Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. is rolling out an artificial intelligence assistant that the chain hopes will cut the time it takes to hire workers by as much as 75%.
The virtual recruiter, known as Ava Cado, will be available at the chain’s more than 3,500 restaurants in North America and Europe by the end of the month, the company announced Tuesday. The fall is Chipotle’s second busiest recruiting period of the year, following the March-to-May sales sprint it calls “burrito season.”
The company said Ava will collect applicants’ information, answer their questions about the company, book meetings and send offers to candidates selected by humans. The goal is to take those administrative tasks off managers’ to-do lists so they can focus on running the restaurants.
The system “operates as if we’ve hired additional administrative support for all our restaurants,” Chipotle Chief Human Resources Officer Ilene Eskenazi said, according to the statement.
Powered by conversational AI from tech firm Paradox, the AI assistant can speak in English, Spanish, French and German. It’s Chipotle’s latest move into automation, following tests of robots that expedite avocado mashing and burrito bowl assembly.