When KPMG’s vice chair of talent and culture Sandy Torchia set out to integrate AI into the company’s talent strategy, she wanted to solve two major problems: allowing job candidates to ask questions at any time of day, and freeing up time for her team to tackle more strategic questions. 

Torchia’s efforts have culminated in Kai, an AI assistant built by hiring software company Paradox. A little over a year after its launch, she says the bot has already cut the time it takes for hiring managers to schedule interviews with job applicants by roughly 58%, dropping from one hour to just 25 minutes. 

“The notion of freeing up time to focus on more strategic initiatives is so important,” Torchia tells Fortune. “It’s not only giving them back hours, but it’s increasing job satisfaction because they’re able to reduce the time it takes to complete an administrative task that isn’t super rewarding and focus on something else.”

Kai is designed for candidates to be able to ask questions after hours, and answers basic questions about benefits, hours, or details about the hiring process. In the first year, Kai handled more than 23,000 inquiries from candidates, with 33% of them coming in after 5 p.m. The bot also takes into account the person’s location, experience, and interest in roles, to suggest open positions at KPMG. Around 21.5% of those who interact with Kai in this way end up showing interest in the roles it recommends. 

Adam Godson, founder and CEO of Paradox, says that the KPMG bot is working well because it addresses a narrow issue, and adds companies should be careful about overhauling their entire system.  

“It’s not about automating as much of the process as you can,” says Godson. “It’s about picking the spots where automation makes sense. You can use AI for everything, but candidates don’t want that, and recruiters don’t want that, which is why you focus on the places where there [is] inefficiency or slowness, and fix that first.”

KPMG still prefers to screen all candidates manually, and chooses who gets an interview through traditional methods. Torchia says some important parts of the job process are best done in person or over Zoom, such as having discussions around company culture. 

“It’s still super important to have a human in the loop,” she says. “Because you can learn about our culture by asking questions, but you’re not going to experience it until you talk to someone.”

Brit Morse
brit.morse@fortune.com

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