Checkout.com has pursued a “strategic embrace of AI as a transformative force”

“Our focus is on enhancing human potential and optimizing business outcomes through intelligent automation, rather than displacing human capital,” explained Omri Grinfeld, Talent Acquisition Principal at Checkout.com.

CTech’s "HR in the AI Era" series explores how the AI revolution is impacting the workforce across Israeli high-tech companies. In this series, we uncover the effects (both personal and professional) that this technology shift has had on Startup Nation.

Omri Grinfeld

“We see AI as an immense opportunity to enhance efficiency, drive innovation, and unlock new capabilities across various functions,” Grinfeld continued. “Specifically within the HR department, we are not experiencing disruption because we are leading the charge in leveraging AI to optimize our talent acquisition and management processes.”

You can read the entire interview below.

Company name: Checkout.com
Your name and title: Omri Grinfeld - Principal, Talent Acquisition
Names of founders and upper management: Guillaume Pousaz
Year of founding: 2012
Investment stage: Series D
Total investment to date: Approximately $1.8 Billion
Field of activity: FinTech
Number of employees: Approximately 2000 employees
Office location: Tel Aviv (HQ in London)
Number of open positions: 104

On a scale of 1-10, how much does the AI revolution disrupt your company operation in general, and the HR department specifically?

I would rate the AI revolution's disruptive impact on our company as a 2 out of 10, but I want to clarify why. This low score doesn't imply complacency; rather, it reflects our proactive and strategic embrace of AI as a transformative force, not a disruptive one.

From a general operational standpoint, we see AI as an immense opportunity to enhance efficiency, drive innovation, and unlock new capabilities across various functions. We are actively exploring and investing in AI tools that align with our strategic objectives.

Specifically within the HR department, we are not experiencing disruption because we are leading the charge in leveraging AI to optimize our talent acquisition and management processes, with a particular focus on enhancing fairness and driving our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) agenda.

We view AI as a powerful enabler to:

Streamline Recruitment and Eliminate Bias: By automating initial resume screening and candidate matching, AI allows us to go beyond subjective human review. This is crucial because we are specifically using AI to remove unconscious biases related to factors like names, gender, age, or educational background that can inadvertently creep into traditional hiring. The AI focuses purely on objective criteria – skills, experience, and qualifications – creating a level playing field for all applicants. This not only reduces time-to-hire but, more importantly, ensures a fairer and more equitable assessment process.

Broaden Talent Pools and Enhance Diversity: AI enables us to cast a wider net in candidate sourcing, identifying qualified individuals from diverse backgrounds and non-traditional career paths who might otherwise be overlooked. This direct impact on diversifying our talent pipeline is a significant strategic advantage.

What interesting AI tools do you and your staff use in employee management/recruitment?

While we're constantly evaluating new technologies, one of the most impactful AI tools we've developed and deployed in-house is our AI-powered Continuous Performance Management System.

This isn't just a traditional annual review platform; it's a dynamic, year-round tool designed to revolutionize how we manage employee performance and foster continuous development.

Here’s why it’s so valuable:

From Static Reviews to Continuous Feedback: Unlike conventional, often one-off annual reviews, our AI tool facilitates ongoing feedback loops. It allows managers and peers to provide real-time input, track progress against goals throughout the year, and identify areas for support and growth much more frequently. This proactive approach helps prevent surprises at year-end and promotes consistent improvement.

Enhanced Objectivity and Fairness: The AI component helps us analyze performance data more objectively. It can identify patterns in performance metrics, highlight achievements, and even detect potential biases in feedback (e.g. consistency across different managers for similar roles), promoting a fairer and more equitable evaluation process. This complements our broader commitment to DEI by ensuring performance assessments are based on tangible contributions rather than subjective impressions.

Proactive Development and Skill Gap Identification: By continuously monitoring performance data and skill development, the AI can help us identify emerging skill gaps at both individual and team levels. This enables us to proactively recommend personalized training modules or development opportunities, ensuring our workforce remains agile and future-ready.

Strategic Workforce Planning Insights: The aggregated data from this tool provides invaluable insights for strategic workforce planning. We can better understand top performers, identify high-potential employees, anticipate training needs across departments, and even predict potential attrition, allowing us to make more informed decisions about talent allocation and succession planning.

Increased Employee Engagement and Retention: By providing employees with clear, consistent, and actionable feedback, and empowering them to track their own progress, the tool significantly enhances engagement. Employees feel more valued and supported in their professional journeys, which directly contributes to higher retention rates.

This in-house solution represents a significant strategic investment that aligns directly with our goals of optimizing human capital, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, and driving overall organizational performance.

In which roles or tasks within your company has AI already begun to replace human labor (if at all)?

Our strategy for AI integration is firmly centered on augmentation, not replacement. We have not replaced human roles with AI. Instead, we are strategically leveraging AI to enhance the capabilities of our workforce, making their work more efficient, insightful, and ultimately, more impactful.

We view AI as a powerful co-pilot and an intelligent assistant. Here's how we're deploying it:

Elevating, Not Eliminating, Roles: In areas like HR and Recruitment, for instance, AI has taken over highly repetitive and time-consuming administrative tasks. This includes initial resume screening, data entry, scheduling coordination, and providing first-level answers to common HR queries. This doesn't mean fewer HR professionals; it means our HR team can now dedicate their time to more strategic, high-value activities such as deeper candidate engagement, focusing on building relationships with top-tier talent; strategic workforce planning, by analyzing complex talent trends and developing long-term strategies; and employee development and coaching, providing personalized support and growth opportunities.

