Hakuhodo DY ONE to Adopt AI throughout Its Graduate Hiring Process
〜 Leveraging “ailead” and “PeopleX AI-Powered Interview” to ensure hiring with better equity, efficiency and experiential value〜

Tokyo, December 1, 2025 – We are pleased to announce that Hakuhodo DY ONE Inc. will modernize its graduate recruitment by adopting AI throughout the selection process in 2027 in partnership with ailead, Inc. and PeopleX Inc. As a digital marketing company at the forefront of AI adoption, we have been leading the industry by using generative AI internally from an early stage. As part of our business operation related to ONE-AIGENT, our proprietary AI agent-driven marketing support service, this initiative is designed to promote AI adoption in back-office departments.^*1

Background

With the advancement of generative AI, the adoption of AI by businesses has been accelerating, with the aim of improving operational efficiency and upgrading decision-making. In the area of recruitment, there are rising expectations that AI will improve the fairness and efficiency of recruitment, by addressing challenges such as difficulties in gathering qualitative data including on the personality and value of candidates, in addition to the heavier, personalized burden of selection. In this light, Hakuhodo DY ONE decided to fully integrate AI into graduate recruitment as part of its company-wide promotion of AI adoption and to upgrade the whole recruitment process. It will ensure transparency with hybrid evaluations by AI and interviewers, while leaving the final decision in the hands of humans. We will thus ensure clear, consistent evaluation criteria, broaden the scope of selection, and improve the candidate experience.

Key objectives

1. Ensuring equity and transparency
We combine our proprietary AI tool HAKUNEO ONE^*2 with “ailead,” an AI-powered interview analysis cloud and “PeopleX AI Interview,” an interactive AI-powered interview service leveraging AI avatars to ensure the transparency of evaluation criteria. The hybrid evaluation by AI and interviewers alleviates the variation of subjective judgment.

2. Reconciling speed with scale
Automated record-keeping and analysis helps reduce the burden of selectors and expand the scope of selection by eliminating scheduling constraints. This gives more candidates an opportunity to be selected.

3. Better applicant experience
The online environment enables applications to be made from across Japan, while the interactive AI-powered interview places no restrictions on date and time, thus enabling detailed conversations that can identify the advantages and mindset of candidates.

4. Governance and ethical considerations

• We comply with relevant laws and regulations including the Act on the Protection of Personal Information, as well as internal rules to ensure proper data management.
• Our operational design places emphasis on bias reduction and accountability.
• We adopt synthetic judgment combining AI-powered and human evaluation (final decision to be made by humans).

Use by selection phase

1. Paper screening
HAKUNEO ONE, our proprietary AI tool, clarifies the evaluation criteria that are used for rating the papers submitted by applicants. This enables equitable and objective selection through data-driven, consistent evaluation.

2. Group work
Proof of concept (PoC) with the AI-powered interview analysis cloud “ailead” serves to develop a recording and analysis mechanism. This enables more equitable and accurate evaluation based on data analysis by expanding the scope of selection while substantially reducing the burden of selectors. We thus combine unique criteria with observations by selectors to ensure a balanced evaluation.

3. AI-powered interview
We adopt “PeopleX AI Interview,” an interactive AI-powered interview service with AI avatars. Conversations with AI interviewers help us to identify the advantages and mindset of individual candidates in detail for an equitable, quality selection process.

4. Online interview
The AI-powered interview analysis cloud “ailead” limits subjective biases and improves objectivity through automated analysis and standardized evaluation. At the same time, it alleviates the burden of interviewers through the automation of interview recording and the adoption of AI interviewers, effectively increasing the quality and speed of candidate selection.

Next steps

Starting with AI adoption for graduate recruitment, we will scale AI adoption in the entire human resource management area including for mid-career recruitment, onboarding,^*3 talent development and career support. We are thus determined to promote further AI-driven value creation both internally and externally, in line with the development and offering of AI solutions by operating departments.

*1 The initiative is undertaken as part of the Hakuhodo DY Group’s cross-Group AI expert initiative HCAI Professionals.

*2 HAKUNEO ONE is a proprietary generative AI service developed by Hakuhodo DY ONE for internal purposes. Optimized for our internal workflow and adaptable to communication tools, it can be used in a secure environment. It also helps curtail man-hours and optimize operation with the selection of multiple models, intuitive operation, accurate response and the mobilization of internal knowledge.

*3 Onboarding refers to a systematic acceptance and development process for new recruits to familiarize themselves with the corporate culture and operation at an early stage, thereby promoting retention.