CMR India speaks with the founder of InterviewDesk on how its conversational AI bot, Creya AI, is reshaping the first round of job interviews

Artificial intelligence is steadily reshaping recruitment and human resource development, moving from a back-office curiosity to a frontline tool in candidate screening and interviews. As this shift gathers pace across enterprises, HR teams are increasingly turning to conversational AI to handle the first round of hiring at scale.

As artificial intelligence extends its reach into recruitment and human resource development, CMR India caught up with Pichumani Durairaj, Founder and CEO, InterviewDesk, to discuss Creya AI, the company’s conversational Interview Bot built to automate the first round of candidate screening. Excerpts from the interview:

CMR India: To begin with, what exactly is Creya AI, and what problem does it solve for HR teams?

Ans: When hundreds of candidates apply for a single role, it simply isn’t feasible for our HR teams to call every one of them in for a face-to-face interview. That is the exact problem we built Creya AI to solve. It is a conversational bot that interacts with applicants much like a human interviewer would, conducting the first round of interviews. From among hundreds of applicants, it shortlists and recommends the candidates best suited to the company, which considerably eases the workload on HR officers.

CMR India: What are the standout features that set Creya AI apart?

Ans: Our HR officers today deal with a very diverse pool of candidates, so we’ve built Creya AI to conduct interviews in more than 15 languages, including English, Tamil, Hindi, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese. Applicants can take part from anywhere, at a time that suits them, and the system can simultaneously interview more than 100 people. Beyond testing technical skills, it also analyses a candidate’s confidence, communication ability and personality, and delivers that as part of its output. So instead of just handing over a skill score, it gives HR officers detailed feedback on a candidate’s overall performance, which helps them pick the right fit for their organisation.

CMR India: Online interviews come with their own risks of malpractice. How does Creya AI address that?

Ans: That’s something we’ve taken very seriously. Malpractice isn’t uncommon even in face-to-face interviews, and with online interviews, some candidates try to use other AI tools to game the process. To guard against this, we’ve built strict controls into Creya AI to prevent technical malpractice. The system tracks not just a candidate’s physical movements during the interview but their eye movements as well, with precision. If it senses that someone else is participating via the camera, or if the candidate breaches rules such as copy-pasting answers, the system automatically disqualifies that applicant.

CMR India: There’s a broader anxiety around AI replacing human jobs. Will Creya AI eventually replace the HR officer?

Ans: I want to be very clear on this: Creya AI will never replace the HR officer. What it does is evaluate a candidate’s abilities during the interview and produce a report; the final hiring decision always rests with the HR officer. Creya AI functions purely as an assistant to HR, and it does not, in any way, take away an HR professional’s job.

CMR India: How should organisations think about tools like Creya AI in the context of the future of hiring?

Ans: Tools like Creya AI are strong evidence that AI has ushered in a new era for human resource development. They help organisations sift through thousands of applications and identify the right talent quickly and accurately. But I’d frame it this way: at the same time as it eases the workload of HR officers, rather than displacing them, it should allay fears of job losses in the profession. It’s a digital assistant, nothing more. Scientific and technological progress ought to serve human advancement, not substitute for it. Human effort remains matched only by human effort, and I believe constructive innovation that doesn’t come at people’s expense will always remain a companion to humankind, not a replacement for it.

SEO & Publishing Package

Meta Title: Interview: InterviewDesk’s Pichumani Durairaj on Creya AI

Meta Description: In an exclusive CMR India interview, InterviewDesk Founder & CEO Pichumani Durairaj explains how Creya AI is helping, not replacing, HR teams.

URL Slug: interview-pichumani-durairaj-interviewdesk-creya-ai

Focus Keyword: Creya AI interview

Secondary Keywords: InterviewDesk, Pichumani Durairaj, AI interview bot, HR technology, recruitment AI, CMR India interview

Tags: Creya AI, InterviewDesk, Pichumani Durairaj, CMR India, AI in HR, recruitment technology, interview bot, conversational AI, HR automation, exclusive interview

Category: CXO Interview / HR Technology

Suggested Alt Text: Pichumani Durairaj, Founder and CEO, InterviewDesk, on Creya AI

Social Hook: “Creya AI will never replace the HR officer,” says InterviewDesk’s Pichumani Durairaj in an exclusive CMR India interview.