Transforming Recruitment with AI: The UN’s Talent Platform

Executive Summary

Client: United Nations Volunteers

Industry: Nonprofit, Public Sector, Workforce Management

Engagement: AI Integration, Platform Modernization, ERP Enhancement

Country: Global

Project at a Glance

The Unified Volunteering Platform (UVP) faced challenges in managing high volumes of assignments and candidate workflows due to manual processes, language barriers, and accessibility requirements.

VOLO integrated an AI-powered decision-support layer using OpenAI and Mistral AI models, enabling intelligent data parsing, assignment matching, and multilingual support, all compliant with GDPR and UN standards. As a result, UVP streamlined workflows, eliminated manual tasks, and became a smarter, more inclusive platform, empowering faster and more equitable decision-making at scale.

About the Client

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is a UN initiative that mobilizes over 10,000 volunteers each year to support peace and development projects across more than 160 countries. Operating as part of the UNDP, UNV connects skilled professionals with UN agencies, governments, and NGOs to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

At the heart of their digital operations is the Unified Volunteering Platform (UVP), which is a global ERP system that manages volunteer recruitment, assignment matching, onboarding, and deployment at scale. With a commitment to inclusion, transparency, and impact, UVP is a critical tool in enabling the UN’s global volunteer workforce.

The Challenge

As the Unified Volunteering Platform (UVP) continued to scale, its recruitment and onboarding workflows became increasingly complex and harder to manage efficiently.

Core operations, such as assignment summarization, volunteer-to-role matching, and document verification, still depended heavily on manual effort. This created recurring bottlenecks, slowed down recruitment cycles, and resulted in inconsistent outcomes across teams, while significantly increasing internal workload.

At the same time, UVP needed to support a growing global, multilingual user base with different levels of digital literacy, connectivity, and accessibility requirements. With limited built-in guidance and no integrated support for assistive technologies, the platform struggled to deliver a consistent, inclusive, and user-friendly experience at scale.

Key Challenges

Manual summarization of assignment descriptions (DOAs), delaying processing

Manual candidate matching, reducing efficiency and transparency
Identity verification conducted outside the platform, increasing delays and risk
Limited accessibility support for visually impaired and non-English-speaking users
Static, FAQ-based support, with no real-time or contextual assistance

These challenges limited UVP’s ability to scale, meet rising user expectations, and deliver a smooth experience across its global user base.

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Our Solution

The engagement started with a deep operational assessment of UVP’s key challenges. In close collaboration with UNV teams, VOLO identified and mapped inefficiencies across high-impact workflows, including identity verification, document processing, candidate matching, and multilingual accessibility.

These discovery workshops and process audits helped translate operational pain points into clear technical requirements and priorities, forming a practical AI roadmap aligned with UVP’s mission, existing platform architecture, and long-term scalability needs.

All capabilities were implemented using a hybrid AI architecture that blends cloud-based and local models to optimize cost efficiency, performance, and compliance. OpenAI and Mistral AI were selected to combine strong language understanding with data governance needs, particularly for use cases requiring alignment with EU regulatory and privacy standards.

AI-Driven Identity Validation 

VOLO implemented an AI system that automatically extracts and validates key fields such as name, ID number, and nationality from uploaded documents, supporting multiple document types, including passports and national IDs in various languages. By automating these repetitive verification tasks, the platform directly addresses the strategic priority of reducing internal workload, significantly speeding up candidate checks, ensuring data consistency, and reducing human error. This allows internal teams to focus on higher-value activities while handling large volumes of documents quickly and accurately. 

Intelligent Role-to-Candidate Matching

The AI solution analyzes assignment descriptions alongside candidate profiles to generate match scores and highlight areas where qualifications may not align. By evaluating both structured and unstructured data, it improves the accuracy and fairness of candidate selection, fulfilling the strategic priority of enhancing consistency and reliability in decision-making workflows. Recruiters benefit from faster screening, fewer errors, and better-quality matches, ensuring more equitable and efficient candidate assignments. 

Accessible, Multilingual User Experience 

VOLO designed an AI-powered platform experience that ensures equitable access for users across languages, abilities, and regions, addressing the strategic priority of improving accessibility and language support for a diverse global audience. The platform delivers AI-generated summaries and content in multiple languages, integrates text-to-speech functionality, and offers full JAWS compatibility for users with visual impairments. By expanding reach and improving usability, this solution allows all users to navigate and engage with the platform effectively, while also enhancing accessibility compliance.

AI Chatbot Assistance 

An AI chatbot provides real-time, context-aware guidance using retrieval-augmented generation trained on UVP’s help center content, meeting the strategic priority of enabling secure AI adoption across the platform. The chatbot interprets incomplete, informal, or typo-ridden queries and responds with accurate, actionable information across user journeys. This ensures reliable support is always available, increases user satisfaction, and lowers support costs, while maintaining the security and integrity of platform data. 

The Impact

Beyond the numbers, VOLO’s AI integration transformed UVP into a more intelligent, accessible, and flexible recruitment platform. By optimizing operational workflows, automating repetitive tasks, improving the quality and consistency of role-to-candidate matches, and embedding real-time, context-aware support, the platform now delivers faster and more accurate decisions, enhanced user experiences, and greater efficiency for recruiters.

These improvements also create a strong foundation for future AI-driven innovation, allowing the platform to adapt to evolving business needs, incorporate new features, and continue serving a diverse, global audience with ease and reliability.

60%

reduction in manual verification workload

faster candidate onboarding

15+

supported languages

40%

fewer support inquiries to call center

Key Takeaways

AI transformation starts with operational clarity

Before writing a single line of code, VOLO partnered with UNV to understand pain points across workflows, users, and systems. This clarity made it possible to prioritize high-impact solutions early and align AI capabilities with real-world needs. 

Hybrid AI stacks unlock performance and compliance

By combining OpenAI with Mistral, VOLO delivered enterprise-grade performance while respecting data governance standards, especially critical for deployments across EU regions. 

Modularity enables sustainable innovation

Rather than launching one large AI feature, UVP adopted a modular approach. Each solution was designed for independent rollout and long-term flexibility. 

Accessibility isn’t a layer, it’s a design principle

From multilingual processing to screen reader compatibility, inclusivity was built into the architecture. This ensured the platform served all users equitably from day one.

“ VOLO not only brought deep technical know-how but also helped shape our AI strategy within the broader digital ecosystem. Their team enhanced our ERP system and built AI-powered modules that transformed how we process and use data. ” 

Avetis Avagyan

Team Lead at United Nations Volunteers (UNV) Programme, ICTS