Eightfold launches Candidate Agent for hiring chats

Eightfold AI has launched Candidate Agent as part of its Talent Agents 2.0 release. The tool is designed to manage candidate interactions across the hiring process.

It replaces separate job search, application and scheduling steps with a single conversation that continues from first contact to the interview stage. Candidate Agent is now generally available for organisations using Eightfold's Personal Career Site.

Built on Eightfold's Talent Intelligence Platform, Candidate Agent is intended to handle tasks often split across different recruitment systems. These include answering common questions, parsing CVs, arranging interviews, sending reminders, issuing status updates and preparing candidates for interviews before handing them off to Eightfold's AI Interviewer product.

The system adapts questions to the role under discussion. In practice, a warehouse applicant could be asked about certifications and shift availability, while a software engineer could be prompted on programming languages and frameworks. Responses are used to build a profile during the exchange.

The product also supports conversational job search and skills-based matching rather than relying only on keyword searches. Eightfold says this matching draws on more than 1.6 billion career trajectories in its dataset to identify roles a candidate may fit.

Candidate Agent also offers multilingual, multi-channel support. It is available around the clock in more than 24 languages and can engage through SMS, WhatsApp and voice.

Hiring process

The launch reflects wider changes in recruitment, as employers face rising application volumes and candidates expect faster responses. Eightfold argues that many hiring teams still rely on disconnected tools, leaving applicants to move between systems and wait for updates at key stages.

This fragmentation creates operational strain for recruiters and can lead to candidate drop-off. By moving routine work such as scheduling, rescheduling, follow-ups and FAQs into a single conversational workflow, recruiters can spend more time engaging directly with shortlisted applicants.

"Candidate Agent is an important step toward making hiring more intelligent, connected, and candidate-centered," said Varun Kacholia, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Eightfold AI.

"This is not a generic chatbot bolted onto existing legacy systems. Candidate Agent gives candidates one continuous, conversational experience across job discovery, application, scheduling, follow-ups, handoff into AI Interviewer and more. It supports 24+ languages, meets candidates across channels like SMS and WhatsApp, and is fully integrated with enterprise systems rather than operating as yet another disconnected point solution. Early adopters of AI Interviewer are already seeing hiring cycles accelerate from 42 days to under a week and time to interview reduced by up to 90%. With Talent Agents, we are helping enterprises deliver a faster, more personal candidate experience while giving recruiters meaningful time back," Kacholia said.

The mention of AI Interviewer links Candidate Agent to a broader set of recruitment products in the Talent Agents range. Eightfold is also introducing Avatar, which it describes as a digital-human persona for candidates during AI interviews.

The company also outlined 360 Interview, a product intended to combine different interview types into a single AI-led session before a final human-led round. Candidate Agent is available now, while Avatar and 360 Interview are scheduled for a later release cycle.

Platform strategy

The launch shows how software suppliers are trying to consolidate more of the recruitment process within single platforms. Rather than offering isolated sourcing, screening or scheduling products, vendors are increasingly presenting integrated systems that retain information about a candidate across multiple stages.

For Eightfold, that means tying the front end of candidate engagement to its existing matching and interview tools. Organisations already using its Career Site do not need a separate integration to activate Candidate Agent.

Eightfold also used the announcement to highlight its approach to responsible AI. Its governance framework includes principles around fairness, transparency, safety and reliability, along with regular third-party audits and oversight from an AI Ethics Council.

Among the external reviews cited is an independent bias audit of its matching model carried out by BABL AI under New York City's Local Law 144.

Candidate Agent, part of the Talent Agents 2.0 release, is now generally available for organisations with Eightfold's Personal Career Site enabled.