Sumitomo Forestry Adopts VARIETAS' 'AI Interviewer'

VARIETAS Inc. (pronounced "Varietas") announces that its conversational AI interview service, "AI Interviewer," has been adopted by Sumitomo Forestry Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "Sumitomo Forestry").

Anticipating diversified business expansion and growth both domestically and internationally, Sumitomo Forestry has positioned the acquisition and development of talent capable of driving business transformation and innovation as a core human resources strategy. Under this strategy, the company emphasizes thoroughly understanding each candidate’s background, strengths, and motivation, while ensuring evaluation decisions are based on consistent criteria. Furthermore, Sumitomo Forestry has consistently aimed to provide fair opportunities, enabling candidates to feel satisfied and confident in the selection outcomes.

"AI Interviewer" is part of "TA Team," VARIETAS’ talent acquisition platform where multiple AI agents collaborate, starting with AI-powered interviews.

By automatically deepening questions based on candidates’ responses, the service standardizes evaluation criteria and interview processes. It minimizes inconsistencies in questioning and assessment across interviewers while providing a conversational experience that allows candidates to express themselves authentically, thereby maximizing their potential from the early stages of selection.

AI Interviewer Service Website: https://ai-interview.online

Background of Adoption

As Sumitomo Forestry expands into diverse business areas and regions, the importance of securing diverse talent and ensuring accurate evaluation has grown significantly.

In particular, summer internship screening—serving as a crucial touchpoint for securing future talent—requires assessing numerous students within a short timeframe. It is essential to fully uncover each candidate’s individuality and latent abilities while maintaining consistent evaluation standards. However, traditional interview methods have shown room for improvement in deeply understanding candidates’ strengths and thought processes within limited time.

Against this backdrop, Sumitomo Forestry has decided to introduce VARIETAS’ "AI Interviewer" into its summer internship selection process as a new approach to enhance objectivity and consistency through dialogue.

Comment from Sumitomo Forestry

Sumitomo Forestry Co., Ltd.

Kazuo Maeda, Recruitment Group, Human Resources Department

“Our company has long developed its business based on the 'Sumitomo Business Principles,' emphasizing fairness and trustworthiness for societal benefit. These values remain unchanged in our recruitment activities, where we prioritize sincerely engaging with each individual and accurately understanding and evaluating their potential.

Especially in internship screening—a key touchpoint with future talent—it is crucial to carefully capture candidates’ experiences, values, and thought processes even within limited time, ensuring fair evaluation outcomes.

We found VARIETAS’ 'AI Interviewer' highly appealing due to its ability to deeply explore candidates’ responses through dialogue, revealing their unique qualities and thinking patterns, while further enhancing evaluation consistency. We believe that by leveraging technology, we can realize our core value of 'engaging fairly' at an even higher standard.

Moving forward, we aim to continue providing candidates with satisfying selection experiences and creating opportunities to connect with diverse talent who will drive new value creation at Sumitomo Forestry.”

Overview of the Providing Company

VARIETAS develops and provides products for talent and organizational development using conversational AI. Its talent acquisition platform, "TA Team," starting with AI interviews, is increasingly utilized from initial screening in new graduate and career hiring to one-on-one support, placement, development, and internal promotion/selection. The platform helps unlock the potential of candidates and employees, supporting fair and transparent decision-making.

VARIETAS Inc.

Contact: [email protected]

Company Website: https://varietas.co.jp