With technology that aggregates information from social and professional sites across the web, this Silicon Valley startup is ready to throw its hat in the ring with the top players in the race for AI recruiting supremacy.

Entelo scours the internet to automatically generate profiles of potential hiring prospects, then gets to work matching candidates to customers. Sounds simple enough, but as we found out from data scientist Gaurav Kataria, there’s a little more to it than that.

Hi Gaurav, before people start clamoring to meet you at Hire18, tell us a little about your background.

I spent the better part of the last decade at Google, leading the Data Science group in the Cloud division. In November 2017, I made the move to Entelo, a company uniquely positioned to modernize recruiting, where I lead Product and Data Science. Outside of work, I am a guest lecturer at Stanford University where I have been sharing my “Lessons from the Field” on how entrepreneurs and executives can build machine learning capability within their own organizations.

So what is Entelo, in your own words?

Entelo is the world’s leading AI-driven recruiting automation platform. It helps companies find, qualify and acquire top talent. Our technology aggregates information from more than 50 social and professional sites across the web to consolidate candidates’ social footprints. We provide employers with more than 500 million unique candidate profiles from which they can source top talent. By automating the process of locating, evaluating and contacting quality candidates, Entelo eliminates tedious manual workflows and frees up recruiters to be more strategic and personalized in their individual interactions with prospective hires.

What made you decide to not only attend but support Hire18?

We are looking forward to hearing from industry leaders on what they see as some of the biggest opportunities and potential pitfalls in the world of talent acquisition.

What is the biggest takeaway you hope to leave with?

My presentation is centered around the notion that recruiting is ripe for the benefits of automation. I hope attendees walk away with a better understanding of how AI can help them make their own jobs more valuable, by automating the tedious tasks that can be more efficiently completed by computers.

Some workers fear that technology will replace them. What would you say to recruiters who are reluctant to incorporate AI into their strategy?

I’d explain that AI isn’t out to take your job, but elevate it. It’s well documented that humans and machines are best when they team up, and my presentation will reference studies like the one reported by MIT Tech Review, in which researchers compared the ability of expert doctors and AI software to diagnose cancer. They found that doctors perform significantly better than existing software, but doctors together with software performed even better than their counterparts.

The HR industry has gotten a bad reputation for being slow to adopt new technology. Do you think AI is too forward-thinking for them?

HR professionals have made incredible strides in the past few decades. This is an industry that changes constantly, and when we look at the path from Help Wanted signs to newspaper ads to job boards to social recruiting, recruiters and HR leaders must constantly adapt. In fact, forward-thinking HR professionals are already investing in AI software to help them outperform the competition. As the Entelo 2018 Recruiting Trends Report finds, 62% of companies plan to adapt AI-powered recruiting software in 2018, and of those, 86% plan to spend on intelligent sourcing software. As this sort of thing becomes more mainstream, we’re sure to see even more recruiters becoming proficient in AI hiring tools.

There’s no dearth of new add-ons, apps and TA functions aimed specifically at recruiters these days. Here’s a firm that wants to make sure candidate experience is treated as an essential part of the process.

Enboarder was founded to create amazing experiences for new employees by putting people before paperwork, viewing onboarding through employee experience rather than just HR efficiency. Since 2015, the company has empowered HR teams and hiring managers to create, test and deploy beautiful communications that increase business productivity and lay foundations for great work culture.

Awarded with the Brandon Hall best onboarding category in 2016, Enboarder has acquired over 100 customers including Westpac, ING Direct, McDonald’s, Danone and Electronic Arts. Today the company is rapidly expanding and has established operations throughout the US and Europe.

Now that they’ve come onboard as a Hire18 sponsor, we checked in with Gareth Davies, VP of Sales, for a pre-conference chat.

Hi Gareth, thanks for speaking with us. What made you decide not only to attend, but support Hire18 financially?

Enboarder’s big focus is to inspire organizations to deliver amazing experiences for new employees. The reason we’re attending and supporting Hiring Success is that their mission aligns perfectly with our ethos. The conference is probably the most innovative and inspirational event for visionary hiring managers keen to learn, collaborate and connect with a strong Talent Acquisition community. We’d have been crazy not to join this year.

What is the biggest takeaway you hope to achieve?

As sponsors, our main goal is creating strong relationships with key industry leaders to develop solid partnerships, collaborations and knowledge sharing. We believe there is a huge opportunity for businesses to increase their employees’ performance, satisfaction, and retention by creating significant and impactful experiences when engaging new hires. We want to be there to support businesses in that journey. As attendees, we are very excited to listen and learn how thought leaders and other companies are innovating and shaping the future.

