Which Companies Use Paradox AI (Olivia) to Hire?
McDonald's, Chipotle, General Motors, FedEx, Marriott International and 7-Eleven all hire with the AI assistant from Paradox, and the table below lists 30 employers that use it. The assistant answers applicants' questions, screens them and books their interviews by text message. Most of these employers hire hourly staff for hundreds of restaurants, stores, hotels or depots, and nine of them give the assistant their own name.
Research: Paradox has more than 1,000 customers and leads the market for high-volume, frontline hiring, says analyst Josh Bersin.
Short answer
| Employer | Industry | What the assistant does there |
|---|---|---|
| McDonald's | Restaurant | Called Olivia. Job search, questions and applications |
| Chipotle | Restaurant | Called "Ava Cado". Applications and interview booking |
| General Motors | Manufacturing | Called "Ev-e". Screens candidates and books interviews |
| FedEx | Logistics | Hiring for transport and logistics jobs |
| Wendy's: franchisee Meritage Hospitality Group and Wendy's New Zealand | Restaurant | Olivia at 340 franchise restaurants. Called "Lou" in New Zealand |
| Darden | Restaurant | Applications and hiring by chat |
| Checkers & Rally's | Restaurant | Applications and interview booking |
| Flynn Group | Restaurant franchisee | Called "Frankie". Hiring by chat across seven franchise brands |
| First Watch | Restaurant | Called Olivia. Screens candidates and books interviews |
| 7-Eleven | Retail | Called "Rita". Handles recruiting tasks for store leaders |
| Burlington | Retail | Applications and hiring by chat |
| Tractor Supply Co. | Retail | Applications, interview booking and hiring events |
| Ace Hardware | Retail | Interview booking |
| Sobeys | Grocery (Canada) | Applications, interview booking and hiring events |
| Schnucks | Grocery | Called "Anna". Screens candidates and books interviews |
| GEODIS Americas | Logistics | Applications, careers site, hiring events and interview booking |
| U.S. Xpress | Trucking | Called "Nick". Guides applicants through applying |
| Marriott International | Hotels | Interview booking, hiring events and careers site |
| IHG Hotels & Resorts | Hotels | Careers site, applications and interview booking |
| Great Wolf Lodge | Hotels | Called "Emma". Applications and hiring by chat |
| Pfizer | Healthcare | Called Olivia. Interview booking |
| Medtronic | Healthcare | Interview booking |
| Houston Methodist | Healthcare | Called "Mia". Screens candidates and books interviews |
| Nestlé | Manufacturing | Called Olivia. Screens candidates and books interviews |
| Johnson Controls | Manufacturing | Applications and interview booking |
| Compass Group | Services | Careers site, applications, interview booking, hiring events and assessments |
| Sodexo | Services | Applications and hiring by chat |
| JLL | Services | Applications and interview booking |
| Regis Corp (Supercuts, SmartStyle) | Salons | Called Olivia. Applications and hiring by chat |
| Valvoline | Auto services | Applications, careers site and interview booking |
What restaurants use Paradox AI?
The restaurants that use Paradox AI are McDonald's, Chipotle, Darden, Checkers & Rally's, First Watch, Flynn Group and Wendy's franchisee Meritage Hospitality Group. Chipotle's time to hire fell from 12 days to 4, so a new crew member is on shift about a week sooner.
Which retailers, hotels and logistics companies use it?
The retailers are 7-Eleven, Burlington, Tractor Supply Co., Ace Hardware, Sobeys and Schnucks. The hotel groups are Marriott International, IHG Hotels & Resorts and Great Wolf Lodge, and the logistics employers are FedEx, GEODIS Americas and U.S. Xpress.
Ace Hardware books more than 200 interviews a day through the assistant. Those are 200 calls a day that store managers no longer make.
Which other employers use it?
The other employers are Pfizer, Medtronic and Houston Methodist in healthcare, General Motors, Nestlé and Johnson Controls in manufacturing, and Compass Group, Sodexo and JLL in services. Salon owner Regis Corp and auto service chain Valvoline complete the list.
Compass Group hires 160,000 workers a year with a recruiting team of 20, which is 8,000 hires for each recruiter. General Motors saved $2,000,000 by letting the assistant book interviews in place of staff.
Does FedEx use Olivia?
Yes, FedEx uses Paradox: Paradox names FedEx as a customer. If you get a text about a FedEx job, check it against the FedEx careers site before you reply.
Do Taco Bell, Wendy's, Aldi or Dollar General use Olivia?
Wendy's uses Olivia in part, and Taco Bell, Aldi and Dollar General are unconfirmed. Neither Paradox nor the employer has said those three use it.
| Employer | Confirmed? |
|---|---|
| Wendy's | Partly. Franchisee Meritage Hospitality Group uses Olivia at 340 restaurants, and Wendy's New Zealand calls it "Lou" |
| Taco Bell | No |
| Aldi | No |
| Dollar General | No |
An applicant to any of the four can settle it in two minutes. Type the employer's careers address into the browser, find the job there, and apply from that page.
How many companies use Paradox?
Paradox says more than 500 companies use it, and analyst Josh Bersin puts the figure above 1,000. The 30 in the table are the ones with a public story about how they use it.
Why do big employers use it?
Big employers use it because it takes the phone calls and calendar work of hourly hiring off managers and recruiters. Three reasons come up again and again.
- Managers get their time back. 7-Eleven reports 40,000 hours a week saved for store leaders, time that goes back to running the store.
