AllAthlete case study
AllAthlete democratizes athletic recruiting with Sendbird
How AllAthlete used a recruitment chatbot to transform athletic recruiting
AllAthlete, a sports recruitment app, is revolutionizing the way college and professional coaches discover young athletic talent. Founded by Greg Auerbach, a former college football player and recruiting staff member at the University of Michigan, the company's mission is to democratize athletic recruitment, bridging the gap between high school and college-level athletes and even extending to professional sports. The app was designed along with actual coaches to help athletes get through the first two rounds of any athletic evaluation, which is one of the biggest hurdles they have. This case study explores how Sendbird helped AllAthlete grow its user base with reliable, real-time communication between athletes, an AI recruiting chatbot, and coaches.
AllAthlete’s in-app communication challenge before implementing an AI recruitment chatbot
AllAthlete's journey began with a commitment to provide opportunities for young athletes and simplify the recruitment process. Communication between athletes, recruiters and coaches was critical to the mission. Encouraging athletes to update their profiles and stay active on the platform was a challenge. So AllAthlete used an AI chatbot for recruitment to prompt and guide these desired user behaviors. Unfortunately, the first chat experience AllAthletes built using GetStream.io did not meet expectations and failed.
“Our first chat solution was really bad,” claims Greg Auerbach. “It would delete chats. It would change display names of people without us knowing. User didn't even know who they were communicating with half the time.”
Sendbird as the solution: Building an AI recruitment chatbot
Auerbach and his team were forced to look for another more reliable solution and decided to rebuild chat in the AllAthlete app with Sendbird. According to Auerbach, an AI recruitment chatbot with Sendbird was much easier to implement and simpler to administer, especially when it came to moderating conversations from the dashboard. “Sendbird is great for the reliability of the service and the ease of integration with custom third-party bots,” added Auerbach.
The benefits of building in-app chat with Sendbird for AllAthlete were as follows:
- Fast implementation: In just three weeks, the AI recruitment chat built with Sendbird was successfully integrated into both the web and mobile apps.
- Smooth administration: Sendbird provided a user-friendly and straightforward dashboard for moderating conversations, making it easier for administrators to ensure the safety of the community.
- Reliable performance: The improved performance and reliability of Sendbird’s infrastructure led to more complete and meaningful conversations.
- Easy integration with custom-built bots: AllAthlete had already built three proprietary recruitment bots to assist athletes and was able to easily integrate with Sendbird Chat without any additional development effort.
Innovating athletic recruiting with an AI recruitment chatbot
To further enhance the user experience, AllAthlete leveraged Sendbird’s ChatGPT-powered chatbots to support real-time dynamic conversations that scaled for the community. Three distinct recruitment chatbots were built by AllAthlete using Sendbird’s capabilities powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT to do the following:
- Proactively guide the users on how to best use the platform
- Assist in athletic development
- Bridge the communication gap between athletes and coaches
“These bots are not necessarily something you just implement with OpenAI, where you just have a model to respond back,” says Auerbach. “It's a lot more dynamic where athletes can ask follow-up questions. This adds a personal touch to the experience that has helped us grow our community.”
Benefits of AI recruitment chatbots for AllAthlete’s business
AllAthlete’s implementation of Sendbird contributed several key business benefits:
Reliable communication: The reliability of the recruitment chatbot implemented with Sendbird significantly improved communication between athletes, coaches, and the AllAthlete team, fostering trust and increased usage.
User engagement and retention: The app witnessed increased user engagement and retention as a result of an improved chat experience, making it a more attractive and effective tool for both athletes and coaches.
Less time troubleshooting issues: AllAthlete’s developer team is now spending more time working on new features rather than fixing and troubleshooting the chat issues inherent in its first chat solution built with GetStream.io.
“We’ve been live with Sendbird for a few months and immediately the reliability of the solution has supported more quality conversations and a more trusted relationship with athletes that you just can’t put a price tag on,” concludes Auerbach.
Transforming athletic recruiting by democratizing the process with AI recruitment chatbots
AllAthlete's partnership with Sendbird transformed its app into a dynamic, efficient, and user-friendly solution that has made a substantial impact on the lives of more than 150,000 athletes. By implementing an AI recruitment chatbot with Sendbird, the company not only streamlined communication but also paved the way for countless athletes to receive the recognition and support they deserve in their pursuit of a sports career.
