How Coinbase is Embracing AI in Recruiting

For candidates, you can think of this AI-driven approach in one of two ways: 1) One that opens a new door to shine earlier in the process and showcase your capabilities, or 2) One that makes the recruiting process more robotic and less personal. For those of you that choose number 1, Coinbase is for you.

For recruiters, your role is not going away—but it is evolving fast, and those who embrace new technologies will redefine what it means to be world-class. The future of talent acquisition and job seeking belongs to those who embrace this evolution, level up, and lead with human insight, powered by technology. 

Transforming recruiting with AI

Our AI journey in Talent Acquisition is marked by the following steps, and is one of the many business areas we’re leveraging the technology to supercharge our team: 

Smarter Resume Screening

Last year, following our Talent Density blog post, we were fortunate to receive a record-breaking volume of applicants, a trend that’s continuing in 2025. To help us with the quantity, for select locations and roles outside of the EU/UK, we built an in-house AI application review tool that sorts and prioritizes relevant experience and skills to our open roles, enabling us to hone in on top talent while minimizing human bias. The reality of the modern, corporate recruiting engine is that it’s nearly impossible to scale a Talent team to match applicant volume—but AI can get us much closer by giving more applications a fair shot. A recruiter remains central to the process by reviewing each qualified applicant, but we’re now doing it in a smarter, more efficient way. 

AI-Powered Phone Screens Pilot

This spring, we’ve begun testing AI-powered phone screens for select roles (list below), with the ultimate goal of applying this technology to all eligible positions by the end of 2025. We envision a world where every candidate starts their application with an AI interview, enabling them to immediately give a 2D pitch of themselves, whenever it’s convenient for them. 

How it works: Applicants who pass resume review complete a 15-minute screen with an AI interviewer who evaluates job qualifications and experience, and answers candidate questions. This will enable us to give more candidates the opportunity to provide color to their application, as we’ll no longer be limited by recruiter bandwidth. For candidates, this means a faster opportunity to share their story and more rapidly move to the next stage if it’s a fit. 

So far, 85% of candidates report having a positive experience with the AI recruiter, calling it “clear, conversational, and easy” and said they would move forward if invited based on their interaction. 320+ candidates have interviewed with the technology so far, and we’ll be continuously refining the technology (i.e. ensuring it doesn’t interrupt candidates) throughout this summer. Note: All roles included in the pilot will be reviewed by a recruiter to ensure consistency in scoring; the recruiter’s score is what will be used to progress applicants during the pilot. 

Interview Scheduling

Scheduling interviews is a manual nightmare, so we’re bringing in AI to automate the coordination process. AI will factor in interviewer preferences, adjust for conflicts, and even propose alternate panel members. This isn’t just about saving time—it’s about eliminating the back-and-forth, allowing our recruiting team to focus on connecting with candidates and giving applicants more time to prepare for their calls. We plan to launch this capability in early Q3 2025.

Interview and Scorecard Notetaking

Interviews are about connection—but let’s be honest, taking notes and managing scorecards distracts from the conversation. AI notetaking and scorecard assistance can fix this. Interviewers can stay engaged while AI captures the key details and action items, and candidates get to enjoy fully present interviewers. By removing administrative tasks, we create more space for genuine human connection. Look for this to launch in Q3 2025.

Carving a New Path

While some worry AI will dehumanize the hiring process, we believe the opposite. Deploying AI will enable more quality interactions, more quickly for the candidates who are the best fit for our jobs– without unnecessary administrative tasks or distractions. We fully believe in AI’s ability to build depth and breadth in our selection process, while acknowledging that the road ahead will have its challenges. Let’s face it: the candidates who want to work at Coinbase are as enthusiastic about AI as we are. They, like us, are optimistic about the future of this (and all) technology.

Coinbase is an equal opportunity employer, and our AI efforts don’t change that. In fact, we believe this technology will fuel our fair and consistent process to reach even more candidates for quality interactions with our Talent Acquisition team. We are putting rigorous checks in place to ensure all candidate information is treated with confidentiality and parity. We will pilot, test, and iterate to ensure a positive user experience, equal opportunity, and efficiency is enjoyed by all. 

*Roles we’re piloting AI phone screens with:

• Consumer QA Analyst

• Machine Learning Engineer

• Software Engineer (Emerging Talent)

• Senior Technology Risk Analyst

• Software Engineer, Backend (NAMER)

• Software Engineer, Backend (APAC)

• Customer Success Agent II

• Product Manager I (Consumer)

• Senior Associate, Product Partnerships

• IT Service Desk Engineer

• Internal Audit Analyst