Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) shares began Tuesday’s trading session lower. The chain announced today that it is partnering with Paradox to introduce a new platform that will make hiring employees more efficient for its restaurant teams. Paradox’s conversational hiring system will enable the General Managers in Chipotle’s restaurants to spend less time on administrative tasks, including collecting basic information from candidates and scheduling interviews, and allow them to focus on their day-to-day operations and providing excellent hospitality for guests. The technology, underpinned by Conversational AI, is expected to reduce the amount of time it takes to hire an employee for an in-restaurant position by as much as 75%.
Paradox is currently being introduced in a phased approach across more than 3,500 restaurant locations, with plans for completion this month. The recruiting system aims to decrease the time to hire, reduce job advertising costs, increase hiring for hard-to-fill roles, and improve candidate experience.
Paradox’s experience is driven by a virtual team member that Chipotle named “Ava Cado.” Ava will provide a frictionless hiring 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. Ava is multilingual and can converse with candidates in English, Spanish, French, and German.
CMG shares lost 42 cents to $59.27.