EUAn AI receptionist for an Irish AI company that takes data protection seriously.
TalentHunter is a Dublin-based AI recruitment platform. Its founders wanted every call to their line answered properly, every caller told up front they're speaking with an AI, and nothing about the setup they couldn't defend to a data protection reviewer. This is how we built Sofia, their AI receptionist.
talenthunter.me ↗
Answer every caller properly, without cutting corners on data.
TalentHunter's line gets calls from employers who want to hire, candidates asking about jobs, and people with questions about the platform. As a company that has signed the EU AI Pact, they weren't going to put just any AI on their phone. Their requirements were in writing from day one:
- Handle employers, candidates and general callers, each in the right way
- Ask employers the qualifying questions TalentHunter's team actually needs
- Tell every caller at the start that they're speaking with an AI
- Collect only the information needed to help the caller, and nothing sensitive
- Get every call to the team with a clear, factual summary
- Understand Irish callers, and get Irish names right
From first meeting to live in eight days.
We built it and tested it on real calls, then changed what didn't work, and TalentHunter approved each step.
-
29 September
Discovery, with a demo already built
We arrived at the first meeting with TalentHunter's co-founder with an Irish demo receptionist already working, and left with his written brief.
-
30 September
Rebuilt for speed
The first demo worked but paused too long before replying, and that sounds robotic on a phone call. We rebuilt it on a faster voice pipeline and tuned every setting that adds delay, so replies come back in around a second and a half.
-
1 to 5 October
Built for Irish names
Most speech recognisers turn Irish names into English words before the AI ever sees them. We tested several recognisers against real recordings of hard Irish names and kept the one that got them right. We then added a pronunciation dictionary and name handling that reads back the spelling letter by letter whenever it's unsure.
-
4 to 6 October
Data protection review
TalentHunter's data protection reviewers sent a list of changes, covering wording, data fields, retention and the call summary. We made every one before launch and signed an Article 28 data processing agreement. The technical detail is below.
-
7 October
Live on TalentHunter's line
TalentHunter's team called in to test it, then their number was forwarded to Sofia. Summaries started arriving with the team straight away.
-
Since launch
Tuned with the client
At TalentHunter's request we gave Sofia a new voice and greeting, made her easier for callers to interrupt, and connected her to their live job listings, which sync through the day so she can tell candidates what's open. Every change was approved in writing first, as the agreement requires.
What Sofia does on every call.
For employers
Asks TalentHunter's qualifying questions and takes the details for a callback. Urgent enquiries and those with several roles to fill reach the team flagged as priority.
For candidates
Answers questions about the platform and current job listings, and explains that candidates use TalentHunter for free.
For the team
Sends a factual summary of every call straight to TalentHunter's inbox, with the caller's details, the reason for the call and when they'd like a callback.
What she never does
She never assesses or judges candidates and never asks for sensitive information. She never pretends to be a person, and any caller can ask for a member of the team.
How we handled GDPR and the EU AI Act.
This is the technical detail behind the setup, for whoever in your business has to sign off on it.
Where the data goes on each call
- 1CallerRings TalentHunter's own number, which forwards to an Irish 061 number.
- 2Voice AISpeech to text, the AI model and text to speech run in real time. No recording is kept, and the voice platform keeps only basic call details, deleted after 1 day.
- 3Call noteAn authenticated webhook writes a factual summary to a database in Ireland, with automatic deletion.
- 4Summary emailSent to TalentHunter's team through an EU-based email provider.
Data minimisation
- Collects only the name, contact details, reason for the call and preferred callback time
- Refuses PPS numbers, health information and payment details
- Calls are not recorded. The greeting tells callers that only a written note is kept
- The summary is strictly factual and draws no conclusions about the caller
Retention and deletion
- The voice platform is set to keep basic call details only, for 1 day
- Call notes in the Irish database have a deletion date set from the moment they're written
- A scheduled job runs every night and deletes anything past its retention date
Security controls
- Row-level security on every table. Public access returns nothing
- Database keys live only on the server and never reach a browser
- The AI's lookups and webhooks are authenticated with a shared secret, which has been rotated
- Server functions run in Dublin, and everything is encrypted in transit
- Each call is processed exactly once, so retries never send duplicate emails or create duplicate records
EU AI Act
- Every call opens by saying it's an AI (the Article 50 transparency duty)
- Front desk only: Sofia never assesses, filters or judges candidates. That keeps her out of the AI Act's high-risk employment category
- An AI register records the system's owner, purpose, risk mapping and staff guidance
- No change to the AI model, prompt or call flow goes live without TalentHunter's written approval and advance notice
The paperwork
- An Article 28 GDPR data processing agreement, signed by both sides
- Every subprocessor named, with what it processes and where
- A transfer impact assessment for the US-based voice and AI processing, which relies on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and Standard Contractual Clauses
- Data processing agreements signed with our own providers
- The AI model provider runs under zero data retention and doesn't train on calls
An EU-only fallback, already built
Some organisations need every part of a call processed inside the EU. We built and tested a fully EU-hosted version of Sofia, with the voice and AI running in an EU data centre. It's ready to switch on if TalentHunter, or a future client, needs it.
TalentHunter remains the controller of its callers' data and responsible for its own obligations, such as its privacy notice. No provider can guarantee compliance for every business; what we can do is show exactly how each deployment is set up, in writing.
Want the same for your business?
Every Receptwell deployment gets the same written agreement, retention controls and AI transparency. Tell Sean about your calls and he'll tell you straight whether it's a fit.