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AI candidate screening calls: how recruiters use them

A first-round phone screen is a fixed set of questions asked the same way every time. That is exactly what an AI does well, and exactly why it should never score or negotiate on the call.

What a screening call should ask

Availability, notice period, location, whether the pay range works, and two or three role-specific questions the hiring manager wrote. The same questions, in the same order, to everyone.

What it must never assess

Anything protected: age, family, health, religion, origin. It asks the fixed questions and records the answers; a person reads them. It does not score, rank or decide on the phone, and it does not tell the candidate anything about the outcome.

Getting to a shortlist by 9am

A single Screener does around forty-five screens a day at one call at a time. Run it on yesterday’s applicants overnight, within legal hours, and the recruiter opens the day with the answers already in.

Candidate experience: neutral beats warm

A candidate being assessed knows it. A warm voice reads as a verdict; a neutral one does not. The Screener has the longest patience of any role, because people pause while thinking about their own answer.

Where to go from here

If this is the job you need done, the Screener does it: Runs a first-round phone screen — a fixed set of questions, no negotiating, no closing — so a recruiter only spends an hour on people worth it. Pricing starts free.

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Forty-five minutes, and you will have one trained on your pitch