🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
news article
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
The fast-casual restaurant chain developed an AI recruiting agent to help prepare for its busiest time of the year.
Photo description | Chipotle has attempted to lead in its benefits and pathways to promotion for store employees.
Credit | Getty Images
Chipotle and its over 3,700 restaurants have received a boost in their talent pipeline just in time for their busy season, which the company says is from March to May. The boost came from the development of Ava Cado, an AI-powered member of the recruiting team announced in the fall.
Since that time, Chipotle's average time for a candidate to start and finish an application has decreased from 12 days to four days, the company reported. Ava Cado has also almost doubled Chipotle's applicant flow while raising the candidate application completion rate to 85 percent from approximately 50 percent. Chipotle launched this offering in partnership with the technology company Paradox.
"'Ava Cado' has helped streamline our processes in order to capitalize on top talent faster and remain competitive in high volume hiring," Chief Human Resources Officer Ilene Eskenazi told Newsweek via email.
Earlier this month, the company announced plans to hire 20,000 employees for this upcoming busy period, also known as "burrito season."
Chipotle has touted itself as "the fastest path to the middle class" and boasts an expansive benefits program for store employees, including debt-free education, access to the Calm mindfulness app and pathways into management and a six-figure salary in as little as three-and-a-half years. It has also faced multiple unfair labor practice suits from the National Labor Relations Board and settled out of court with defendants in Augusta, Maine, where it shut down a store while employees were in the midst of a unionization effort.
Eskenazi said the annual rate of internal restaurant management promotions has been between 85 and 90 percent since 2021.
Now armed with Ava Cado, which speaks English, Spanish, French and German, Chipotle is aiming to offer a simpler candidate experience by "chatting with candidates, answering their questions about Chipotle, collecting basic information, scheduling interviews for hiring managers and sending offers to candidates who are selected by managers," Eskenazi said.
Recruiting has been an area of focus for AI adoption with similar segments of the workforce. The use of AI at the employee level has also included collaboration and knowledge management in addition to agents aimed at helping people in sales, marketing, accounting and health care roles.
In conversations between the company's general managers and talent acquisition team, Eskenazi shared that they "identified applicant screening and scheduling interviews with candidates as tasks that can be automated to give general managers more time to focus on day-to-day operations and providing excellent hospitality for guests in their restaurants."
