70% less CV sifting, twice the hiring capacity: how Extend Robotics recruits smarter with AI
70%
less time spent sifting and screening CVs
50%
faster end-to-end hiring process
80-85%
of candidates complete AI screening interviews
Company
Extend Robotics
Industry
AI
Employees
10-19 (scaling)
Business Type
MIcro
Location
UK
Favourite Features
About the business
Extend Robotics builds 3D virtual reality interfaces and robotic teleoperation technology, tools that sit right at the edge of what’s technically possible. It’s exactly the kind of company where the people function has to move at the same pace as the product.
Violina Stoeva is the People Operations Manager keeping things running. Working across multiple early-stage tech companies, she’s the kind of HR professional who leads with automation, pushes for structured processes from day one, and has now implemented Employment Hero across more than one company based on her own recommendation.
The challenge
When Extend Robotics secured new investment and committed to nearly doubling its headcount, Violina suddenly had seven open roles to fill at the same time. Roles ranging from robotics engineer and ML DevOps to AI research engineer and a humanoid sales manager – highly specialised, niche positions, with one role alone drawing more than 60 applicants.
With that volume arriving all at once, and a single person managing it, the maths didn’t work. Traditional screening meant introductory calls with every shortlisted candidate, manual CV review for each role and trying to keep hiring managers in the loop across everything simultaneously. Something had to change.
“I was like, wait a second. I might not be able to attend all the introductory calls with all of these people.”
The solution
Violina had already been using Employment Hero’s ATS and AI CV parsing to manage candidate profiles without duplicating work. But for this hiring sprint, she decided to take things a step further and put the new AI Recruitment Agent to work.
The Recruitment Agent conducts AI-powered screening interviews with candidates before they reach a human. It asks role-relevant questions, assesses responses, scores candidates and generates transcripts and highlights. As a result, Violina and her hiring managers could prioritise the strongest people fast, with no time wasted.
She was upfront that she tested it first before rolling it out to the team due to some initial scepticism.
“I did a test just to see how it works. What I liked about it is that the interviewer feels attentive, getting into details. It just feels like you’re really talking to a real person that cares about your responses.”
80–85% of the candidates assigned an AI screening interview completed it – a strong conversion for a new format that many candidates were experiencing for the first time. Those who did complete it demonstrated genuine interest and commitment, which turned the drop-off itself into a useful signal.
Violina is also candid about where human judgment still matters: for deep tech engineering roles, she still needs intel from her team to capture the right lens for highly technical candidates. Her approach is to use the AI scores as a starting point, not always a final verdict and to loop in technical hiring managers for the specialist roles.
“If it wasn’t for the AI Recruitment Agent, I wouldn’t have been able to get through all those interviews in such a short period of time. I’m convinced it really helped me a lot.”
And it’s not just recruitment. Employment Hero’s all-in-one platform means onboarding, performance management, goal tracking and HR records all sit in the same place. As Extend Robotics scales from 10 to nearly 20 people, nothing gets lost between systems.
The ROI
Since using Employment Hero’s AI Recruitment Agent alongside the wider platform, Violina has:
- Cut CV screening time by around 70%, freeing her from manually sifting through high-volume applications for every role.
- Reduced end-to-end hiring time by around 50%, with seven roles on track to be filled across approximately two months.
- Maintained an 80–85% AI interview completion rate, with strong-quality candidates coming through, including directly via the Employment Hero jobs board.
- Kept a single HR person running recruitment across seven simultaneous open roles, without external agency support for most positions.
- Kept all HR, onboarding and performance data in one place, with the platform scaling naturally as headcount grows.
“I had seven open roles, over 60 applicants for some positions, and just one of me. The Recruitment Agent gave me back time to actually do my job. It cut my screening time by around 70% and halved the time to hire.”
Why it matters
For Violina, the appeal of automation is about what gets freed up when the admin is handled.
“I personally enjoy AI and automation because professionals, no matter the industry, can concentrate on things that are more creative and innovative. It just saves time.”
With two portfolio companies now running on Employment Hero and a third already onboarded based on her recommendation in the past, her pattern is consistent: when the choice is left to her, she keeps coming back to the same platform.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Violina was facing a near-doubling of headcount with a single HR person managing recruitment across highly specialised roles, some with 60+ applicants. Employment Hero’s AI Recruitment Agent screened candidates automatically, scored and ranked them, and produced transcripts and highlights so hiring managers could prioritise quickly without watching every video in full. It gave her the capacity to run the whole process without bringing in external agencies for most roles.
At Extend Robotics, around 80–85% of candidates assigned an AI interview completed it. Some drop-off is normal, a new format takes adjustment, but Violina noted that the candidates who do complete it tend to demonstrate stronger genuine interest in the role
It works well as a first filter, but Violina is clear that human judgment is still important for deep tech positions. Her approach: use AI scoring to shortlist, then involve technical hiring managers for the final evaluation of specialist candidates.
Yes, and that’s exactly why Violina keeps implementing it. At Extend Robotics, one person runs HR for a growing robotics company. The ATS, AI CV parsing, onboarding workflows, performance management and goal tracking all live in one place, which means no switching between tools and no information getting los
Absolutely. Extend Robotics was at 10 people when this hiring sprint began. Employment Hero works at that scale and grows with you – the same platform that handles onboarding for your first hire also supports performance reviews, learning management and AI-assisted recruitment as your team expands.
