Chipotle Mexican Grill is adding another virtual employee to its team — by the name of Ava Cado — in a phased rollout expected to be complete by the end of October.
The new platform, created by tech firm Paradox, uses conversational artificial intelligence for hiring processes. Paradox developed the automated system to help decrease the time it takes to hire, reduce job advertising costs and increase hiring for hard-to-fill roles.
Chipotle (NYSE: CMG) currently counts over 120,000 employees companywide and aims to integrate the technology in all its locations. There are over 3,500 restaurants as of June, in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and, more recently, Kuwait.
The conversational recruiting system will handle administrative tasks, including collecting basic information from candidates and scheduling interviews. The AI software can also manage screening and onboarding tasks.
In 2020, Chipotle introduced a bot named Pepper in its mobile app to help with digital orders and services. Newcomer Ava Cado is designed to chat with job applicants, answer any questions about Chipotle in four languages, collect basic information from candidates as well as schedule interviews for hiring managers and send offers to those selected.
Launching the technology in October is meant to support the restaurant chain’s hiring activity for the fall, which is its second largest hiring period of the year after summer.
“Paradox operates as if we’ve hired additional administrative support for all our restaurants, freeing up more time for managers to support team members and provide an exceptional guest experience,” Chief Human Resources Officer Ilene Eskenazi said in a statement.
“We’re excited about the early improvements we’re seeing.”
The Newport Beach-based company is part of a wave of chains tapping AI platforms to help screen and hire workers. Paradox also works with McDonald’s and Panda Express.
According to the National Restaurant Association’s State of the Industry report, about 27% of restaurant operators cited recruiting and retaining employees as their top challenge this year, while approximately 15% identified labor costs as a significant hurdle.
The Paradox technology is expected to reduce the amount of time it takes to hire an employee for an in-restaurant position by as much as 75%, according to Chipotle.