What are you most looking forward to about the conference?

We are excited about the partnership opportunities, meeting fantastic minds and hearing their stories. We can’t wait to see some of our peers and clients as well. We are also looking forward to hearing speakers like Scott Johnsen from UserTesting and Steve Fogarty from Adidas. Also, getting inspired by what other companies are doing with augmented reality, big data, machine learning and bots.

What does Hiring Success mean to you?

Participating in this year’s event means we will be able to network and connect with some of the most influential leaders in the field, learn about new technologies, and get firsthand insights on key questions and challenges other businesses are facing. We are looking to be active on topics like candidate/new-hire experience, employer branding, automatization, and positively impacting retention.

What role does/should hiring play in a company’s priorities?

Employees are the most important priority for any organization. According to the Boston Consulting Group 2012, talent acquisition and recruitment have the highest business impact on profit growth and performance, followed by onboarding. That’s why it’s so important to empower HR teams, hiring managers and recruiters with the right tools, to make sure they attract and secure the best people.

At Enboarder we understand new employees’ impact, but we are also conscious of the risks organizations face in terms of attrition, low engagement, and productivity when they fail to properly onboard new employees.

Why do conferences still matter in the digital age?

When it comes to business relationships and creating strong partnerships, technology will never be able to replace the excitement and warmth that comes from meeting someone face-to-face. Attending conferences like Hiring Success helps attendees and vendors build trust and credibility, leading to better and stronger connections. Once that personal relationship is established it can be broadened to the digital space to tailor information, provide real-time customer service, and engage at deeper levels.

A consistent video feed has been the bane of internet video communication since the term came into existence. One company wants to regain your faith in the video component of remote interviews.

Their mission is to help connect and engage with talent, and under the watchful eye of co-founder and CEO Imo Udom, Wepow helps organizations hire better people faster and reduce costs while maintaining a personal connection. Hundreds of organizations including Adidas, Virgin Atlantic, and Box rely on Wepow’s video interviewing solution to improve recruiter productivity, deliver engaging candidate experiences, and make the right hires. And now the company has come on board as a sponsor at Hire18, giving them a seat at the big kids’ table of HR Tech. Before the conference kicks off in San Francisco in March, we caught up with Imo to pick his brain a bit.

What made you decide to not only attend, but support Hire18 financially?

I’ve attended all of the SmartRecruiters Hiring Success conferences, and I can honestly say it gets better each time. We became a SmartRecruiters partner in early 2017 and thus decided to support Hire17 financially. The connections we made and relationships we built there made supporting Hire18 a no-brainer.

What is the biggest takeaway you hope to achieve?

We hope to connect directly with forward-thinking Talent Acquisition leaders that understand the need to incorporate hiring into their organization’s DNA. We want to leave Hire18 having formed new relationships with organizations that are ready to take their hiring innovation to the next level.

What are you most looking forward to about the conference?

We’re looking forward to the informal gatherings where everyone drops their guards and has some fun. It is always great to remember that hiring can be fun!

What does Hiring Success mean to you?

Hiring Success means finding the right talent, for the right role, with the right amount of resources in the right amount of time.

What role does/should hiring play in a company’s priorities?

We have heard the cliche over and over, that a company is only as good as its talent. The reason we keep hearing that is because it’s true. Hiring should be a top-tier priority, along with other strategic initiatives that help shape an organization.

Why do conferences still matter in the digital age?

What makes conferences important in the digital age is their ability to bring together a high density of thought leaders in one place. The out-of-office setting allows for focused conversation on critical topics that often go ignored in the day-to-day grind of getting things done. Conferences allow for leaders to engage with their peers and get an outside perspective on the issues they face. Plus, conferences allow for everyone to let loose and have some much-needed fun.

At its core, CodeFights is a tool which both aspiring and veteran developers can use to build and hone their skills through fun, addictive coding games.

Through completing challenges and games, coders can also be put into contact with jobs which match their skill level. As well acting as a more accurate barometer for coding prowess, a testing process such as this also helps eliminate bias and allow inexperienced, grassroots talent to get a foot in the door of a competitive industry.

Joining our list of sponsors for Hire18, we asked founder and CEO Tigran Sloyan about not only being a speaker, but putting some dough into the conference, too.

What made you decide to not only attend, but support Hire18 financially?

CodeFights is committed to promoting skills-based hiring. By recruiting and hiring based on verified skills, we remove barriers for entry and create a hiring process that’s a true meritocracy instead of being preoccupied with credentials. Of course, I’m excited to attend because I want to share our vision for the future of hiring, but we made the decision to support Hire18 because we want to promote all the other thought leaders and companies that are doing such great work in revolutionizing the talent space.

