructure is regionally compliant
- AI outcomes measured (accuracy, equity, productivity)
- Teams restructured around AI capability ā not just tech enablement
- AI-Native
- AI informs and transforms core decisions (hiring, pricing, customer service)
- Enterprise builds proprietary intelligence
- FAIRā¢/RAI principles deeply operationalised
- Talent, systems, and leadership are aligned around an intelligent operating model
Why this matters for enterprise leaders
AI is a capability.And like any capability, it needs time, structure, investment, and a map.
If youāre an HR leader, CIO, or enterprise buyer, and youāre trying to separate the real from the theatre, maturity thinking is your edge.
Letās stop asking, āWhoās using AI?ā
And start asking: āHow mature is our AI practice and whatās the next step?ā
Iām working on a more complete model now, based on what Iāve seen in Australia, the UK, and across our customer base. If youāre thinking about this too, Iād love to hear from you.
Blog
Beyond the Black Box: Why Transparency in AI Hiring Matters More Than Ever
For too long, AI in hiring has been a black box. It promises speed, fairness, and efficiency, but rarely shows its work.
That era is ending.
āAI hiring should never feel like a mystery. Transparency builds trust, and trust drives adoption.ā
At Sapia.ai, weāve always worked to provide transparency to our customers. Whether with explainable scores, understandable AI models, or by sharing ROI data regularly, itās a founding principle on which we build all of our products.
Now, with Discover Insights, transparency is embedded into our user experience. And itās giving TA leaders the clarity to lead with confidence.
Transparency Is the New Talent Advantage
Candidates expect fairness. Executives demand ROI. Boards want compliance. Transparency delivers all three.
Even visionary Talent Leaders can find it difficult to move beyond managing processes to driving strategy without the right data. Discover Insights changes that.
āWhen talent leaders can see whatās working (and why) they can stop defending their strategy and start owning it.ā
Metrics That Make Transparency Real (and Actionable)
š Time to Hire
What it is: The median time between application and hire.
Why it matters: This is your speedometer. A sharp view of how long hiring takes and how that varies by cohort, role, or team helps you identify delays and prove efficiency gains to leadership.
Faster time to hire = faster access to revenue-driving talent.
š¬ Candidate Sentiment, Advocacy & Verbatim Feedback
What it is: Satisfaction scores, brand advocacy measures, and unfiltered candidate comments.
Why it matters: Many platforms track satisfaction. Sapia.aiās Discover Insights takes it further, measuring whether that satisfaction translates into employer and consumer brand advocacy.
And with verbatim feedback collected at scale, talent leaders donāt have to guess how candidates feel. They can read it, learn from it, and take action.
You donāt just measure experience. You understand it in the candidatesā own words.
š Drop-Off Rates, Funnel Visibility & Automation That Works
What it is: The percentage of candidates who exit the hiring process at different stages, and how to spot why.
Why it matters: Understanding drop-off points lets teams fix friction quickly. Embedding automation early in the funnel reduces recruiter workload and elevates top candidates, getting them talking to your hiring teams faster.
Assessment completion benchmarks in volume hiring range between 60ā80%, but with a mobile-first, chat-based format like Sapia.aiās, clients often exceed that.
Optimising your funnel isnāt about doing more. Itās about doing smarter, with less effort and better outcomes.
š Hiring Yield (Hired / Applied)
What it is: The percentage of completed applications that result in a hire.
Why it matters: This is your funnel efficiency score. A high yield means your sourcing, screening, and selection are aligned. A low one? Thereās leakage, misfit, or missed opportunity.
Hiring yield signals funnel health, recruiter performance, and candidate-process fit.
š§ AI Effectiveness: Score Distribution & Answer Originality
What it is: Insights into how candidate scores are distributed, and whether responses appear copied or AI-generated.
Why it matters: In high-volume hiring, a normal distribution of scores suggests your assessment is calibrated fairly. If itās skewed too far left or right, it could be too hard or too easy, and that affects trust.
Add in answer originality, and you can track engagement integrity, protecting both your process and your brand.
From Metrics to Momentum
To effectively lead, you need more than simply tracking; you need insights enabling action.
When you can see how AI impacts every part of your hiring, from recruiter productivity to candidate sentiment to untapped talent, you lead with insight, not assumption. And thatās how TA earns a seat at the strategy table.