This article was updated on February 28, 2025 to include new information released by Chipotle. It was originally published on November 1, 2024.
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Walk into Chipotle. Order. Leave with a burrito … and a job interview.
Of course, customers are familiar with the former; perhaps no restaurant chain in America has slung more tortilla-based meals over the past two decades than Chipotle. We all know (and likely love) the menu: Steak. Carnitas. Barbacoa. Side of guac. It’s a reliable, quality option customers can count on. We’re excited to say that we’ve partnered with Chipotle to give their candidates that same fast, fresh experience to candidates.
One that will help get applicants from “hello to apron” in days, not weeks.
On October 22, Chipotle introduced the appropriately named “Ava Cado” — a virtual assistant powered by Paradox’s conversational AI. Ava is built to provide frictionless experiences to candidates and save General Managers valuable time they can reinvest into making critical hiring decisions and providing great customer support. Since implementing AI into their hiring process, Chipotle has seen incredible hiring results:
- Reduced time from application to "apron on” from 12 days to four days.
- Increased application completion rate from 50% to over 85%.
- Doubled the amount of applications.
Chipotle is now looking to hire 20,000 additional employees for its upcoming "Burrito Season," the company's busiest time of the year running from March to May. They believe that their AI-powered hiring process has positioned them better than ever to maximize efforts during this critical push.
“Paradox operates as if we've hired additional administrative support for all our restaurants, freeing up more time for managers to support team members and provide an exceptional guest experience,” said Chipotle CHRO Ilene Eskenazi. “We're excited about the early improvements we're seeing.”
Serving the role of a 24/7 recruiting assistant at every Chipotle location, Ava automates time-consuming administrative work like answering job-related questions, collecting candidate information, and scheduling interviews. Because she’s mobile-native, candidates can engage with her right in the restaurant by scanning a QR code, and get an interview scheduled in minutes.
Paradox operates as if we've hired additional administrative support for all our restaurants, freeing up more time for managers to support team members and provide an exceptional guest experience.
Paradox operates as if we've hired additional administrative support for all our restaurants, freeing up more time for managers to support team members and provide an exceptional guest experience.
Chipotle is expecting Ava to reduce time to hire by up to 75% — which would mean candidates moving from “apply to apron” in a couple of days, not weeks.
“One of the biggest wins for us is Ava’s ability to support conversational scheduling,” said Chipotle Senior Product Manager Chad Hewitt. “ It takes a lot of the burden off our General Managers to use their own personal devices to text random numbers to coordinate interview times. Ava is now handling all of that.”
Read the original press release here.
