iview.ai: Nikhil Mittal on Transforming Recruitment with Interactive AI

Guest: Nikhil Mittal Date: January 15, 2026 Read Time: 10 mins

Recruitment in the tech industry has long been a manual, time-consuming, and often biased process. Despite massive technological advancements elsewhere, HR tech has lagged behind. Nikhil Mittal, the Co-founder of iview.ai and an IIT Dhanbad graduate, is bridging this gap. By utilizing interactive AI video chatbots, Nikhil is helping companies find better talent faster, while providing candidates with a screening experience that feels human, assistive, and fair.

The 'Broken' Hiring Space

Nikhil’s inspiration for iview.ai came from his four years at Goldman Sachs, where he witnessed the immense difficulty of screening engineering talent at scale. "The space felt broken," Nikhil explains. "Companies were losing good candidates either to long wait times or to automated systems that were too rigid. We saw an opportunity to bring real interview ingredients—hints, adaptability, and real-time evaluation—into an automated platform."

Founded in April 2025 (as a full-time venture), iview.ai doesn't just record videos for humans to watch later. Its AI bot interacts with the candidate, pushing them when they feel stuck and evaluating their technical performance deterministically. This reduces the manual intervention required from hiring managers and significantly lowers recruitment costs.

"Building a product is the easy part. Building a brand that people trust is the true challenge of entrepreneurship. You have to convince yourself before you can convince the market." — Nikhil Mittal

Interactive AI vs. Rigid Automation

One of the biggest criticisms of automated hiring is that it often filters candidates based on keywords or rigid "pass/fail" criteria. Nikhil emphasizes that iview.ai is different. "Real interviews are assistive," he says. "An interviewer gives you a hint if you're close. Our AI bot does the same. It differentiates between someone who is weak on fundamentals and someone who just needs a little push."

The iview.ai Difference

Deterministic Evaluation: Decisions are based on technical accuracy, not probabilistic keyword matching.
Removing Bias: AI evaluates every candidate on the same scale, removing the human subjectivity often found in early screening rounds.
Assistive Nature: The bot provides hints and adapts the interview path based on the candidate's strengths and tech stack preference.

From Goldman Sachs to 'Leap of Faith'

Leaving a well-paying job at a global firm like Goldman Sachs is never easy, but for Nikhil, it was a dream long in the making. Fortunately, his family—with his father being a businessman himself—understood the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship. "They advising me to think it through, but once they saw my conviction, they were fully supportive," he shares. This financial and emotional runway was critical for the initial brainstorming phase.

The Founding Workflow

Ideation: Nikhil met his co-founder, Sarthak, during their initial training at Goldman Sachs. They brainstormed for months before taking the plunge.
Validation: Before writing a single line of code for the product, they talked to potential customers to ensure people were actually ready to buy what they intended to build.
Execution: Being software engineers, they built the first MVP (Minimum Viable Product) from scratch and leveraged their network for initial trials.
Trial & ROI: Their first paying customer came after a successful trial where the ROI (Return on Investment) in terms of saved hours and dollars was clearly demonstrated.

The Challenge of Brand Building

Nikhil admits that building the technology was the "easiest" part of the journey. The real unforeseen challenge was building a brand. "Building a brand which people trust is a significant challenge," he notes. "Especially in HR tech, where you are dealing with people's careers and companies' growth, trust is the primary currency."

Vision for the Future

Talent Velocity: Helping companies fill critical roles faster so that growth plans aren't hindered by the lack of talent.
Candidate Experience: Moving away from robotic questionnaires to intuitive, interactive video conversations.
Global Scale: Leveraging the post-COVID digital adoption to bring AI-driven hiring to companies worldwide.

Advice for Aspiring Founders

To those looking to start their own journey, Nikhil has one piece of advice: **Know your 'Why'.**

"Ask yourself why you want to do this in the first place," he suggests. "Once you have that clarity, look for a challenge where you have a 'biased advantage'—whether it's a unique skill set or a deep insight into an industry gap. If you can convince yourself, you can go ahead. There is no right time; there is only the right conviction."

Nikhil Mittal continues to iterate on iview.ai, ensuring that while the hiring process becomes more automated, it remains fundamentally human-centric and fair.