Why This Founder Believes AI Can Make Hiring More Human

Carol Xie did not begin her career in HR or in tech. She began her career in finance and consulting, with experience at notable firms. As a CPA, she was trained to identify internal inefficiencies and pinpoint why even their best efforts failed to secure clients.

The same pattern kept emerging. She sat by “watching projects fail even when the ‘numbers were right,’ because the teams were misaligned,” she said. What seemed like execution issues were actually people problems. That idea stuck with her. Growing up in the U.K., Singapore, and Canada, she noticed patterns in how markets defined success, talent, and credibility. Her experience in finance sharpened that instinct into an enduring belief: hiring is one of the most overlooked barriers in business.

Why Hiring Matters Even More Now

Despite ongoing updates in talent acquisition technology, hiring can still be slow, manual, and biased. Resumes often outweigh someone’s interpersonal skills, and founders frequently spend countless hours recruiting, only to make misinformed hires that cost them time and momentum.

Carol saw an opportunity for change. Hiring is often treated as an HR duty, but it’s really part of a larger strategy. It’s not about who looks best on paper, but about what the outcome goal is for the new hire. “First ask what outcome the hire is meant to achieve, then work backward,” she says. That question became the foundation of Brix, a company she created to rethink AI recruiting from the ground up.

Building Brix: A Contextual AI

Brix is not designed to replace the value of a recruiting team. Instead, it’s designed to support them. The platform uses contextual AI and agentic workflows that help define the problem a hire is meant to solve. The AI recruiting agent is designed to surface candidates based on evidence of their accomplishments, shortening hiring loops without stripping away vital human judgment.

“AI can process context at scale, but people still make the final call,” she explained. “The goal is faster, fairer, more accurate decisions.” This philosophy isn’t often found in existing automated recruiting software, which mainly focuses on speed alone. Brix instead optimizes match quality by pulling together a candidate’s experience. It ultimately reduces time wasted for both companies and applicants. In the end, companies can make informed decisions more quickly while still operating fairly.

For Carol herself, execution is everything. That belief shapes both Brix's product and culture. High standards and outcome-based evaluations reward what people deliver, not their background.

Greater Opportunity In the Future of Work

Brix’s impact has been measurable, reporting shorter hiring processes, employees better aligned with company goals, and less fatigue for hirers. Carol wants hiring systems that expand opportunities rather than narrow them, especially in the future, when AI hiring tools will increasingly shape who gets access to a position.

Her story is that of a different leader in HR tech. A builder who learned the industry quickly, led with her best judgment, and saw AI as an opportunity for promoting human decisions. You don’t need to be the most technical person in the room. What matters most is a willingness to learn, have clear judgment, and the courage to build something new.