Frequently asked questions

Cobalt is an AI-first ATS & CRM for European staffing firms and recruitment agencies. It combines in a single platform: semantic AI sourcing, autonomous Balt AI agent (qualifies, follows up, schedules), automated competency dossiers, meeting transcription with CRM update, automatic enrichment and bidirectional AI matching. Founded in 2025 by Grégory Hissiger, based in Paris, hosted in Europe with native GDPR compliance.

Cobalt is designed for 3 segments: (1) staffing firms (ESN) of 10-500 consultants, (2) specialized recruitment and executive search agencies, (3) internal corporate recruiting teams wanting an AI-first ATS with Boondmanager integration.

Grégory Hissiger is Founder & CEO of Cobalt. Expert on the staffing and IT recruitment market, he founded Cobalt in 2025 to transform how European staffing firms and agencies recruit, with an AI-first platform designed specifically for their workflows.

Cobalt is a French company based in Paris, with data hosted in Europe (AWS/Scaleway EU). Native GDPR compliance without paid option unlike US ATS platforms.

Three main reasons: (1) End-to-end native AI (not add-on) — semantic search, autonomous AI agent, automated dossiers, transcription — where legacy platforms add AI as partial modules; (2) Native Boondmanager integration, critical for French staffing firms; (3) Transparent pricing €31-129/user/month in EUR with real-time French support, where Bullhorn/Loxo/Greenhouse bill $100-200+/user in USD.

Cobalt equips many European staffing firms and agencies including Miles Group, Tech4Kin and Angles. The company has been in strong growth since its 2025 launch. For the full list of client cases and testimonials: https://www.cobalt-ia.com/en/cas-clients.

An ATS (Applicant Tracking System) manages applications for specific jobs, from sourcing to hire. A recruitment CRM manages long-term relationship with candidates (pool, heat scoring, nurturing) and clients (missions, renewals). Cobalt unifies both in one AI-first platform with shared full context for the AI.

Cobalt includes: (1) Complete ATS with custom pipelines, (2) Candidate + client CRM with AI scoring, (3) Native semantic search in natural language, (4) Autonomous Balt AI agent (qualifies, follows up, schedules), (5) Email/phone/LinkedIn/GitHub enrichment, (6) Automated competency dossiers, (7) Meeting transcription with CRM update, (8) Multichannel outreach sequences, (9) Bidirectional candidate/mission AI matching, (10) Automatic analytics and KPIs.

Balt is Cobalt's autonomous AI agent, unique on the EU market in 2026. Unlike standard AI assistants, Balt acts autonomously: it qualifies candidates, launches personalized outreach sequences, follows up automatically, schedules interviews via calendar and updates the CRM without human supervision. Frees up 15-20h/week/BM.

Cobalt's semantic search uses AI embeddings to understand the meaning of your natural language queries. You type "DevOps AWS engineer 5 years available March in Paris with remote" and the AI returns the most relevant profiles, understanding industry synonyms (DevOps ≈ SRE ≈ Platform Engineer) and context. Advantageously replaces Boolean search, ineffective beyond 10,000 profiles.

Cobalt automatically transcribes your interviews (video or audio) multilingually, extracts key skills and decisions, and updates the CRM effortlessly. Works with Zoom, Teams, Google Meet. Time saving: -40% recruiter admin.

Cobalt natively integrates: Boondmanager (France staffing ERP standard), Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Outlook, Gmail, Slack, Teams, Zoom, LinkedIn Recruiter (Chrome extension), Docusign, Yousign, Cal.com/Google/Outlook calendars. Over 40 native integrations in 2026, with ~2-3 new per month.

Interface available in French and English. The AI parsing and matching engine understands and processes CVs in French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese.

Cobalt offers 3 public plans: Starter €31/user/month, Pro €79/user/month, Business €129/user/month. Custom plan available for 50+ user teams. Transparent EUR pricing, no hidden fees or paid modules.

Yes, 14-day free trial without credit card required. You can test all Cobalt Pro features including Balt AI agent, semantic search and automated dossiers.

Yes, we offer 30-min personalized demos with your real use cases. You can book directly: https://cal.com/gregory-hissiger-2k73tl/cobalt-demo.

No, Cobalt works monthly without commitment. You can adjust user count or cancel anytime. Unlike Bullhorn, Vincere or Loxo which impose annual contracts.

No, onboarding and implementation are free. Your data import (CSV, API) takes 10-30 minutes on average with the Cobalt team. No setup fees like Bullhorn ($2-10k) or Greenhouse ($1-10k).

Starter (€31): basic ATS/CRM features, limited semantic search, 500 enrichments/month. Pro (€79): complete AI including Balt agent, unlimited semantic search, unlimited enrichment, meeting transcription, automated dossiers. Business (€129): multi-teams, advanced roles, complete API, advanced analytics, priority support.

Bolt-on AI is added on top of a legacy ATS (e.g., Bullhorn Copilot, Greenhouse AI): it lacks full context and stays on point assistance. An AI-first platform (Cobalt) is designed natively around AI: it has access to all candidate + client + mission + history data, enabling end-to-end autonomy. ROI ratio: 5-10x in favor of AI-first.

