We’ve had the honor of interviewing the Co-Founder of TalentX.ai that’s on a mission to take advantage of Artificial Intelligence to empower and grow tech talents in the work culture. Here’s what the COO of TalentX.ai, Chia Yei has to say:
SZ: Tell Us About Your Background
I started my career in an HR consulting firm before transitioning into an in-house Human Resources (HR) in a global role overseeing over 60,000 headcounts. My specialization was not only in total rewards but performance, analytics, and co-managing an HR information system.
SZ: Tell us how did you come with your company/startup/product idea?
After being a user and implementer of a world-class HR system, I realized that there were a lot of gaps to be filled in HR. I found that innovation was not implemented in this space, specifically, machine learning and A.I. technologies were not adopted in HR as compared to other departments.
I also found that in most companies, the HR department lacked any data-backed methods when it came to computing compensation and I wanted to create a company that would improve the value of total rewards managers as well as talent acquisition managers.
My co-founder and I spent many makan sessions talking about these shortcomings and we finally decided to do something about it. We both have a background in HR and our passion to give back to this community drove us to start TalentX with an aim to increase A.I. adoption and acceleration in the HR space.
SZ: Who is the person that inspired you to do what you do?
My co-founder and I inspired each other. We spoke a lot during the pandemic and over 8 – 10 months of discussions and planning during the lockdown, we finally pulled the trigger and started the company.
SZ: How is your company/startup/product different from competitors?
Our niche is using A.I. and machine learning to remove the guesswork from compensation calculations. We want to empower recruiters, in-house compensation teams, and hiring managers with actual real-time salary data to inform their decision-making.
When talents join our ecosystem, they share important data about their skills, their personal persona, their work location preferences, and their current and expected salaries. On top of this, candidates participate in a ‘game’ that helps us understand candidates’ behaviors when it comes to compensation. With this data, we’re able to predict the likelihood of offer acceptance by a candidate. All of this data is interpreted by our A.I. and presented on an easy-to-understand page for HR departments to make quick hiring decisions and align quickly with departments who are hiring.
This is especially important in the tech hiring space where we operate because it is a high-turnover industry in Asia currently and there’s a shortage of skilled tech workers. Employers who use our service can find skill-matched talent, get an A.I. calculated salary, and hire candidates right from our platform.
What is the business model of your company/startup?
We are a free ecosystem for candidates looking for a job but we will charge employers an annual subscription fee to access our A.I. and data modules. We will also be charging employers a small fee for each candidate that is successfully hired through our system.
A portion of these transaction fees will be used in initiatives that will benefit the candidates on our database. This will go into monetary bonuses for successful candidates, training courses, community outreach, and more.
How do you come over the challenges you face on a daily basis?
Number one, borrow other people’s brain juice. You need to rely on others who are better than you for help. And always remember, every rejection is a good time for reflection.
What is the most difficult decision you have to make in your business
We don’t have the luxury to think back about tough decisions – we make them every day! We have to be very decisive and make moves quickly as a startup and be responsible for the consequences.
What is your advice to the new entrepreneurs?
Keep doing what you do and believe in your unique perspective that no one else has.
Anything you like to add?
8 months into this business, I still have never met any of my teammates physically due to Covid.
A message from Chia Yei: “I would like to encourage all tech talents who are looking for a job to sign up at our website https://talentx.ai and join our ecosystem. We want to empower tech talents in Asia with data to negotiate better salaries and we need talents on board to help us. We’re offering a congratulatory bonus of SGD1,000 for any candidate who is successfully hired through our system.”