What is the biggest takeaway you hope to achieve?

I’m really excited to spread the word about how the ability to objectively measure skills will change everything about recruiting and hiring. And the changes will benefit job seekers, not just companies.  

What are you most looking forward to about the conference?

I’m looking forward to meeting up with other thought leaders in the talent space, see what they’re working on, and start collaborating with them on exciting ideas.  

What does Hiring Success mean to you?

I believe hiring great people is the most important predictor of a company’s success. The secret is always in the right execution, not just in the idea. So Hiring Success means that you have an actionable plan to hire the best people for your company – and then following through!

What role does/should hiring play in a company’s priorities?

I think hiring should always be a company’s top priority. Making the wrong hire can set a company back pretty far, or in extreme cases even sink it. So it’s critical to figure out what the right person for a role looks like, and then find and hire that person.

Why do conferences still matter in the digital age?

Conferences give people the chance to meet up in person and share ideas in a free-flowing way that often just doesn’t translate to less immediate mediums.

It’s one of the last thorns in the side of recruiting technology: the referral. But one company thinks they’ve got it figured out, and at Hiring Success 18, they’ve put their money where their mouth is.

Recruitment teams around the world are using RolePoint as a complete referral solution to harness social capital, bringing talent acquisition in line with today’s hyper-connected world. RolePoint gives the power to manage all referral incentives without messy spreadsheets or calendar reminders, and deep analytics clarify how the program is working. Connected with every major ATS or HRIS, RolePoint proactively updates the status of employee-referred candidates. This gives talent leaders control over generating referrals within their organization, focusing on high growth and hard-to-fill positions.

We asked co-founder Kes Thygesen about his company’s Hire18 sponsorship, and what hiring success means to him.

What made you decide to not only attend, but support Hire18 financially?
RolePoint is headquartered in San Francisco and we love being engaged in our own city, with talent leaders who are passionate about recruiting as well! We feel it’s our duty to help support Hire18, which brings industry leaders together to share their unique perspectives on the changing world of talent acquisition.

What is the biggest takeaway you hope to achieve?

We want to further our relationships with talent acquisition leaders who are passionate about building the greatest teams and who want to make an impact at their company.

Where should hiring be on a company’s list of priorities?

Hiring is any company’s #1 priority. SmartRecruiters motto says it best, that “you are who you hire.”

What are you most looking forward to about the conference?

The energy, passion, and positivity that brings similar-minded people together. We are also thrilled to help connect our brand in person with innovators and leaders in the talent acquisition space.

Why do conferences still matter in the digital age?

No technological advancement can compete with an in-person connection, and conferences are the best way to immerse oneself to learn, engage, and interact.

What does Hiring Success mean to you?

Hiring Success means the must-attend conference of 2018 to those who want to innovate and reinvent recruiting as well as the best opportunity to network with hundreds of TA leaders and hear their personal experiences.

Interviews are one thing, but to really know who you’re about to bring on board requires a bit more digging.

And to that end, EBI is one of the largest privately held screening firms in the United States, providing background screening, drug testing, and occupational health screening services for employment, contract, and volunteer positions for over 5,000 clients in the US and globally. EBI is a founding member of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners, holds ISO certifications for both Quality and Information Security, is an Inc. 5000 award winner, and is routinely named to Workforce Management’s ‘Hot List’ and HRO Today’s Baker’s Dozen list.

We spoke to VP of Alliance Partnerships, Donald Darrah, about coming on board as a sponsor to Hiring Success 18.

What made you decide to not only attend, but support Hire18 financially?  

EBI views Smartrecruiters as one of our strategic partners, and we invest in our strategic partners, whether events like Hiring Success, industry events or other co-sponsoring activities.

What is the biggest takeaway you hope to achieve?  

The obvious answer is new customer opportunities, but we also want to make sure Smartrecruiters customers, prospective customers, and analysts get to know EBI as well.

What are you most looking forward to about the conference?  

We are always interested to speak with customers to learn about their current needs and where they see their organizations next year and three to five years out as it relates to talent management.

What role does/should hiring play in a company’s priorities?

The experience a new hire has, as they go through the recruiting, hiring and onboarding process is the first impressions of an organization. Like buying a house, everyone has “buyer’s remorse” as part of a new job.  This “remorse” can be mitigated and even eliminated through a great hiring experience.

Why do conferences still matter in the digital age?  

We are in the human resources business. Conferences are a time for people to physically come together and collaborate. It’s extremely important.