AI Recruiter: How the HRStream Agent Finds and Screens Candidates

A recruiter opens a vacancy, and the day goes on the same thing over and over: find resumes, score them, write to people, wait for replies, run a first conversation, write again. All of it has to happen before the candidate accepts another offer. The AI recruiting agent in HRStream takes over this chain: you give the task in one sentence, and it searches for candidates, scores resumes, builds a shortlist and, if you allow it, messages people and runs AI interviews with them. Rejections and offers stay with a human, and the agent can be stopped at any step. Below we walk through how the agent works step by step, where it acts on its own and where it waits for your "yes".

What a recruiting agent is and how it differs from ordinary automation

A recruiting agent is an assistant that runs the whole first stage of hiring on its own, rather than responding to a single command. Standard ATS features such as AI candidate screening score what has already arrived in the system. The agent goes further: it finds people who are not in the system yet, writes to them, runs the first interview and hands the ones who pass over to the recruiter.

The recruiter's job does not go away. The agent takes the routine: searching, reading hundreds of resumes, first messages, scripted conversations. The human focuses on what makes them a recruiter: decisions, conversations with strong candidates, and working with the hiring manager.

How the agent works: 10 steps from the brief to a shortlist

Step 1. "Hand to agent": one sentence instead of a form

You describe the task in text or by voice. The agent asks no more than three clarifying questions, for example about city, salary range and work format (office or remote). It then prepares the vacancy, a candidate profile, an interview script and a first message. You can also start without a vacancy: the agent will put together a pool of candidates and publish nothing. A vacancy is published on job boards only after you confirm it.

Step 2. Searching several sources

The agent searches HeadHunter (hh.kz, hh.ru, hh.uz), your HRStream database and Avito. A source takes part if it is connected in your organization (HeadHunter setup is described here, Avito here). The agent builds the query from your sentence: it picks out the role, similar job titles and skills. Hard filters, such as education or work schedule, are applied only after your confirmation, so the agent does not cut off suitable people by mistake. For more on how the search works, read the article about candidate sourcing.

Step 3. Resume scoring and the shortlist

The agent scores each resume against the candidate profile and writes why it gave that score. The best ones go into the shortlist. If there are few strong candidates, the agent widens the search and, once it runs out of options, honestly stops. It does not pad the list "for the numbers".

Step 4. Calibration: aligning on taste

In "With approval" mode, before the first spend, the agent shows a few top cards and you answer "Good fit" or "Not it". This is how the agent checks that it has understood who you need. If there are too many "Not it" answers, it asks you to adjust the profile and does not go further until you explicitly say "Continue anyway".

Step 5. Revealing contacts

Contacts on HeadHunter and Avito are hidden and have to be revealed. The agent does this for people in the shortlist. On HeadHunter, a reveal uses your account's quota on that platform; on Avito, it uses the Avito package. How many people get revealed is determined by the "shortlist target" that you set. The agent filters out duplicates: if a person is already in your pipeline or was found in several sources, they are not taken into work a second time. Doubtful matches are sent to you for a decision.

Step 6. The first message to the candidate

The agent writes on WhatsApp, or on Telegram if the person has no WhatsApp. The first message always says who is writing (the employer), where the contact came from and how to opt out by replying "stop". The agent states plainly that it is the company's AI assistant. Without this the message is not sent. If a person writes "stop", they are added to the do-not-contact list and the agent never reaches out to them again.

Step 7. AI interview in chat

Candidates who are interested go through a scripted interview in chat. The agent asks the questions from the script and scores the answers. The outcome is a recommendation: invite, consider or do not recommend. The bot's texts are available in Russian, Kazakh and English. There is no Uzbek in the agent's messages yet.

Step 8. Handoff to the recruiter

The agent moves candidates who passed the interview to the stage you pinned on the vacancy board, or, if there is none, to "Interview with HR". This happens one candidate at a time, and you get a notification. A recruiter can also "Take to board" any candidate themselves, invite them to an interview via a self-booking link, or enter a phone number manually if there is no contact. As soon as a person steps in, the agent stops working with that candidate.

Step 9. "Build next shortlist"

If nobody from the first batch fits, click "Build next shortlist". The agent finds new people with the same parameters and skips those it has already scored.

