Why We Added Conversational AI To Nurses.co.uk

We have gone live with a fully conversational AI agent for candidates on Nurses.co.uk. Here's why we've harnessed this technology, and how it fulfils our mission to drive quality candidates.

There are Chatbots, and then there's conversational AI. I've seen plenty of careers pages and a few job boards with Chatbots.

But very few have a fully functioning conversational AI.

Edith, Powered By Amply

Earlier this year, we partnered with AI recruitment software company, Amply.co, to add their dedicated candidate-facing 'Robin' agent on top of Nurses.co.uk. It has access to all of our jobs.

We've changed the name from Robin to Edith (contact me if you're interested in why we chose that name) and it's already had its first update.

You can see it live on Nurses.co.uk. (Accept the cookies and turn off blockers if you have them set up - Edith will soon operate before cookies are accepted.)

And we've started opening Edith up to a growing portion of our careers content. This is being handled carefully, with guardrails in place. But it's working well. We've even opened it up to a selection of videos about nursing interviews on our YouTube Channel.

It's What You Do With It That Matters

I first saw Amply's Robin agent in action on Ryanair's careers pages in 2025.

Having been excited by the opportunities of AI since ChatGPT was released in Nov 2022, I've wanted to explore this technology for the recruitment space. And when i saw Ryanair, delivering the candidate experience I wanted, I realised that this is what the candidate experience needs to be like. The technology was being used to open up a conversation.

Chatbots drive users down a pre-determined route (tell me your name, tell me your email, look at these jobs). It was new technology being applied to a two-decades old hiring workflow.

It's not about the tech, but what you do with it.

Conversational AI is the future of job boards because it delivers a far better candidate experience than search, refine, apply. And, crucially, because it can be used to drive quality applications.

We will use this technology to improve application quality, not increase application volume.

What Is The New Value We're Now Delivering On Nurses.co.uk with AI?

Edith doesn't just help convert traffic into applications. Because Edith explains which jobs are the correct match for candidates we can funnel candidates to jobs that they are properly qualified and skilled for.

We are harnessing the powerful and intelligent matching capabilities of the technology to guide candidates away from spam-applying or applying in the hope that their CV is a fit for the job. We give them the trust they need to take the process seriously, and guide them to a job.

How Does It Work?

As you can see, a job isn't simply recommended; Edith will go into detail to explain to the candidate why they are suitable for it.

This is the power of AI. Edith uses LLM technology to talk, in normal language, and reason. But beyond this is a proprietary system, powered by Amply.co, that understands hiring, jobs, candidates, CVs and recruitment.

We don't just let Edith loose on the oceans of data available to the LLMs. Instead, Amply HARNESSES the language and reasoning power of LLMS and gets it to work only on Amply's deep mine of recruiting CONTEXT, and of course Nurses.co.uk's jobs and career content.

Who Benefits?

As a jobs marketplace we strive to keep both candidates and hiring employers happy. Too many job boards underserve both parties.

Indeed and LinkedIn (and, increasingly other national generalist job boards) have a commercial model that prioritises volume over quality. Charging per click or application has, it's become clear, helped to drive up application volume, drive down quality, and overwhelm recruiters.

For their part, candidates face a seeming black hole when applying. They typically do not hear back because their application is one of hundreds or even thousands landing in an ATS, competing for the same role.

In response, candidates have turned to AI to help them match their CV for the job and automate the process so that they can play the numbers game.

And it's become a race to the bottom. Recruiters are not only inundated with CVs, but they all look the same.

So, to counter this, Amply's AI helps us engage candidates better, and directs them to apply judiciously.

Recruiters receive the quality candidates, not unmanageable volume.

What's Next - Context Is King

If the CV has become homogenised, we believe the future of hiring will be to get more context from each candidate - context that sits outside of the CV. With conversational AI, this becomes possible.

We are working with Amply, who share our vision on how we will expand Edith.

Currently, Edith is only half the story. On the recruiter side, Amply already has another agent, called Dash, which does the equivalent job but for recruiters.

Dash assesses 1000s of CVs or applications to identify a shortlist that is ranked, scored and explained.

Using this same technology, but inside Edith, we can do so much more.

For instance, if a nurse has not updated their CV to show their most recent NMC registration, Dash already flags this:

In this example, this nurse ranks high against the role, as you can see. But Dash explains that clarification is needed for her registration expiry date.

Edith could solve this during the application process.

Because AI is excellent at running a conversation, Edith can be used to talk to the candidate, use its intelligent reasoning to explore a nurse's CV and identify gaps or flag up where clarification is needed - before they make the application.

This is context.

Amply (and us) are focussed on this question: how can we surface more and more context about a candidate.

Together, we believe an application in the future will NOT be a CV, but rich candidate context.

Our vision is to make sure the candidate knows their application has been received, and it is as good as they can make it.

On the other side of the application our mission is to make sure recruiters are working off the RIGHT SHORTLIST instead of being bogged down in a fruitless struggle to review a deluge of homogenised applications.

Let's get both parties back to talking to one another - the right candidates for the right roles.