In essence, AI is enabling our employees to achieve more with less effort, leading to greater job satisfaction and a more strategic, high-performing workforce. Our focus is on enhancing human potential and optimizing business outcomes through intelligent automation, rather than displacing human capital.

What are the two major challenges you are coping with these days?

Core Challenges: Securing Top Talent and Pioneering Future Technology.

As a growing and innovative company, we consistently navigate a dynamic landscape. Currently, two primary challenges demand our strategic focus:

1. The Relentless War for Top Talent

The first, and arguably most critical, challenge is the intense competition for exceptional talent. In our industry, attracting and retaining the brightest minds is an ongoing mission. Our people are the bedrock of our organization; they are the innovators, the problem-solvers, and the drivers of our success. More specifically, to build the truly amazing, state-of-the-art payment solutions our market demands, we absolutely need the best talent available. The market for highly skilled professionals is exceptionally competitive, and securing the most sought-after individuals is a continuous, strategic imperative. We are constantly refining our value proposition, culture, and development opportunities to ensure we remain an employer of choice.

2. Human-Driven Innovation in Future Online Payments Technology

Our second major challenge is to continuously innovate and develop the cutting-edge technologies that will define the future of online payments, with a strong emphasis on the human ingenuity behind these advancements. The digital world evolves at an unprecedented pace, creating a relentless demand for advanced and secure payment solutions. While technology provides the tools, it's our top-tier human capital – our engineers, product managers, and visionaries – who are the true architects and shapers of these solutions.

Staying ahead of this curve requires not just significant investment in R&D, but critically, the dedicated focus and brilliant minds of our teams to conceptualize, design, and bring these complex technologies to life. We are committed to empowering our experts in this mission, ensuring we not only meet current market demands but also proactively human-engineer the next generation of financial technology. This isn't just about incremental improvements; it's about building foundational technologies that will secure our leadership position in the years to come, driven by unparalleled human expertise.

Have you experienced workforce-related challenges due to the war, and are you still feeling the impact of the security situation on your human resources?

No, we haven't experienced significant workforce challenges from the security situation. As a globally distributed company operating across multiple territories, our diversified structure has provided crucial resilience. This global footprint ensures operational continuity and maintains access to a diverse talent pool, effectively mitigating localized impacts on our human resources.

Have you made changes to your workforce following the increased use of AI tools, both in terms of headcount and internal shifts between departments?

No, we have not seen a reduction in headcount or significant departmental shifts directly attributed to our increased use of AI tools. Our strategic approach to AI integration has been focused on augmentation and efficiency gains, rather than workforce replacement.

Instead of cutting roles, we've observed the following positive impacts:

• Elevated Existing Roles: AI has absorbed repetitive and time-consuming administrative tasks, particularly in areas like HR and recruitment. This hasn't led to fewer people, but rather to our existing staff being able to focus on higher-value activities that require human judgment, creativity, and strategic thinking. For example, our recruiters now dedicate more time to relationship building and complex candidate engagement, rather than sifting through resumes.
• Enhanced Productivity and Output: By automating mundane processes, AI tools enable our teams to accomplish more within their existing roles. This means increased output and efficiency without needing to expand headcount to meet growing demands.
• Skill Evolution, Not Displacement: We are actively investing in upskilling our employees to work effectively alongside AI tools. This ensures our workforce remains agile and capable of leveraging these new technologies to their full potential, aligning with our commitment to continuous learning and development.

In essence, our AI adoption has reinforced our commitment to human capital as our most valuable asset. We are using AI to make our people more effective and our operations more robust, without impacting overall headcount or requiring large-scale departmental reassignments.

How does the global market uncertainty affect your workforce, in terms of employee numbers or departmental reallocations? Are you scaling your workforce up or down in different regions around the world?

With over 13 years of navigating market fluctuations, we've developed significant expertise in riding the waves of global economic uncertainty without experiencing critical shocks. Our long history has equipped us with the agility and foresight needed to manage our workforce strategically. This extensive experience means:

• Stable and Adaptable Workforce Management: We don't typically resort to broad headcount reductions or drastic departmental shifts in response to short-term market volatility. Instead, we focus on strategic allocation of talent and resources.
• Leveraging Internal Talent: Our focus remains on developing and re-skilling our existing workforce to meet evolving demands, ensuring our teams are adaptable and can pivot to new priorities.

Essentially, our seasoned experience allows us to maintain a stable and robust workforce, adjusting our sails to the market winds rather than weathering the storm through disruptive changes.

Do you estimate that in 2025–2026 you will increase or decrease the number of personnel? Explain why.

Regarding our personnel projections for 2025-2026, while specific numbers are subject to market dynamics and strategic reviews, our current outlook indicates a continued increase in headcount.

We anticipate this growth will be driven by several key factors:

• Sustained Business Expansion: Our company is on a clear growth trajectory, and to support this expansion, we will naturally need to scale our teams across various functions. This isn't just about filling current needs; it's about proactively building capacity for future opportunities.
• Strategic Initiatives in Key Areas: We have exciting, yet confidential, strategic initiatives underway that are central to our long-term competitive advantage. These initiatives will require specialized talent and dedicated teams, leading to an increase in our workforce.
• Augmentation, Not Replacement, Drives Demand: As we've discussed, our approach to AI is focused on augmenting human capabilities and driving efficiency. This strategy doesn't reduce the need for skilled personnel; rather, it elevates existing roles and creates demand for new expertise in areas where human insight, creativity, and complex problem-solving are paramount. AI tools empower our people to achieve more, requiring a larger, more strategically focused workforce to capitalize on expanded capacities.

While we remain agile in our planning to adapt to any unforeseen shifts, the current indicators strongly point towards a phase of continued personnel growth to support our strategic objectives and capitalize on emerging opportunities.