- Candidates hear back fast. Johnson Controls cut its reply time from 10 hours to 10 minutes, so an applicant gets an answer before a rival employer calls.
- A small team can hire at huge volume. Sodexo hired more than 40,000 people in seven months, about 5,700 a month.
How do you know a message from one of these employers is real?
A real message from one of these employers passes three checks.
- The first text names the employer you applied to.
- It includes the words HELP, STOP and PREF and the address [email protected].
- Any link goes to olivia.paradox.ai or the employer's own hiring site, such as mchire.com for McDonald's.
Scammers use famous employer names too. Americans reported losing $470 million in 2024 to scams that began with a text, and fake job offers were a common type. Real and fake examples are in Is Olivia (Paradox AI) legit?.
Is your hiring like theirs: should you use Paradox, Hirevire, or both?
Paradox fits hiring that looks like the employers above: thousands of hourly hires a year, many locations, and a large HR system such as Workday or SAP underneath. Paradox sells by quote. Capterra lists a starting price of $1,000 a month, which is $12,000 a year, and nobody publishes what that amount includes. The Paradox pricing breakdown and the full Paradox review cover cost in detail.
A 40-person company hiring 25 people a year has a different problem. Hirevire does one narrower job: candidates record video, audio or text answers in the browser with no account or password, and the team reviews them with AI transcripts and scorecards. Plans start at $468 a year. Hirevire handles interview scheduling and ATS updates through webhooks into the tools you already use.
| Your situation | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Thousands of hourly hires a year across hundreds of stores, restaurants or hotels | Paradox | This is what most employers on the list look like |
| Your HR system is Workday or SAP | Paradox | Workday owns Paradox, and half the employers above run it with Workday or SAP |
| Managers lose hours booking and rebooking interviews by phone | Paradox | Candidates pick an interview time by text from the manager's calendar |
| Paradox or an applicant tracking system (ATS) already books interviews, and managers want to see and hear candidates first | Paradox + Hirevire, or ATS + Hirevire | Hirevire adds a recorded video, audio or text step before the live interview |
| 5 to 100 hires a year, with one or two people doing the hiring | Hirevire | $468 a year, a 7-day free trial with no credit card, and question sets built in minutes |
| A recruitment agency screening for several clients | Hirevire | The Agency plan is $2,388 a year and includes webhooks |
| A small company with no ATS that wants applicant tracking and self-booked interviews | Workable | Published at $299 a month with a 15-day trial |
Hirevire's webhooks, Zapier and Make can pass screened candidates to Paradox, your ATS or your calendar tool, so the shortlist moves straight to a booked interview.
The two products sit side by side on the Paradox AI vs Hirevire page, and more options are in Paradox AI alternatives.
Frequently asked questions
Employers
Does McDonald's use Paradox AI? Yes. McDonald's hiring site, McHire, introduces its assistant as Olivia, and it covers corporate and franchise restaurants.
Is Ava Cado the same thing as Olivia? Yes. Ava Cado is Chipotle's name for its Paradox assistant. Other names include Rita (7-Eleven), Ev-e (General Motors), Frankie (Flynn Group) and Emma (Great Wolf Lodge).
Applicants
Why does the message say nothing about Olivia or Paradox? Paradox lets each employer change the assistant's name, voice, tone and photo. Nine of the 30 employers listed use their own name for it, so the text shows the employer's brand.
How do you stop texts from an employer's Paradox assistant? Reply STOP. The opt-out covers that phone number, so a different employer's number can still text you.
Buyers
How much does Paradox cost? Paradox sells by quote and publishes no prices. Capterra lists a starting price of $1,000 a month, with no free trial.
Can Hirevire replace Paradox? For high-volume hourly hiring with interview booking by text, no. Hirevire suits smaller teams and agencies that need recorded video, audio or text screening, from $468 a year.
Screening fewer than a few hundred candidates a year: try Hirevire free for 7 days, no credit card needed.
Sources
- Paradox, "Case studies". https://www.paradox.ai/case-studies
- McDonald's, "McHire" hiring site. https://jobs.mchire.com/
- Paradox, "Chipotle" case study. https://www.paradox.ai/case-studies/chipotle
- Paradox, "General Motors" case study. https://www.paradox.ai/case-studies/general-motors
- Paradox, "Compass Group" case study. https://www.paradox.ai/case-studies/compass-group
- Paradox, "7-Eleven" case study. https://www.paradox.ai/case-studies/7-eleven
- Paradox, "Wendy's" case study. https://www.paradox.ai/case-studies/wendys
- Paradox, "Trucking and logistics". https://www.paradox.ai/solutions/trucking-logistics
- Paradox, "About". https://www.paradox.ai/about
- Paradox help centre, "SMS opt-in welcome message". https://paradox.helpjuice.com/en_US/phone-numbers/sms-opt-in-message-welcome-message
- The Josh Bersin Company, "Workday to Acquire Paradox. A Bigger Deal Than You Think." https://joshbersin.com/2025/08/workday-to-acquire-paradox-a-bigger-deal-than-you-think/
- Federal Trade Commission, "New FTC Data Show Top Text Message Scams of 2024; Overall Losses to Text Scams Hit $470 Million". https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/04/new-ftc-data-show-top-text-message-scams-2024-overall-losses-text-scams-hit-470-million
- Capterra, "Olivia by Paradox". https://www.capterra.com/p/191056/Olivia/
