From 22 days to 5 days for quality shortlists
How Xpheno, India's leading specialist staffing firm, doubled candidate quality and cut screening time by 5x using AI-powered interviews.
2x
Candidate Quality
73% pass rate vs 35%
5x
Faster Hiring
5 days vs 22 days
66%
Placement Rate
Of shortlisted candidates
$27,800
Annual Savings
Across 10,000 annual placements
Company
Xpheno
One of India's leading specialist staffing firms, placing talent across IT, engineering, and operations.
Duration
4 Weeks
Oct 1 to Nov 3, 2025 · Live operational pilot with real roles and candidates.
Scope
7 Role Types
Across Banking, Payments, ERP, Testing — both high-volume generalist and niche specialist roles.
Team Size
3 Recruiters
Real operational test with existing workflows and client expectations.
The Challenge
Hiring was working.
Until it wasn't.
As demand grew, the traditional interview process couldn't keep up. Expert availability became a bottleneck, quality varied between interviewers, and costs spiraled for candidates who never made it through.
Speed Bottleneck
22 days
Average time to shortlist
Every interview required scheduling with technical experts. When 5 roles came in simultaneously, there simply wasn't capacity to run them in parallel. Candidates waited, clients grew impatient, and opportunities slipped away.
Inconsistent Quality
35%
Client pass rate
Different interviewers emphasized different things — theory, hands-on experience, or confidence. The result? An inconsistent filter where shortlist quality depended on who happened to be available that day.
Cost Efficiency
$1,333
Wasted on failed candidates
At $17 per interview for 10,000 candidates, only 2,000 would get placed. That meant $1,333 was spent on interviews that led nowhere — economics that only work with better pre-screening.
The Solution
AI interviews that work around the clock
AltHire replaced the first interview round with an AI that asks questions, follows up on answers, and evaluates reasoning — just like your best interviewer, but available 24/7 with perfect consistency.
Interview Anytime
Candidates log in when it suits them — evening, weekend, any timezone. No scheduling back-and-forth. This alone cut turnaround from 22 days to 5.
Intelligent Follow-ups
The AI probes deeper when answers are vague. It tests understanding and reasoning, not just keyword matching. That's why twice as many candidates passed client tests.
Consistent Scoring
Every candidate assessed with identical criteria, in the same order. No variation between interviewers. No gut feelings. Just data-backed reports you can show clients.
Completely Unbiased
The AI doesn't know names, gender, accent, or university. It only scores what candidates say and how they reason. Recruiters called this the most meaningful improvement.
| Before | After AltHire |
|---|---|
Time to Shortlist ~22 days | Time to Shortlist 5 days |
Pass Rate 30-35% | Pass Rate 73% |
Availability Office hours | Availability 24/7 |
Consistency Varies | Consistency 100% identical |
Bias Unavoidable | Bias Eliminated |
The Results
Four weeks of real data
Live operational pilot. Real roles. Real candidates. Independently verified by client assessments.
2x
Better Quality
73% vs 35% pass rate
5x
Faster Process
5 days vs 22 days
66%
Placement Rate
Of shortlisted candidates
$27,800
Annual Savings
Across 10,000 annual placements
| Metric | With AltHire | Without AltHire | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate Pass Rate | 73% (35 of 47) | ~30-35% | 2x higher |
| Client Clearance | 66% (23 of 35) | ~30-40% | Up to 2.2x |
| Time to Shortlist | 5 working days | ~22 days | 5x faster |
| Scoring Consistency | 100% identical | Varies by interviewer | Fully standardized |
| Completion Rate | 53% (47 of 89) | 43% baseline | +10 points |
Built for fairness from day one
AltHire scores every candidate identically — blind to name, gender, accent, or university. It only evaluates reasoning and knowledge. Xpheno's recruiters highlighted this as one of the most meaningful improvements, not just for fairness, but because it made shortlists easier to defend when clients asked questions.
Cost Analysis
Better quality at lower cost
Traditional screening interviews 10,000 candidates at $17 each ($166,667), but only ~2,000 get placed. With AltHire pre-screening, only the strongest 5,000 go to human rounds, cutting costs while improving quality.
Cost per 10,000 Candidates
AI Screening (10,000 × $5.50)
After
$55,500
Human Interviews
Only 5,000 candidates advance
Before
$166,667
After
$83,333
Total Cost
Before
$166,667
After
$138,889
Annual Savings
16.7% cost reduction with 2x quality improvement
$27,800
$27,800
Annual Savings
Across Xpheno's 10,000 annual placements. 16.7% reduction in screening cost with 2x better candidate quality.
Lower cost per placement
Higher quality shortlists
5x faster turnaround
Scales without adding headcount
Client Voice
What Xpheno says
"AltHire changed how we talk to clients. We used to present a shortlist and hope for the best. Now we walk in with a scored report for every candidate and we can explain exactly why each person is on the list. Clients notice that. It builds a completely different level of confidence in our work."
Pallavi Nanduru
Center Head at Xpheno
Your next shortlist in
5 days, not 22
The Xpheno pilot took four weeks. Your results could start showing in the first one. Book a 20-minute call to see exactly how AltHire works for your roles.
Ready to Transform the Way You Hire?
Book a consultation today and experience how AltHire AI can help you hire smarter — from sourcing to selection.