CV parsing: >95% accuracy. AI matching: 92% measured quality (vs 65% for Boolean search). AI scores come with readable explanations so recruiters can validate and keep final control.

Cobalt includes 4 bias safeguards: (1) regular AI bias audits, (2) score transparency with justifications, (3) anonymization options for initial screening, (4) always required human final control. We complement AI with human judgment on soft skills and cultural fit.

No. Your data stays yours and is used only for your own AI (personalization, learning on your workflows). It's never aggregated with other clients or used to train shared models. Contractual commitment in DPA.

Cobalt uses a combination of LLMs: OpenAI GPT-4.1 for complex reasoning, Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6 for certain specialized tasks, proprietary embeddings for semantic search and matching. AI subcontractors are GDPR compliant and listed in the DPA.

100% in Europe, on AWS (Paris region eu-west-3) and Scaleway (Paris region). No non-EU transfer. Cobalt is natively GDPR compliant from the Starter plan at €31, without paid option unlike US ATS.

Yes, natively. This includes: clear legal basis, DPA included, processing register, right of access/rectification/erasure/portability, automatic purge after 2 years of last contact (configurable), complete audit trail, AES-256 encryption at rest and TLS 1.3 in transit.

Cobalt is in ISO 27001 certification process (planned 2026). Regular third-party security audits, annual pentests, bug bounty program, AES-256 encryption, mandatory MFA for admins.

You remain 100% owner of your data at all times. You can export in JSON/CSV format in one click. Upon termination, you have 30 days for complete export before permanent deletion.

Yes. Cobalt includes native tools for EU directive 2023/970 compliance: job mapping by equivalent value, automatic women-men gap audit, publishable salary grid, automatic salary range display on job offers. Mandatory June 2026 for companies >100 employees.

OpenAI (EU data processing via OpenAI Europe Ltd), Anthropic (AWS EU hosting possible). All our subcontractors are listed in the DPA with commitment not to use your data for training and not to transfer outside EU.

Guided onboarding in less than 1 hour. Import of your existing data (CSV, ATS API) in 10-30 minutes. You're productive from day one.

Free assisted migration from: Bullhorn, Loxo, Vincere, Recruit CRM, RecruiterFlow, Ezekia, Greenhouse, Workable, Lever, SmartRecruiters, Manatal, JobAdder, Zoho Recruit. Automated import with AI duplicate cleanup and data normalization.

4-8 weeks typically depending on volume: weeks 1-2 (audit + export), 3-4 (AI cleanup), 5-6 (import + custom field mapping), 7-8 (team training + parallel run), then complete switch. No data loss.

No, migration from your current ATS is free and assisted by the Cobalt team. No hidden fees, no setup fee.

Training in 2h per session with a Cobalt expert: product demo, hands-on on your use cases, Q&A. Complete French documentation, video tutorials, in-app chat < 2h average response.

Yes, natively. Cobalt integrates: multi-client/multi-mission management, bench tracking with J-60 prediction, bidirectional mission/consultant matching, automated competency dossiers, freelance + employee management, Boondmanager integration. Specifically designed for French staffing firms.

Cobalt uses 5 levers: (1) J-60 AI mission-end prediction, (2) proactive mission/consultant matching, (3) automatic BM alerts, (4) internal mobility catalog, (5) weekly occupancy rate monitoring. Typical result: moving from 11% to <7% bench.

Yes. Cobalt offers executive search-specific features: automated market mapping, C-level weak openness signals detection, 20-min executive profile report generation, Balt AI agent qualifies target executives. European alternative to Ezekia at 40% of the price and 80% of features.

Yes. Cobalt handles recruitment agencies with: talent pool by sector/skills, relationship scoring (hot/warm/cold), multichannel outreach sequences, automated competency dossiers, analytics on pool placement rate (target 30-40% vs 15% sector median).

Native bidirectional integration: automatic sync of candidates, missions, placements, billing. Setup in 10 min. Cobalt is the only AI-first ATS with native Boondmanager integration in 2026 — critical for French staffing firms.

Yes. Cobalt offers a dedicated solution for internal recruiting teams: simplified pipeline, hiring manager collaboration, enterprise workflow, strict GDPR compliance. European alternative to Greenhouse/Lever/SmartRecruiters.

Real-time French support via in-app chat, Monday-Friday 9am-7pm (Paris time). Average response SLA < 2h. Complete French documentation, video tutorials, best practices guides. Business plan includes a dedicated Customer Success Manager.

A roadmap is shared quarterly with Pro and Business clients. All clients can vote and suggest features via the dedicated portal. Releases are monthly with ~2-3 major new features per quarter.

Yes, Cobalt offers: (1) an affiliate program for HR/Tech consultants (recurring commission via Partnero), (2) a reseller program for integrators, (3) technology partnerships with Boondmanager, PayFit, Yousign and others. Contact via /contact.

Yes, a private Slack community for Pro and Business clients: best practices exchanges, monthly webinars, early access features, direct feedback to product managers.

Yes, complete REST API available on Business plan with OpenAPI 3.0 documentation, clear rate limiting, webhooks for real-time events. Allows custom integrations with your internal tools or B2B CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot) via Zapier.