1. Since September 2018, together with a group of data scientists and software engineers, we have been focusing efforts to develop artificial intelligence (AI) system to help solve the problem of unemployment and human capital development in Malaysia.

2. A large part of my time after GE14 was spent with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and young people to understand unemployment and human capital development problems better. I identify the following issues:

a. SME companies (that are the backbone of the economy) face difficulties in hiring the workforce to match their needs. Candidates (who apply through existing work portals) often do not meet the educational or skill background requirements, or good candidates do not want to work with SMEs.

b. Candidates feel they do not get enough information about vacancies in the job market. As a result, they apply to the same vacancies from certain big companies or government posts that end up creating fierce job market competition unnecessarily.

c. Candidates are not getting the best training to prepare for the job market. Their interview performance can be improved, and they do not keep abreast with the job market requirements. Unfortunately, there is no system currently that can provide continuous feedback to them to enhance their marketability.

3. Considering these urgent needs, we explored the potential of artificial intelligence technology to develop a system that fulfils all the above requirements.

4. We have developed the beta version of artificial intelligence job matching system that we call adnexio. The public can start using it today for free at www.adnexio.my. adnexio means “connecting” in Latin, to illustrate its AI capabilities to link employers and job seekers.

5. adnexio is an ecosystem that connects employers and prospective job seekers. Candidates will go through an interview with a machine named NEX on this AI platform.

6. NEX is an artificial intelligence created to conduct interviews with hundreds of thousands of candidates and identify the qualities employers look for from job seekers. NEX works (almost) like a human recruiter who is responsible for finding candidates, checking candidates’ academic standing, evaluating candidates’ work experience and skills, conducting personality tests on candidates and ultimately conducting online interviews with candidates.

7. After going through an online interview process with NEX, the candidate will be given a performance report immediately to highlight the candidate’s performance and marketability ranking compared to other candidates.

8. adnexio will eventually have a complete database of candidates in the job market according to educational background, work experience, skill, type of personality, leadership quality and interview performance.

9. When employers advertise vacancies using this platform (for free, as opposed to the current industry practice that charges employers for advertising vacancies), NEX will match each job vacancy with candidates with the best-fit score (because of the candidates’ matching education background, skills, work experience and other qualities that are in line with employer’s requirements).

10. adnexio will refer the top candidates (between three to seven of the best-fit candidates) for employers to consider. This approach helps employers in two ways: it removes the hassle of the recruitment process because only the best candidates are proposed to the employer (NEX has done the pre-screening and preliminary interview). Secondly, employers can source from a lot bigger pool of talents because NEX considers the whole population of the job market for each vacancy (not from a small number of candidates who apply directly for a specific vacancy).

11. When an employer chooses candidates proposed by NEX, the decision helps NEX to learn (through machine learning) characteristics that facilitate a candidate to get a job. Eventually, NEX will be able to learn from hundreds of thousands of candidates and employers to develop her skills to match the right candidates with the right employers/vacancies.

12. These skills will be used to help the candidates increase their marketability. After going through the online interview process, NEX has complete information on the strengths and weaknesses of a candidate. NEX will help the candidates to improve their performance score from time to time so that their chances of getting work can be improved.

13. At the time of writing, adnexio is one of the few solutions in the world that use artificial intelligence all the way from aggregating a candidate’s academic background to interviewing the candidate. Most existing job search platforms around the world are based mainly on vacancy advertising but stopped before the interview stage. In the past, there were limited attempts to create artificial intelligence like NEX to conduct interviews and make assessments of candidates.

14. Although this technology is new and experimental, I am confident in due time it will help all job seekers and employers alike.

15. Therefore, I urge as many Malaysians to participate in this biggest interview in Malaysian history as anyone can join it wherever you are. You only need to go through an online interview with NEX once, and the system will check daily all vacancies advertised to find the ones that match you (according to your educational background, skills and work experience).

16. To participate in this interview:

a. You need either a computer, laptop, or smartphone.

b. This system is optimised for Chrome. We recommend users to use Chrome for the interview.

c. Make sure you are in a quiet place to run an interview with NEX.

d. Make sure you are in a place that has a good and stable internet connection.

e. Make sure you have your photo (in digital format) and resume (in PDF format).

f. Visit www.adnexio.my and start your interview.

17. Further information is available at www.adnexio.my. You can also learn more about adnexio from promotional materials on social media at https://www.facebook.com/rafiziramli.keadilan/

18. Good luck to those who will participate in this biggest interview in Malaysian history. I hope hundreds of thousands of Malaysians take part in a short period to enable its artificial intelligence technology to improve.

RAFIZI RAMLI