OpenAI backs Indian startup Vahan to automate blue-collar hiring with voice AI

When Ashok, a caterer in Bengaluru, lost his job during the pandemic, he turned to a job search app—and ended up speaking to what sounded like a real recruiter. On the other end was Vahan’s AI-powered assistant, built on OpenAI’s technology, which helped him land a gig with Swiggy.

Vahan, a Bengaluru-based startup, has partnered with OpenAI to deploy GPT-4o and GPT-4o-mini as part of its “AI recruiter,” which helps automate hiring in India’s informal workforce. The voice-based chatbot—operating over regular phone calls in Hindi and English—answers questions about salaries, job roles, and locations, and even collects and verifies ID documents to be shared with recruitment agencies.

The startup now enables over 40,000 monthly placements for platforms like Swiggy, Zomato, Blinkit, and Zepto. “But in a country like India, it’s still a drop in the ocean,” founder and CEO Madhav Krishna told ET.

From chatbot to recruiter

Launched in 2016 as a WhatsApp bot focused on upskilling, Vahan pivoted to recruitment in 2019. “We realised that blue-collar workers don’t look for jobs online—they rely on word of mouth or small agencies,” Krishna said.

Vahan now partners with 1,500 recruitment agencies across 900+ cities, offering them software to match job seekers with employers and deploying its AI recruiter to streamline high-volume tasks. “In some cases, productivity has gone up 300%,” Krishna claimed.

Voice-first, not job-first

In contrast to AI models replacing human labour, Krishna says the goal is amplification. “The cost of labour in India is low. AI shouldn’t replace people but help teams grow and earn more,” he said.

The AI recruiter will soon expand to support eight Indian languages and is branching into new categories such as factory workers, warehouse staff, and cab drivers, in line with India’s expected manufacturing push.

ET had reported in September 2024 that Vahan raised $10 million from Khosla Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator, Gaingels, and Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma.