Picnic recruits at high volume, where speed and efficiency are important alongside a strong applicant experience.A significant part of the early recruitment journey involves screening calls and candidate questions. At the same time, candidates have different preferences when it comes to how and when they want to interact with the recruitment process.
For Picnic, this created an opportunity to explore a more flexible approach — using automation where it can support the process while keeping room for personal interaction.
Picnic and VONQ started with a joint design process and developed an initial version of an AI-powered screening call. During the pilot, candidates could choose between a screening call with a recruiter and a screening call with an AI agent. The AI-supported conversation could collect relevant information such as availability, motivation, language skills and location.
Throughout the test, Picnic and VONQ combined applicant feedback, recruiter feedback and recruitment data to understand the experience and make small improvements along the way. This reflects Picnic’s own approach of making testing simple, learning quickly and leaving room to adapt the process.
AI-supported screening gives candidates an additional way to complete an early stage of the recruitment process, including outside regular recruiter working hours.
In the first pilot, Picnic tested the approach across around 400 calls.
Approximately 20% of candidates selected the AI-call option. Picnic reported that conversion was approximately the same, while time to hire was shorter.
One candidate applied at approximately 11:30 PM, progressed through the process while recruiters were offline, attended a recruitment event the following morning and signed a contract at 10:30 AM.
The pilot also showed Picnic where further improvements were needed, particularly around setting clear expectations for candidates about what an AI call is and how they can interact with it.
EQO brings together specialist AI agents that screen, engage, and respond — creating more efficient, personalised, and reliable interactions across channels.
Screen and engage users continuously, reducing drop-offs and administrative burden.
Deliver clear, unbiased evaluations and actionable outcomes.
Integrate seamlessly with existing systems to support measurable results.
Explore EQO here →
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