Recruiting technology company Textio has launched Lavalier, a new AI-powered interview intelligence platform designed to help organizations run more structured interviews and make faster, evidence-based hiring decisions.
The platform aims to address a persistent challenge in hiring: while recruiting tools have improved candidate sourcing and screening, the interview process itself often remains inconsistent and subjective.
According to Colleen Gallagher, CEO of Textio, the changing nature of work—driven by artificial intelligence and evolving skill demands—means organizations must rethink how they evaluate candidates.
“The bar for what makes a great hire is shifting fast,” Gallagher said. “AI and evolving company needs are redefining the skills that matter for nearly every role. But most teams are still evaluating candidates the same way they’ve always done it.”
A Platform Focused on Interview Intelligence
Unlike traditional recruiting tools that focus on candidate sourcing or applicant tracking, Lavalier is designed to optimize the interview stage of the hiring process, helping recruiters and hiring managers gather better evidence about candidates’ capabilities.
The platform combines AI-generated interview guides, real-time interviewer support, and automated evidence synthesis to ensure interviewers focus on evaluating job-relevant competencies rather than relying on subjective impressions.
Lavalier is available with a free entry tier and scalable pricing, making it accessible to organizations experimenting with structured interviewing approaches.
Key Features of Lavalier
Textio says Lavalier helps recruiting teams improve hiring outcomes while reducing the time spent coordinating interviews. Key capabilities include:
Role Alignment Before Interviews Begin
The platform helps hiring teams define the competencies and behaviors that actually matter for a role before the interview process starts.
As AI changes job requirements—emphasizing skills such as adaptability, experimentation, and problem-solving—Lavalier ensures interview processes are designed to evaluate those capabilities.
AI-Generated Interview Preparation
Interviewers often enter candidate conversations without clear preparation or guidance.
Lavalier automatically generates structured interview guides, tailored questions, and interviewer assignments, reducing the time recruiters spend preparing interview panels.
Real-Time Interview Guidance
Even well-prepared interviews can drift away from structured evaluation.
Lavalier provides AI-powered prompts and suggested questions in real time, helping interviewers stay focused on relevant competencies while maintaining a natural conversation with candidates.
Evidence-Based Hiring Decisions
Rather than simply transcribing interviews, the platform synthesizes insights from each conversation across all candidates.
The result is a clearer picture of which candidates truly meet hiring criteria and why, helping teams reduce bias and make better-informed hiring decisions.
Early User Feedback
Early users say the platform helps interviewers stay focused on meaningful evaluation rather than logistics.
Angela Martin, operating partner at Bloomberg Beta, said the platform supported her during interviews by tracking questions and suggesting follow-ups in real time.
“It felt natural,” Martin said. “And having the notes and recording post-interview is so helpful.”
Meanwhile, venture investor Aileen Lee, founder of Cowboy Ventures and a Textio board member, said Lavalier helps eliminate many of the operational gaps that commonly affect hiring processes.
“The right questions aren’t asked, important flags go unnoticed, candidate notes aren’t taken or shared,” Lee said. “Lavalier works in the background to catch all the things.”
The Growing Market for AI in Hiring
Lavalier enters a rapidly expanding category of AI-enabled recruiting tools, where vendors are applying machine learning to streamline and improve talent acquisition workflows.
While many platforms focus on candidate sourcing, resume screening, and talent matching, fewer tools have focused on improving the quality and consistency of interviews themselves.
That gap represents a major opportunity. Interviews remain one of the most influential—and most inconsistent—steps in the hiring process, often determining final decisions despite limited structure or evidence.
By focusing on interview intelligence, Textio is positioning Lavalier as a solution that raises the quality of hire while reducing administrative overhead for recruiting teams.
Why Interview Intelligence Matters
Research consistently shows that structured interviews outperform unstructured conversations in predicting job performance. Yet many organizations still rely on ad-hoc interviews driven by personal style and interviewer preference.
Tools like Lavalier aim to bring data, structure, and AI guidance into that process while still keeping human judgment at the center of hiring decisions.
As organizations compete for top talent and face pressure to hire faster and more accurately, technologies that improve interview effectiveness and decision quality are becoming an increasingly important part of the HR tech stack.
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