EntrepreneurIA Interview with Philippe Montant Founder & CEO ReKrute

Interview conducted by Dr. Yves-marie Le Bay

With nearly 19 years of expertise, ReKrute.com has established itself as a key player for companies seeking to stand out in the “war for talent.” Today, with a qualitative database of 1.5 million registered executive profiles, ReKrute supports over 3,000 large companies and multinationals each year. The goal is to maximize their employer brand to recruit and retain the best talent. ReKrute sees 54,000 visitors per day and over 66,000 job offers published annually. And for ReKrute, artificial intelligence (AI) has been an essential lever for improving client and internal HR processes.

 

Can you tell us about your company’s activities in a few words, as well as the important dates in your journey?

I started my career after graduating from Centrale Lille, where I specialized in computer science and management, a path that interested me more than pure engineering. After school, I worked at Ernst & Young in financial audit for three years. It was interesting, but I quickly realized it wasn’t what I wanted to do long-term. So I transitioned to strategic consulting and innovation, at a Parisian firm where I was a partner for several years.

Then, I joined Dell Europe as a project director, where I notably oversaw the Y2K transition and the implementation of new ERPs. This led me to work on the digitalization of industrial processes, such as online ordering and real-time production management. Then, in 2002, I became Internet Director for Southern Europe, at a time when the Internet was really beginning to transform businesses.

After this experience, I joined Microsoft North Africa to lead the SME division, which ultimately led me to co-found ReKrute with my wife Alexandra Montant. It was when I left Microsoft that ReKrute was truly born, a project for which I took charge of the technology side. At first, there were only two of us, then we quickly grew to a team of 40 people. We then scaled back to stabilize at 20 employees, but we managed to optimize our processes and remain profitable, even during difficult periods like the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

What was your main motivation for integrating artificial intelligence into your processes? What aspect of your sector prompted you to make this choice, and how has it transformed your operations?

Integrating AI was primarily a response to a need for efficiency. The recruitment sector is particularly competitive. Candidates expect quick responses, while companies want to ensure they find the right talent at the right time. AI allows us to process enormous amounts of data, improve the quality of matches between candidates and companies, and maximize operational efficiency.

Before AI, our clients’ teams spent hours sorting through résumés, ensuring that each candidate matched the job requirements, verifying profile consistency. Since we adopted AI, processes have changed dramatically. We’ve implemented systems that analyze résumés, extract important data, and match skills with job requirements, while always leaving the final decision to a human recruiter. This approach maximizes recruitment quality and reduces matching errors. It allows our clients to focus on what matters: human evaluation and interpersonal interactions, which remain crucial.

 

What AI solutions did you choose to achieve your objectives and why?

We took a pragmatic approach to selecting AI solutions. We developed Kiara, a digital assistant that optimizes candidates’ résumés and helps recruiters identify skills beyond those visible on the CV. We primarily use advanced language models like GPT-4, which are highly effective tools for text analysis and natural language processing. These models help us, for example, generate more compelling job postings, summarize résumés concisely for recruiters, and suggest relevant skills to add to candidates’ profiles.

We’ve also implemented automatic résumé parsing using AI. This parsing extracts precise data and presents a complete profile to recruiters without candidates having to enter everything manually. This gives our clients immediate access to clear and actionable information. We also have a values analysis function that compares candidates’ values with company culture and ensures alignment before the first interview.

Thus Kiara offers a series of interesting features for job seekers. For example:

  • Résumé optimization: AI helps candidates create and optimize their résumés by offering tailored suggestions.
  • Résumé personalization: It can automatically adapt résumés according to the specifics of each job offer.

For recruiters, Kiara was designed to streamline the recruitment process:

  • Kiara enables companies and recruitment firms to write an attractive and compelling job offer in seconds to attract the best talent.
  • Kiara is capable of sorting received applications and providing a shortlist of candidates matching the job requirements.
  • Kiara can recommend specific profiles that best match the criteria of published job offers.
  • Thus Kiara reduces the administrative burden associated with sorting résumés and the first screening phase, allowing recruiters to focus on interviews and final selection.

 

 

How did you overcome the cultural and human challenges when integrating AI into your processes?

Human and cultural challenges had to be overcome, beyond technical challenges. AI was scary. Some of my colleagues feared that these technologies would take their jobs and replace them. My role was therefore to communicate clearly and transparently about AI’s objectives in the company.

