Restworld: the Tinder of the restaurant industry

Let’s start from the beginning: how was Restworld created?
It all started by chance. While working on my thesis in Work Psychology, researching burnout, we came across some restaurateurs who asked us to help them publish job ads. From there, everything moved very quickly: we launched Restworld in February 2020 and, shortly after, when a full lockdown was imposed, instead of getting discouraged we decided to keep improving the platform. We began conducting research and working to build a sort of community within the HoReCa sector. Since 2024, we’ve integrated AI into our recruitment and selection processes, especially in conversations with users.

How does artificial intelligence support your work?
Ours is a fast recruitment and selection process. We publish job ads for clients looking for work, or candidates find them on our map or through our job platforms. When they show interest, they receive a message on WhatsApp with a series of questions that restaurant owners would typically ask during an interview.

In this way, we act as an intermediary, analyzing information that may not appear in a CV and identifying which aspects to explore further when there is a potential fit. Candidates can also ask questions about the role. It’s a matching process that benefits both workers and restaurants.

If an employer decides to reject a candidate at this stage, the candidate receives a follow-up message—not just a rejection, but a detailed explanation (around ten lines) of why they were not selected. It also includes advice: for example, if the CV is missing key elements for that role, this is highlighted to help improve future applications. It may also suggest other positions aligned with their experience. Of course, the message clearly states it was generated by AI, and candidates can click a link to speak with a member of our team for further clarification.

Are the WhatsApp questions personalized based on the candidate?
Yes. Restaurants provide the questions they would like to ask, but we tailor them based on each candidate’s profile. If a candidate has already answered a question in their CV, we skip it. Conversely, we may add questions if we believe certain aspects need further exploration to support the candidate.

Recently, we’ve been implementing memory: if you apply for multiple jobs, the system won’t ask you the same question twice, as it remembers your previous answers. Each job seeker also has a personal profile on our platform, which they can update over time. If new skills are added, the AI incorporates them in future interactions. It’s a highly efficient system.

When you introduced AI-driven conversations, was the feedback immediately positive?
We introduced it gradually—starting with ten conversations, then fifty, and so on. It’s essentially a faster process for those who use AI. Job ads often receive a huge number of responses, and employers reviewing them one by one risk missing strong candidates.

Today, we handle around 25,000 conversations per month, with 200,000 users in our network, about 1,000 restaurants in Italy, and 200 abroad. Our system achieves a very high customer experience score. After each conversation, we review how it went, identifying areas for improvement or potential issues in job listings. For example, sometimes a restaurant may state a salary that doesn’t match reality. We continuously refine the system, moving toward increasingly high-quality interactions.

Does this help people who may not have a “perfect” CV at first glance?
One of our main goals is to reduce bias in recruitment processes, which are unfortunately very common. Even in traditional recruiting, we noticed that candidates with more appealing photos were sometimes favored—it’s simply how the human brain works, despite best intentions.

With our method, this doesn’t happen. That said, there have still been cases where a candidate who seemed perfect based on the process was rejected after their CV was reviewed. In those situations, we push back by providing a detailed description of the candidate, only attaching the CV at the end. However, we cannot force employers to reconsider.

Have you considered expanding beyond the restaurant sector?
At this stage, we could replicate our model within a few weeks in sectors like nursing, security, fashion retail, and others—essentially roles tied to physical workplaces. However, for now, we want to stay focused on restaurants and hotels. It’s a product we strongly believe in and are continuously improving. Before expanding into other industries, we want to ensure it reaches its full potential.