Pillar for recruiting in 2026: Pillar is now Employ's AI Interview Companion

Pillar, the interview intelligence startup, is now Employ's AI Interview Companion. Employ, which owns the Lever, Jobvite and JazzHR applicant tracking systems, bought Pillar on March 5, 2025, and as of October 2026 sells it as "Employ's AI Interview Companion (formerly Pillar)". It joins virtual interviews on Zoom, Google Meet and Teams through an ATS integration, records and transcribes them, and adds AI interview guides, live prompts, feedback collection and interviewer coaching. Employ lists integrations with 15 applicant tracking systems, says the product does not score candidates, publishes no price and describes no phone or in-person capture.

If you searched for Pillar because a colleague used it, or because your ATS now offers "Interview Companion", this page explains what it became, how it captures interviews, which systems it works with, what to ask about cost and consent, and who it suits. Every product fact links to Employ's, Lever's or Jobvite's own pages and is dated October 2026.

What happened to Pillar?

Employ's acquisition announcement, dated March 5, 2025, describes Pillar as an AI interview intelligence platform and quotes Employ's chief product officer saying the company wanted to own the interview intelligence roadmap. The product has since been renamed, and the old addresses no longer describe it: when we checked on October 27, 2026, www.heypillar.com redirected to a domain-for-sale page, and lever.co/pillar redirected to Employ's product page. The names you may meet:

Our AI notetaker for Lever guide explains the difference between Lever's included transcripts and the separate Interview Companion in more detail.

How does AI Interview Companion capture an interview?

Employ's integrations page says the product "will automatically join interviews" through the ATS integration, shares interview insights back to the ATS, and "records, transcribes, and automatically creates highlights of every virtual interview." It names three video platforms and three calendars:

• Video: Zoom, Google Meet and Teams.
• Calendar: Calendly, Google Calendar and Outlook, so interview invites sync without a second invitation.
• Not described: phone screens, in-person interviews or a desktop app that records without joining the call.

In practice that makes it a joining note taker for scheduled video interviews. Recruiters whose first screens are phone calls, and hiring managers who interview onsite, need another method for those conversations; see our guide to an AI note taker for in-person interviews.

What does it do for interviewers?

From Employ's product page, as of October 2026:

• Interview guides. Paste a job description and its AI interview guide generates questions "in less than 5 minutes".
• Live guidance. It guides interviewers during the interview and serves recommended skills-based questions.
• Summaries and feedback. Interview summaries, takeaways, and feedback collected in real time.
• Coaching. "Coachable moments" after interviews and a Training Center for interviewer training content.
• Comparison. Video clips and skills-based feedback to compare candidates, plus "candidate sentiment" to understand reactions during the interview.

Employ states that the product "assists with transcription and summarization" and "does not provide candidate scoring or hiring recommendations." The same page also promises "AI-powered recommendations" and "recommending next steps," so ask in the demo exactly what is recommended and to whom.

Which applicant tracking systems does it work with?

Employ lists bi-directional integrations with 15 applicant tracking systems: Ashby, Avature, Eightfold, GR8 People, Greenhouse, iCIMS, JazzHR, Jobvite, Lever, Oracle, Phenom, SAP, SmartRecruiters, UKG and Workday. So although it is an Employ product, it is not limited to Employ's own systems. The list is enterprise and in-house: Bullhorn, JobAdder, Loxo, Crelate and other agency systems do not appear, and Employ's page does not describe client submittals.

On Lever the product page promises you can "work directly in Lever" with the assistant. On Jobvite, the pricing page lists AI Interview Companion as an add-on module alongside Onboarding and referrals.

How much does it cost?

No price is published as of October 2026. Employ's product page offers a demo; Jobvite's pages offer "Request Pricing" for the module; and Lever's pricing page says pricing is available upon request, based on team size and hiring needs. When you ask, find out:

1. Whether it is priced per interviewer, per recruiter seat, per interview or as a platform fee.
2. Whether your ATS contract already includes Lever's transcripts and summaries, and what the Companion adds on top.
3. Whether it can be bought without an Employ ATS, if you are on Greenhouse, Workday or another listed system.

What should you check on consent and AI rules?

Employ's public product pages, as of October 2026, describe no candidate notice or consent feature, and the Lever help articles we tried were not publicly reachable, so we could not confirm the settings from public pages. Ask how candidates are told about the recording, whether they can decline, and what the joining note taker shows in the call. Some states require everyone's consent to record; see two-party consent states and is it legal to record a job interview.

The sentiment and comparison features deserve a separate look. Employ's responsible AI page says its AI is built with IBM watsonx and that it conducts independent bias audits. Ask for the audit if you hire in New York City, and check whether sentiment tracking is optional, since rules on automated employment decision tools turn on how a tool's output is used. This is general information, not legal advice.

If your team used Pillar before, what should you check?

A renamed product under a new owner usually means new paperwork, even when the software feels the same. Before your next renewal, ask Employ in writing:

1. Who is the contracting party now, and whether your Pillar terms, data processing agreement and list of sub-processors still apply or have been replaced.
2. Where past recordings and transcripts are stored, how long they are kept, and how to export or delete one candidate's data on request.
3. Whether your ATS integration needs reconnecting under the new name, and which fields it writes on the candidate record.
4. What changed in the interview flow, for example how the note taker joins and what candidates see when it does.
5. Whether a bias audit or AI documentation is available for the current version, if your legal team keeps one on file for hiring tools.

Keep the answers with your hiring records; they are what you will need if a candidate asks how an interview was recorded and used.

Where does it stop for recruiting?

• Virtual interviews only, as far as Employ's pages describe.
• A bot in the call. It joins interviews; there is no described bot-free mode.
• No agency systems or submittals. Built for in-house hiring teams.
• No public price, so it is hard to compare without a sales process.
• Old Pillar documentation is gone from the original site, so check any feature you remember against Employ's current pages.

Who should use it?

A sensible choice if:

• You run Lever or Jobvite and want interview intelligence from the same company as your ATS.
• You are an in-house team on one of the other listed systems and want structured guides, feedback collection and interviewer coaching across many hiring managers.
• You used Pillar before the acquisition and want continuity; confirm your contract, data location and integration under the new name.

Look elsewhere if:

• You are an agency recruiter on Bullhorn or JobAdder, or most of your screens are phone calls.
• You want a lighter, self-serve note taker with published prices, such as those in our Otter and Granola reviews.

We make Interview Signal, one alternative for interviewers who want no bot in the call: a Windows and macOS app that captures video interviews and phone screens run through the computer, keeps a question guide on screen, and drafts a scorecard and submittal, at published prices: a free 20 minutes, hour packs from $9 and Solo at $49 a month (see pricing). It has no ATS integration (you paste the output) and none of Employ's enterprise coaching. Everything about Employ's product on this page comes from its own sites, linked and dated. For phone-first recruiting, our Honeit review covers a platform that records calls natively.