AI Talent Discovery

AI Talent Discovery is a new V2 feature that lets you source candidates by describing the role in plain English instead of building complex boolean searches. If you prefer the precision of boolean, the same screen also offers an Advanced Search mode — see Advanced Search (boolean) below. You tell the AI who you’re hiring for, and it interprets skills, experience, location, seniority, domain expertise, and hiring intent to surface and rank matching candidates — so you can review match scores, message people, and add them to your pipeline in a few steps.

BETA feature

AI Talent Discovery is currently in BETA. Functionality and the interface may continue to change as the feature evolves.

Where to find it

Sidebar: Talent Network → AI Talent Discovery URL: app.pitchnhire.com/sourcing

Overview

The feature opens on a Welcome to AI Candidate Search screen built around a single prompt box. A row of cards above the input previews the workflow the AI runs through — Describe the role, AI ranks by fit, See match scores, Message in a click, and Add to pipeline — and a Start Searching button kicks off your first search.

The supporting copy explains the core idea: “Describe the candidate you need in plain English. Our AI understands skills, experience, location, seniority, domain expertise, and hiring intent.”

Key features

• Plain-English prompt box — type the role you’re hiring for in the “Describe the role you’re hiring for…” field. No boolean operators required.
• Voice input — a microphone icon in the prompt box lets you describe the role by speaking.
• Describe the role — the AI parses your natural-language request into structured search criteria.
• AI ranks by fit — candidates are ordered by how closely they match what you described.
• See match scores — each candidate surfaces with a fit/match score so you can prioritise the strongest profiles.
• Message in a click — reach out to promising candidates directly from the results.
• Add to pipeline — move candidates straight into a job’s pipeline once you’ve identified a fit.
• Start Searching — a clear call-to-action button to begin your first AI search.

Advanced Search (boolean)

Above the search box there are two tabs: AI Search and Advanced Search. Switch to Advanced Search when you want to state exactly what must and must not be true of a candidate, the way you would in a recruiter search tool.

Where to find it

Talent Network → AI Talent Discovery → the Advanced Search tab next to AI Search, above the search bar. The mode is remembered in the page URL (?mode=advanced), so a bookmarked or shared link reopens in the same mode with the same query.

The Advanced Search box checks your query as you type. A green tick and a term count mean the query is valid; a red message with a caret (^) points at the exact character that caused the problem, for example Unclosed ”(” at position 14. Click Syntax help in the box for a quick reference at any time.

While you type, the box also suggests values from your data — start typing after skills: or city: and pick a suggestion with ↑ / ↓ and Enter, or press Esc to dismiss it. The suggestion is inserted at your cursor, so the rest of the query is left alone.

Syntax cheat sheet

What you want	How to write it
Both terms must match	java AND kotlin
Either term matches	java OR kotlin
Exclude a term	NOT android (or -android)
Scope a term to a field	skills:java
Scope a whole group to a field	skills:(java OR kotlin)
Exact phrase	"machine learning"
Numeric comparison	experience:>5, ctc:<=1500000
Numeric range	experience:3..8
Wildcard	node* matches Node.JS and NodeJS
Grouping	(java AND spring) OR (python AND django)

Fields you can search on this screen: skills, city, state, country, gender, experience (or exp), ctc, education (or edu), company, title, role, and name. A term with no field prefix is matched across the profile.

Matching is case-insensitive — java, Java and JAVA return the same candidates. NOT binds tightest, then AND, then OR, so use brackets whenever you are unsure. Two terms with no operator between them (java kotlin) are treated as AND.

Examples

• skills:(java OR kotlin) AND NOT skills:android — Java or Kotlin developers, but nobody doing Android.
• skills:("machine learning" OR "deep learning") AND experience:>5 — senior ML profiles only.
• company:"Tata Consultancy Services" OR company:Infosys — people from either firm.
• education:("IIT" OR "NIT") AND NOT city:Pune — those institutes, outside Pune.
• title:("senior engineer" OR "sde 2") AND experience:3..8 — a title and an experience band together.

Candidates who match more of your terms are ranked higher, so the strongest profiles stay at the top of the results.

Did you mean…?

If a search returns nothing because of a typo, a Did you mean …? chip appears above the results with a corrected query — for example skills:jva suggests skills:java. Click the chip to replace your query and re-run the search. If you mistype a field name (skils:java), the box suggests the correct field the same way.

Step-by-step

1. Open Talent Network → AI Talent Discovery from the sidebar.
2. On the Welcome to AI Candidate Search screen, click Start Searching (or click directly into the prompt box).
3. In the “Describe the role you’re hiring for…” box, type a natural-language description of who you need — include skills, years of experience, location, seniority, and any domain expertise. You can also use the microphone icon to dictate the prompt.
4. Submit the prompt to let the AI interpret your criteria and rank candidates by fit.
5. Review the returned candidates and their match scores to focus on the best matches.
6. Message a candidate in a click to start a conversation, or add the candidate to a job’s pipeline to advance them.

Tip

Be specific in your prompt. Mentioning concrete skills, a seniority level, a location, and the kind of work the person will do gives the AI much more to match against than a one-word job title.

Tips

Tip

Treat the prompt like a short hiring brief. For example, “Senior React developer in Pune with 5+ years building SaaS dashboards, strong TypeScript and accessibility experience” will produce sharper rankings than “frontend developer”.

Tip

Use the match scores to triage. Start outreach with the highest-scoring candidates and add them to your pipeline first, then work down the list.

Common issues & fixes

Results don’t match what I expected

Refine your description. Add or remove specific skills, adjust the experience range, or clarify the location and seniority, then run the search again. The more precise the prompt, the more relevant the ranking.

The feature behaves differently than documented

AI Talent Discovery is in BETA, so the interface and behaviour can change between releases. If something looks different from this guide, the screen in the live app is the source of truth.

My boolean query shows a red error

The message under the box names the problem and the caret marks the character it starts at. The usual causes are an unclosed bracket, an unclosed quote, or a field name that does not exist — check the field list in Advanced Search (boolean), or open Syntax help in the box.

A boolean search returns nothing

Loosen it one clause at a time: drop a NOT, swap an AND for an OR, or shorten a phrase to a single word. If a Did you mean …? chip appears, click it — a single mistyped term is the most common cause.

Voice input isn’t capturing my prompt

Make sure your browser has permission to use the microphone, then try the voice input again or type the description directly into the prompt box.