The Changing Landscape of Recruiting AI Agents: How "AI x Professional Knowledge and Know-how" Upgrades Both the Quantity and Quality of Hiring Activities 【2025 ICT Startup League Member Interview: CraftX Inc.】

The issue of "people" is fundamental to any company. Acquiring exceptional talent, in particular, is a major theme that can determine the fate of a growing startup.

CraftX Inc. aims to make the know-how and experience of recruitment strategy design and execution—traditionally considered the domain of "professionals"—accessible to any company through an AI-powered system.

We spoke with CEO Yu Zakoda, who began his career as a professional in organizational consulting, about the innovation AI is bringing to the world of recruitment.

CraftX's ultimate vision. The company aims to become a platform that solves the organizational challenges of all companies.

"Exceptional Talent Evolves a Company." Realizing the Importance of Recruitment Through Organizational Consulting

Could you tell us about your background and how you came to start your own company?

Zakoda: I joined Link and Motivation Inc. as a new graduate in 2019 and engaged in organizational consulting. I had many opportunities to work with mega-ventures aiming to go public, focusing on consulting in the recruitment domain, as well as designing HR systems and corporate philosophies.
After about three years, I moved to Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting LLC. While my work there was also in organizational consulting, the clients were now major corporations with sales in the trillions of yen, and I was involved in compensation strategy, personnel requirement design, and succession planning.
Then, in 2023, I went independent and founded CraftX. Initially, we provided DX services for the construction industry, but we later pivoted to our current business.

Could you introduce your current business?

Zakoda: We offer an organizational consulting service that utilizes AI agents. At the moment, we specialize in the recruitment field. We aggregate various recruitment knowledge, including the consulting know-how I've accumulated, and insights from experts and corporate HR personnel, and our own employees provide recruitment consulting services based on that model.

How did your interest in entrepreneurship develop?

Zakoda: Many of my relatives are entrepreneurs, including my father who runs a construction company. Growing up watching them, I think I had decided to start my own business by the time I was about 10. Taking over my father's business was an option, but I wanted to build my own company and surpass his.

By being exposed to the dynamism of management at such close quarters, did you become aware early on that "people" are the key to an organization?

Zakoda: Watching my father, I did realize that "talent is everything." Another significant experience was during my job-hunting days. Since my desire to start a business was already firm, I took advantage of the opportunity as a student to speak with famous entrepreneurs, repeatedly asking them, "What is the most important thing in management?" I still vividly remember that many of their answers were "recruitment." I chose organizational consulting for my first career because I was convinced that the strongest companies are those that are strong in recruitment.

Are there any memorable experiences or insights from that time?

Zakoda: At Link and Motivation, I mainly worked with venture companies, and what struck me was the fact that a company evolves by hiring exceptional talent. Welcoming outstanding colleagues creates a positive tension, a sense that the company must be worthy of them, which revitalizes the organization. By being involved in recruitment, I shared in the joy of seeing companies grow and reaffirmed the immense value of the recruitment field.
Also, at Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting, I had the valuable experience of creating succession plans for some of Japan's leading large corporations. I was able to learn about the process of developing individuals with extraordinary abilities—people who can integrate information from diverse departments and events, make decisions, and take responsibility for those decisions.

Important matters are always discussed at the whiteboard.

AI Agents Can More Than Double the Efficiency of Recruitment-Related Tasks

How did the concept of "recruitment consulting utilizing AI agents" take shape?

Zakoda: After becoming independent, I provided management support to various companies, and one issue I noticed was that "for most companies, recruitment consulting fees feel very expensive." Unlike sales or marketing, the recruitment segment isn't directly tied to revenue, so it's difficult for them to visualize a return on investment.
However, I was convinced that the biggest need for companies is solving their "recruitment" challenges, and I never doubted the value of recruitment consulting itself. I was certain that if there was a solution that aggregated the world's recruitment know-how and offered it at a low cost, it would definitely be used, and many companies could strengthen their hiring.

How are you currently developing and providing the service?