Step 10. The summary

The agent dashboard shows how many resumes were scored, how many contacts were revealed, how many messages were sent, how many replies came in and how many candidates are in the pool. The "hours saved" line is an estimate based on assumed minutes per operation, not a measurement. Treat it as a rough guide.

Who makes the decisions: three autonomy modes

The main question about any AI agent is "what will it do without me". In HRStream the recruiter decides this at launch.

"Shortlist only" is selected by default: the agent writes to no one and spends nothing. "Autopilot" cannot be switched on right away. An administrator allows it only after the first completed campaign in "With approval" mode. Autopilot has safeguards: a daily cap on first cold contacts and an automatic pause if too many people opt out. You can switch autopilot off at any moment, and all such campaigns will pause.

You can always stop the agent: pause, resume and cancel are available on every campaign. If an action waits for confirmation for too long, the campaign is paused and you get a notification.

The "Needs your decision" queue

The agent does not make decisions on your behalf that affect people. The queue gets a rejection under a profile rule, a failed interview knockout question, a candidate's request to talk to a real person, and vacancy publication. The agent has no automatic rejection of candidates. Even if the interview is failed, the agent creates a request to the recruiter instead of rejecting on its own. Before carrying out an approved action, it double-checks whether the person has applied in the meantime or written "stop".

No-vacancy mode: a candidate pool

Sometimes there is no vacancy yet, but you need to understand the market. In that case the agent works in pool mode: it searches and scores people, but does not write to them or interview them, and you reveal the contacts. When the vacancy appears, the "Make it a vacancy" button transfers the profile and candidates into it. No money is charged for the transfer.

Ethics and rules for talking to candidates

Automated communication with people is a risk area. Here is what the agent has built in by default:

• Transparency. The candidate always knows they are writing with an AI assistant. According to a 2025 HireVue survey (over 3,100 job seekers), 79% want to know when AI is involved in hiring; the company has its own interest here, as it sells AI interviews. In Europe such disclosure is required by Article 50 of the EU AI Act.
• The right to say "stop". The stop word is in every first message. The block applies both within your organization and globally across all HRStream organizations. Only the candidate can lift the global block, with their own command.
• Quiet at night. Cold messages are not sent during night hours in the organization's local time, and the outgoing flow is rate-limited.
• A human decides. Rejections, offers and disputed cases stay with the recruiter.
• Scoring without protected characteristics. Resume scoring does not use gender, age, ethnicity or other such characteristics. The Labor Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan prohibits discrimination in employment in Article 6.

An important caveat: if you decide to search for people using a technical specification document, responsibility for how the criteria are worded stays with you. The agent does not replace a lawyer. How to store and use the contact details of the people found, agree with your lawyer and your company's data processing policy.

What the agent does not do

Honest limitations help you see where a human is needed.

• The agent writes only on WhatsApp and Telegram. Other messengers and email are not used for its cold messages.
• There are no pushy follow-ups: if a message was not delivered for technical reasons, the recruiter can click "Resend", but the agent does not send reminders automatically.
• It does not reject candidates and does not send offers.
• In a no-vacancy pool it does not write or interview.
• The agent's texts are available in Russian, Kazakh and English, but not in Uzbek.

Who can use the agent and what it costs

The "Recruiting agent" section is available to the owner, administrator and recruiter of an organization. It is closed to hiring managers, observers and employees. It is enabled for organizations by default, and the owner or administrator can switch it off: campaigns will then pause.

There is no separate subscription "for the agent". However, some operations remain paid: revealing contacts uses the HeadHunter quota or the Avito package, first messages and AI interviews are billed under your organization's plan, and publishing a vacancy on job boards depends on those boards' packages. For details on your organization, ask the HRStream team.

Where to start: a short plan for the first run

1. Connect your sources. At least HeadHunter or Avito, so the agent has somewhere to search.
2. Start with "Shortlist only". Give the agent one vacancy you know well and compare its shortlist with your own.
3. Go through calibration. Answer "Not it" honestly when a card does not fit.
4. Move to "With approval". See what the agent plans to reveal and write, and approve in batches.
5. Switch on Autopilot when you trust the results. It unlocks after the first completed "With approval" campaign.

If you work in a recruitment agency, the agent is handy for expert-level orders from clients: read about ATS for recruitment agencies. And how to automate high-volume hiring through WhatsApp is described in the article about the AI interviewer.

Frequently asked questions