I emphasized that AI wasn’t there to replace anyone, but to help us be collectively more efficient. Automating repetitive tasks, such as data entry or résumé screening, allows everyone to focus on what really matters: qualitative candidate evaluation and human interactions. For example, AI allows us to help our clients prepare interview summaries, saving them valuable time without losing control of the process.

Additionally, we implemented AI training sessions for each of our teams so they would feel comfortable with the tools. It was important that everyone understood the added value of these technologies and their role in our daily operations. It was also a way to demystify these tools and show how they could improve their own productivity. To our great surprise, upon AI’s introduction, it was the IT teams that proved most resistant to adopting it. They were the least willing to test and exploit these technologies, despite the fact that their field is probably where AI’s potential contribution is most significant.

 

What technical challenges did you encounter when implementing AI solutions?

Technical challenges were numerous, especially when it came to ensuring that AI was ethical and transparent. One of the biggest challenges was the quality of training data and the biases they can introduce. For example, we found that some AI systems tended to reproduce historical biases. If, in the past, a client had only hired men for sales positions, the AI could inadvertently favor new male candidates. We therefore had to work actively to control biases and ensure that our AI recommended candidates fairly.

We also encountered challenges around the transparency of AI recommendations. When a system makes a suggestion, it’s essential that recruiters understand why that suggestion is made. That’s why we implemented systems that explain recommendations to our users. This creates more trust in the tool and ensures good understanding of the process.

Finally, the technical integration of these tools required a good dose of innovation. We had to balance AI use so it would work with our other internal systems, like our ERP, and guarantee the security of candidate and client data, which was a real challenge.

 

What positive changes have you observed in your team’s dynamics thanks to AI integration?

There have been several notable changes within the team. The first, and probably the most important, is that AI has freed our colleagues from the most repetitive and time-consuming tasks. For example, before using AI, every social media communication had to be manually designed and executed. Today, these tasks are handled by AI algorithms, saving us valuable time.

This time savings has been reinvested in value creation. Recruiters can focus more on relationship quality with candidates and on advice provided to clients. It has also reduced deadline-related stress, as AI ensures service continuity even during peak activity periods. Internally, we’ve observed a more collaborative dynamic: AI is perceived as a teammate helping achieve ambitious goals.

Another very positive aspect is that our teams have become more innovative. They’re looking for new ways to use AI to further improve our processes, allowing us to constantly innovate and improve our value proposition for clients. This has strengthened the spirit of initiative, and teams feel valued by being associated with these innovative projects. Currently, we have over twenty IT development ideas around AI that would allow us to further improve recruitment.

 

What advice would you give to SMEs hesitating to take the AI leap?

My first advice to SMEs is to start small. Many companies imagine that integrating AI means revolutionizing all their processes at once. This isn’t the case. It’s better to start with specific, low-risk use cases. For example, automating responses to frequently asked questions, using AI to analyze candidate résumés, or automatically generating interview summaries. This quickly proves AI’s value without disrupting the entire organization.

The second piece of advice is to involve teams in this process. The human challenge is always greater than the technical challenge, and if employees feel threatened or left behind, it can create major blockages. You must explain why AI is being implemented, how it can help them and, most importantly, that humans remain at the center of decisions. Show the gains each person can obtain in terms of time, quality of work life, and opportunities to develop new skills around AI.

Finally, I would recommend choosing trusted partners. It’s crucial to ensure that processed data remains secure and that AI tools are ethical. Many SMEs worry about costs, but today there are very accessible solutions that allow you to start without investing considerable sums. AI can really make a difference in a company’s competitiveness if used correctly and ethically.

 

Conclusion

ReKrute is a convincing example of how a company can use artificial intelligence to differentiate itself in a highly competitive market like recruitment. The two founders of ReKrute (Philippe and Alexandra Montant), aided by their teams, have managed to find a balance between technology and humanity, making AI a teammate rather than a competitor. Their pragmatic approach to AI adoption, their attention to ethics, and their commitment to placing humans at the heart of processes are valuable lessons for all SMEs considering taking this step. AI is not a threat, but an opportunity to innovate and prosper, provided it is used with intelligence and respect for human values.”

Philippe Montant concluded the interview by emphasizing that AI must never make decisions alone that directly affect individuals’ lives. AI must assist, advise, and above all be transparent, but the ultimate decision must always belong to humans.”