Hiring Autopilot: AI runs the early steps, people decide

Every role in Hyre has five steps: Source, Screen, Test, Interview and Hire. Without Autopilot, a recruiter moves each person from one step to the next. With Autopilot switched on, Hyre does the moving for the early steps and you spend your time on the people who already cleared your bars.

In a typical round Autopilot builds the competitor map and searches public sources, then drafts outreach for the people at 70% fit or higher and waits for your approval before anything is sent. As CVs arrive from your careers page, Indeed or a recruiter, it scores them against the role's criteria. People above the screen bar get the assessment, people above the assessment bar get the one-way video interview, and the strongest finalists are ranked and handed to you. The early steps run in parallel rather than one after another, which is why a round takes days rather than weeks.

Autopilot only acts on rules you write down for the role. You set them once, in plain terms, before switching it on:

• Target: how many finalists you want, for example 3.
• Locations: your primary location, tiers 1 to 3 and any never-search locations.
• Outreach: you approve the drafts, and sending is capped at 40 a day from your own mailbox.
• Screen bar: the CV score a person needs to move on, for example 80.
• Assessment bar: the test score a person needs to reach the interview.
• Video interview: the questions, for example 10 one-way questions with adaptive follow-ups.

Change a bar and Autopilot uses the new one from that moment. Each role has its own switch, so you can run Autopilot on high-volume roles and keep a senior search fully manual.

Hyre does not make the hiring decision. Autopilot moves people through the early steps, but a human approves finalists and hires, and any automatic move can be overridden. If a recruiter thinks a candidate below the bar deserves a closer look, for example because of a strong portfolio, they move them forward by hand and write down why.

Some safeguards sit outside Autopilot altogether. Integrity signals in assessments flag a submission for human review and never reject anyone automatically. Video answers are reviewed on their content against the same questions for everyone, never on face, accent or tone. Outreach is never sent without a recruiter approving it first. The result is a process that runs fast where speed is harmless and slows down to a person wherever a decision affects someone's career.

Each stage move is written to the activity log with who or what made it, a person or Autopilot, and the reason. A typical entry reads like this: Ana moved from test to interview by Autopilot, assessment 88, above bar 80. A manual entry looks the same but names the recruiter and their note, for example "override: strong portfolio".

The log is shared by the whole team, so anyone can see why a candidate is where they are without asking around. It also gives you a clear answer when a candidate asks how a decision was made, or when you want to check that your bars are set at the right level. If Autopilot moved too many or too few people at a step, the log shows exactly where, and you can adjust that bar for the next round.