Glasgow-based recruitment technology company Willo has launched a new AI-powered tool designed to help employers identify the best candidates early in the hiring process, as companies grapple with increased application volumes due to increased use of generative AI.
Willo Insights aims to address the growing problem for recruiters: distinguishing between genuine candidates in a market that is increasingly flooded with AI-assisted applications. Willo’s 2026 Employment Report found that nearly eight in 10 (77%) employers are currently encountering AI-generated or “assistance” applications.
The system uses a variety of inputs from employers, including job descriptions, internal frameworks, cultural materials, and recordings of hiring manager conversations, to build a role-specific blueprint and evaluate applicants against that context.
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This approach represents a shift away from traditional screening tools, which typically rely on CV keyword matching and general scoring models, to more contextual methods of candidate evaluation.
The launch comes after about 18 months of development and more than $1 million in investment, with Willo looking to expand beyond video interviews into what the company calls “recruiting intelligence.”
Employers are reporting a significant increase in the number of applications, with many candidates using AI tools to draft and revise their submissions. While this improved the baseline quality of the application, it also made it difficult for hiring teams to identify true signals of fit.
Ewan Cameron, co-founder and chief executive of Willo, which works with more than 5,000 employers around the world including EasyJet, HelloFresh, EDF Energy, Bolt and Toyota, said the company had deliberately avoided rushing its AI scoring product to market.
“Employers are dealing with far more applications than they did a year ago, many of which include AI-generated content, making it difficult to differentiate between candidates in a meaningful way,” he said.
“We thought hiring was too subjective and too risky to automate at a cursory level. Instead, we focused on building something that understood what success looked like in a specific role and used that as the basis for evaluation.
“The goal is not to automate hiring decisions, but to bring more structure and consistency to parts of the process where these elements are often lacking. By creating clear benchmarks, or blueprints, upfront, you can reduce variation and provide hiring teams with better evidence to work towards. It all comes down to the quality of what you put in.”
Initial testing of the platform included organizations recruiting at both expert and high-volume levels. In a retrospective analysis, British energy network operator Northern Powergrid found that six of the eight candidates it interviewed as part of a months-long process ranked in the top six recommendations generated by Insights.
Northern Powergrid’s head of talent acquisition, Paul Hamlin, said the technology addresses some of the structural challenges facing large employers, adding: “Across the energy sector, we are hiring people for highly technical roles at scale, which poses real challenges.” “There is a skills shortage in the market, an aging workforce, and a much larger volume of applications to manage. This creates a constant tension between moving quickly and making the right decisions while ensuring consistency and fairness.
“What recruiting teams are looking for from technology now is better evidence, not automation per se. We want tools that reduce administrative burden, support decision-making, and bring consistency to how candidates are evaluated, especially when multiple raters are involved.
“We’re still in the early stages of using Willo Insights, but it’s already helping us move things away from being purely opinion-driven. By structuring the right fit for a role upfront and applying it consistently, hiring managers can gain a clearer, more objective view of candidates. This can potentially improve quality, fairness, and efficiency at the same time.”
Industry participants say candidates are increasingly taking advantage of the possibility of applying for jobs in minutes, rather than hours, thanks to AI, and the rapid adoption of generative AI in recruitment is forcing companies to rethink how they evaluate candidates, especially in early stages of selection.
Founded in 2020 by Prime Minister David Cameron and chief product officer Hamish Livingstone, Willo has grown significantly each year, doubling its annual recurring revenue (ARR) last year and expanding its team and operations as it seeks to position itself within a more data-driven recruitment approach. Mimecast founder Peter Bauer has already invested more than $6 million into the platform.
The company will also invest heavily in its North American operations, which currently account for more than 60% of Willo’s revenue, with plans to accelerate its team and U.S. headquarters expansion later this year.
