OVI is the AI-native ATS where you chat to hire. Two AI agents — Sora for sourcing and Milo for screening — find candidates, score every CV, and run AI interviews, all controlled from a single chat.

What does "chat to hire" mean?

Chat to hire is OVI's AI-native hiring workflow: instead of clicking through a traditional ATS, you describe what you need in chat and OVI's AI agents source candidates, screen applicants, run AI interviews, and send outreach for you.

What is an AI-native ATS?

An AI-native ATS is an applicant tracking system built around AI agents rather than forms and pipelines. OVI's AI chat ATS lets recruiters source, screen, interview, and follow up through conversation — the agents do the work and surface only the candidates worth meeting.

Who are Sora and Milo?

Sora is OVI's AI sourcing agent — she scans LinkedIn, the open web, and your ATS history to find best-fit candidates and reach out in your name. Milo is OVI's AI screening agent — he scores every applicant against your rubric and surfaces a ranked shortlist.

How do OVI's AI interviews work?

OVI runs async AI interviews for every shortlisted candidate and returns scores, transcripts, and recordings — so your team only meets the people worth meeting.

Phenom Moves Beyond Recruiting AI to Launch a Full Work Operations Platform

2026-06-19

Phenom Moves Beyond Recruiting AI to Launch a Full Work Operations Platform

Phenom is no longer content to be an AI recruiting vendor. At IAMPHENOM 2026 (March 10-12, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia), the company unveiled a Work Operations System — or "WorkOps" — that spans the full talent lifecycle from sourcing through retention. Backed by two strategic acquisitions in early 2026 and a new portfolio of agentic AI tools, the move signals Phenom's intent to compete as an end-to-end workforce intelligence platform, not just a hiring engine.

Two Acquisitions That Rewired the Platform

Phenom laid the groundwork for WorkOps with a pair of deals in the first quarter of 2026.

On January 14, 2026, the company acquired Included AI, a provider of agentic people analytics and conversational workforce intelligence. The deal brings real-time, explainable workforce insights directly into Phenom's platform — enabling HR leaders to query headcount, diversity, and attrition data through natural-language interfaces rather than static dashboards.

Three weeks later, on February 10, 2026, Phenom closed the acquisition of Be Applied, an AI-driven cognitive assessment platform. Be Applied uses adaptive testing to validate candidate capabilities against specific job requirements — measuring competencies like numerical reasoning and analytical problem-solving rather than relying on credentials alone. As Phenom CEO Mahe Bayireddi put it, "Skills assessment agents are essential and Be Applied brings the assessment intelligence and data quality that turn intent into execution." The acquisition creates what the company describes as a unified skills-first journey spanning sourcing, screening, hiring, and employee growth.

Both deals reflect the broader market shift toward skills-based talent strategies: 63% of employers now identify skills gaps as the primary barrier to business transformation, according to Phenom (company-reported; not independently audited).

WorkOps: Six Layers, One Architecture

The WorkOps platform is organized into six layers: Engines, Ontologies, XAI (shared AI capability), Experiences, Use Cases, and Agents. Rather than bolting discrete tools onto an ATS, Phenom is structuring its stack so that AI capabilities flow across hiring, development, and retention workflows through a common foundation.

Nucleus Research, in its analyst assessment of the IAMPHENOM announcements, described the approach as extending "capabilities beyond traditional talent acquisition into broader workforce operations," noting that Phenom's differentiation relies on platform breadth, governance investments, and ecosystem depth — not technology features alone.

Three New AI Agents — Plus 75 Use Cases on the Floor

The conference introduced three purpose-built AI agents designed to automate high-volume recruiting tasks:

Intake Agent — Autonomously manages hiring-manager meetings to refine job requisitions and strengthen job descriptions, reducing the back-and-forth that slows down req approval.
Interview Agent — Deploys AI avatar interviews at scale, replacing manual live screening calls with consistent, role-specific evaluations available around the clock.
Sourcing Agent — Discovers, segments, and nurtures candidates across CRM and external channels, personalizing outreach by role and talent profile.

These join a broader roster that includes a Voice Screening Agent (24/7 adaptive phone interviews) and a Candidate Fraud Detection Agent. Phenom's new Agent Center showcased more than 75 HR use cases across industries at the conference — a tangible demonstration of the platform's breadth.

The company's 2026 Benchmarks Report adds context to why this matters: 83% of organizations demonstrate low AI and automation maturity in HR, and 30% of HR professionals report limited knowledge of applying AI in talent operations.

Client Results Worth Noting

Two client outcomes illustrate the operational impact, though both are company-reported and have not been independently verified:

Home care organization (hiring 17,000 caregivers per year): 40% more screenings completed, with 91% finished within one day and over 40% occurring outside business hours. The result: 21% more hires and 1.5 days faster time to offer.

Global defense and technology company: Recruiters saved 15 hours per week, time to hire dropped 24%, and the company reported $1.3 million in ROI within year one.

The Lighthouse Stamp

On March 19, 2026, Phenom earned the 2026 Lighthouse Tech Award for Best Advance in Practical AI in the Talent Acquisition category — external validation that the platform's agentic approach is gaining recognition beyond its own customer base.

What This Means for HR Leaders

Phenom's WorkOps pivot reflects a pattern playing out across the HR tech market: point solutions are converging into platforms, and platforms are racing to become operating systems. For HR leaders evaluating their tech stack, the question is no longer "do we need AI for recruiting?" but "how unified should our AI infrastructure be across the talent lifecycle?"

At a platform scale of 400 million candidate profiles, 5 million employees, 50,000 recruiters and talent managers, and 5 billion data interactions per year, Phenom is betting that the answer is: very.

What is Phenom WorkOps?

Phenom WorkOps (Work Operations System) is a unified AI platform that spans the full talent lifecycle — from sourcing and hiring through development and retention — organized into six layers: Engines, Ontologies, XAI, Experiences, Use Cases, and Agents.

What companies did Phenom acquire in early 2026?

Phenom acquired Included AI (January 14, 2026), a provider of agentic people analytics, and Be Applied (February 10, 2026), an AI-driven cognitive assessment platform.

What new AI agents did Phenom launch at IAMPHENOM 2026?

Phenom launched three new agents: the Intake Agent (autonomous hiring-manager meetings), the Interview Agent (AI avatar interviews), and the Sourcing Agent (automated candidate pipeline building). These joined existing agents including a Voice Screening Agent and Candidate Fraud Detection Agent.

What ROI results has Phenom's platform delivered?

According to company-reported data: a home care organization hiring 17,000 caregivers/year saw 21% more hires and 1.5 days faster time to offer; a global defense/tech company saved 15 hours/week per recruiter, reduced time to hire by 24%, and reported $1.3M ROI in year one. These results have not been independently verified.