ZX Ventures: AI-powered consumer insights with IBM watsonx.

The challenge

Four years ago, Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's biggest brewing company, launched ZX Ventures as its new growth and innovation arm. Designed to seed, launch and grow new businesses, ZX Ventures was an unusual hybrid -- part venture capitalist, part business accelerator and part business operator with a unique, startup-style work culture all its own.

Early on, ZX Ventures realized that communicating its distinctive culture to potential job candidates in an efficient, genuine way could be one of its most challenging new business projects.

"We needed to reach more people and educate them about who we are early in the recruitment process so they could decide if it's the right fit," says Kristina Deighan, Global Manager of Talent Attraction at ZX Ventures. "We wanted to find an innovative solution that was engaging and candidate-centric."

ZX Ventures needed to do more than provide static, FAQ-style information to job-seekers, especially if it wanted to express itself as an innovative, digitally-savvy employer. A new online recruitment platform was proposed that was interactive, intuitive and based on the transformative power of watsonx technology.

The solution

IBM watsonx.orchestrate is an AI and cognitive talent management platform that answers job seeker questions and provides relevant answers in natural, conversational language.

Using watsonx.orchestrate technology to gather concepts, skills and keywords from resumes and job descriptions to provide the best job matches for individual applicants. The solution also includes a virtual Agent to enable applicants to engage in a conversation with the Agent as if they were talking to a recruiter. Applicants are no longer just scrolling down the screen for information but interacting with a virtual recruiter in real time.

Working with the ZX Ventures talent attraction team, the application process was reviewed and the solution was taught to understand and respond to the intent of over 60 applicant requests and inquiry topics.

To enhance candidate interaction with the virtual Agent, they also integrated video content into the experience. Custom-produced videos, present online job seekers with visual context about who ZX Ventures is, what the company does, and what "culture" truly means.

"Adding video to the Agent helps with the `show' in addition to the `tell' story," says Deighan. "Delivering video content in a chat experience imitates a more natural conversation than text alone does. The candidate not only gets a response to their question, they get meta information that text alone can't convey. For example, they might see a video in response to, `What are successful traits of candidates?' and in 60 seconds they'll also see key elements of our culture in the background: people dressed informally, senior leaders sitting next to more junior team members and a workspace without offices because we believe in transparency and minimizing hierarchy."

The results

Within a month after going online, the tailored solution began producing significant benefits. The Agent managed a volume of questions five times greater than human recruiters could handle, and it continues engaging over 600 applicants in dialogue every month.

Analytics tools scrutinize the content and intent of these questions and develop insights to refine how the Agent engages with applicants. Insights into applicant questions also help ZX Ventures customize recruiting strategies based on who is asking the questions and where they are coming from.

Recruiters see that candidates coming through the watsonx experience are better prepared. They know more about ZX Ventures and are a more natural fit for the positions and roles for which they are hired.

About ZX Ventures

Established in 2015, ZX Ventures is the global growth and innovation group within Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's largest brewer. Headquartered in New York City, with operations around the world, ZX Ventures invests in and develops new products and businesses. The ZX Ventures workforce of over 1,500 team members includes futurists, entrepreneurs, designers, engineers, brewers, builders, e-commerce experts, marketers and data scientists.