Twelve criteria that decide whether an AI screening tool survives real hiring — including the four most vendors quietly fail. Rate your shortlist here and get the questions that expose the gaps.
Talvin scored on the same twelve, including where we lose·Updated August 2026
Where evaluations go wrongThe four blind spots
Explainability
Nobody asks how a rejection gets explained until a candidate asks.
Live integrations
Roadmap and reality get demoed as the same thing.
Completion rate
A tool that candidates abandon is a funnel leak, not a saving.
Price at volume
The number that matters is 500 interviews a month, in writing.
The problem
Most tools demo well. That's exactly the problem.
Teams pick the vendor with the cleanest demo, then hit the walls three months in — a bias question nobody can answer, an integration that turns out to be on the roadmap, candidates dropping out because the experience feels robotic. By then the contract is signed and the pilot is your problem. This scorecard moves those questions to before you commit.
The scorecard
Rate your shortlist, 1 to 5, across twelve criteria.
Score from what you've actually verified, not what the deck claims. Anything you're guessing at should be a 3 — and then a question on the call.
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Start here
Which vendors are you scoring?
The tools we see most often on APAC shortlists. Pick as many as you're comparing — you'll score each across the same twelve criteria, then see them side by side.
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Last step
Where should we send the full twelve-question script?
Your result is on the next screen either way. The email version includes all twelve questions with the red-flag answer beside each, as a sheet you can bring to the call.
Public, verifiable positioning only — where a vendor doesn't publish a figure we've left it blank rather than guess. We make Talvin, so read our row with the scepticism you'd apply to any vendor's own table.
Vendor
Interview format
Conversational depth
Pricing
Best for
Talvin AI
Two-way adaptive voice, optional video capture
Contextual follow-ups, depth configurable per question
Published, per-minute
APAC volume hiring, 25+ a quarter
HireVue
One-way video, assessments, new AI interviewer
Validated rubric, their framework
Enterprise, quote-based
Large US and EU enterprises
Ribbon AI
AI phone screening
Conversational, screening-level
Published, per-interview tiers
US high-volume phone screening
HeyMilo
AI voice interviews
Conversational
Not published
High-volume voice screening, US-built
Interviewer.AI
One-way video, avatar add-on
Mostly fixed questions
Published self-serve tiers
SMB and agencies
Vervoe
Skills assessments and tasks
Task-based, not conversational
SMB tiers
Skills-first SMB hiring
The script
Twelve questions to send before the demo
Send them in writing, before anyone gets a slide deck in front of you. The answers matter — and so do the silences. Each one has a red-flag answer beside it, which is usually the one you'll get.
01
Show me how you'd explain a rejection to a candidate who asks.
Red flag: a confidence score with no reasoning behind it.
02
What's your candidate completion rate, and how is it measured?
Red flag: "our clients see great engagement" with no number.
03
Which ATS integrations are live today — not on the roadmap?
Red flag: "we integrate with everything through our API."
04
What does 500 interviews a month cost, in writing?
Red flag: pricing that only appears after a discovery call.
05
How do you detect and report bias across demographic groups?
Red flag: a compliance PDF instead of an outcome report.
06
Can a hiring manager see why a candidate ranked where they did?
Red flag: the score is visible, the rubric behind it isn't.
07
Which languages and accents do you support, and how accurate are they?
Red flag: a language list with no accuracy figures per region.
08
How long from signing to a live role?
Red flag: an implementation phase with no fixed end date.
09
Where is candidate data stored, and who owns it?
Red flag: no named region, or ownership buried in the terms.
10
What's the accessibility story — re-attempts and accommodations?
Red flag: one attempt, one format, no alternative path.
11
What's your uptime and support SLA during a live campaign?
Red flag: support hours that don't overlap your hiring hours.
12
Who owns the interview questions and the scoring logic?
Red flag: you can't edit either without a services engagement.
Fair questions
We make one of the tools you might be scoring. Here's how we handle that.
Isn't a scorecard from a vendor rigged?+
It would be if the criteria were picked to flatter us. Two of the twelve — live ATS integration breadth and enterprise assessment validation — are ones we don't win today, and they're in there because they decide real purchases. Score us on the same sheet.
Are the twelve criteria weighted?+
Deliberately not. Weighting is where a vendor's thumb goes on the scale. Every criterion is worth 1–5, the total runs 12–60, and you decide which low scores you can live with — a 2 on languages is fatal in Kuala Lumpur and irrelevant in Denver.
What if I haven't seen the product yet?+
Score what you can verify and leave the rest at 3. The result then reads as a question list rather than a verdict, which is exactly what you want going into a first call.
Do I have to give you an email?+
You see the total, the per-criterion breakdown and your three questions on screen regardless. The email version is the twelve-question sheet with red-flag answers, formatted to bring to a call.
Want a second opinion on your shortlist?
Bring your scored vendors to a twenty-minute call. We'll run them through the same twelve criteria, point out where the gaps usually hide, and show where Talvin scores — including where we don't fit.