Zakoda: We offer two main types of services. First is our unique solution, a service that provides access to professional knowledge using AI. We have five in-house engineers working on AI development. We are currently in the demo version development stage and aim for a product release within 2025. We plan to start by increasing users, mainly through free offerings, and eventually unify our business into this service.

What is the other service menu?

Zakoda: In parallel, we run a conventional performance-based talent agency business. This is a personalized service similar to traditional recruitment consulting, where we handle the entire practical side of recruitment. While fulfilling our clients' talent acquisition needs, we also have them use the AI agent for free to understand its value, and they have been very cooperative with AI verification and data learning.

With AI's involvement in recruitment, what kind of changes will occur in the hiring practices currently common in the world? Will they be quantitative or qualitative?

Zakoda: I think it will be both. First, regarding "quantity," a company's hiring manager's work can be broadly divided into two parts: designing the recruitment strategy and executing it. We are primarily focusing on the strategy design part. This involves collecting case studies of successful companies and speaking with various HR personnel and vendors (such as recruiting agencies and staffing firms) in related industries. AI can dramatically improve the efficiency of this vast amount of research work.

How will the "quality" aspect be improved?

Zakoda: Even specialized consulting firms have a limited number of specialists and vendors they can connect with. We are constantly searching for such information and can derive the optimal solution from a database that is almost comprehensive. We believe that the recruitment strategy itself will become more sophisticated, both in terms of reducing workload and improving the quality of the output.

In terms of ensuring fairness, which is a difficulty associated with HR and recruitment, can AI help to distinguish from an individual's arbitrary judgment?

Zakoda: That is also an area where AI excels, providing objective answers based on performance. Also, in interviews, the interviewer's questions are often improvised, but we believe we can standardize know-how such as, "to assess this talent's qualities, asking these questions improves accuracy."

What has been the response from companies? Also, what kind of industries will be your main clients?

Zakoda: We have received feedback like "it's very valuable" and "we're learning a lot." Currently, we are working with companies from various industries, but as we continue to refine the recruitment AI agent, we expect to focus on roles in IT, consulting, sales, and marketing.
In terms of business scale, we anticipate that mid-sized companies in a growth stage with annual sales of 1 billion to tens of billions of yen will be one of our main targets. These companies are significantly increasing their sales and have a strong desire for exceptional talent, but they face the challenge of not being able to win in recruitment battles against major corporations. However, companies in this phase have a wealth of strategies they can employ, making the value of designing a recruitment strategy very high. For example, even if a candidate is inexperienced in that industry, if they are talented and have the right mentality, there is a sufficient possibility of acquiring them.

A scene from product development. Not just product development members, but also business development members often participate in discussions.

Aiming to Become a Global Platform that Solves All Organizational Challenges

What results do you hope to achieve in the ICT Startup League?

Zakoda: Since we are receiving support for AI development, our first goal is to complete that development properly. In addition, as an immediate goal for PMF (Product-Market Fit), we are aiming for 100 client companies. Although most will be free-of-charge introductions, I feel this is a very achievable line. From there, it would be great if we could generate even just a few monetization case studies for now.

What kind of future developments do you envision?

Zakoda: We are envisioning expanding beyond a service specializing in recruitment to a consulting service that solves all HR and organizational issues, including employee retention, training, and health management. Furthermore, we would like to offer Japan's know-how for solving organizational issues to overseas markets such as the Middle East, Asia, and America.

What are your impressions of participating in the ICT Startup League?

Zakoda: When I had the opportunity to speak at the Academy's Value-Up Session the other day, I felt everyone's seriousness and the sentiment that "we have to aim for the world." I believe there are few startup support communities in Japan with such a high perspective, so it was very motivating.
Also, I have been given opportunities for collaboration in various areas, including with Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting LLC, where I used to work, and we have been able to receive direct assistance in our product development.
And the other members of the league are also working on many interesting things, and I've been very inspired. Our recruitment AI agent is a great fit for the kind of up-and-coming startups I've met here, so I would be very happy if we could assist them with talent acquisition as they take their companies to the next level.