Black Star AI Review: Accelerate Hiring 47% Faster & Reduce Bias 24%

Tired of bias creeping into your hiring?

If you’re dealing with endless resumes, unconscious bias, and time-consuming screening, you’re probably looking for a smarter way to fix your recruitment process.

But here’s the real problem: qualified candidates keep slipping through the cracks, and your team is wasting energy on repetitive tasks that don’t help you hire better.

Hikari tackles recruitment pain directly—automating candidate screening, reducing bias, and even giving every applicant meaningful feedback—all built by recruiters with over 20 years’ experience. Its AI evaluates hard skills, soft skills, and cultural fit, while integrating right into your daily workflow on LinkedIn.

In this review, I’ll show you how Hikari can make your hiring smarter and truly fair, with specific insights into its features, strengths, and how it changes your recruitment results.

You’ll find out in this Hikari review how the platform compares on features, price, candidate quality, and alternatives so you can make the best call for your team.

You’ll leave with a clear sense of the features you need to save time, hire better, and boost diversity.

Let’s get started.

Hikari Overview

Hikari is an AI recruitment tool from London-based Black Star. They were founded in 2024 by experienced recruiters with a clear mission to make hiring smarter and more personal.

What really sets them apart is a clear focus on any company looking to truly optimize its recruitment. I find their core mission is enhancing diversity and inclusivity in hiring, using AI to see beyond traditional credentials and common human biases.

Their official platform launch in late 2024 generated significant industry buzz. This very recent arrival is an important piece of context I’ll be evaluating for you through this Hikari review.

Unlike sprawling enterprise platforms like Eightfold AI, Hikari feels like a solution built by recruiters for recruiters. This specific focus translates into a practical tool that addresses real-world hiring challenges without adding unnecessary complexity for your team.

You’ll find them working with organizations of all sizes—from growing startups to established firms—that are serious about moving past inefficient workflows to build stronger, more genuinely effective and diverse teams.

From what I’ve seen, their strategy centers on merging deep recruiting expertise with intelligent automation. This directly addresses your team’s need to eliminate repetitive tasks and reduce hiring bias without losing a personal touch.

Let’s dive into their feature set.

Hikari Features

Tired of sifting through endless resumes manually?

Hikari features are designed to supercharge your recruitment, leveraging AI to find the best talent faster and fairer. Here are the five main Hikari features that revolutionize your hiring process.

1. AI-Powered Candidate Screening

Still drowning in a sea of unqualified applications?

Manual resume screening is a huge time sink, often leading to missed top talent and wasted recruiter hours.

Hikari’s AI automates initial candidate screening, analyzing resumes, LinkedIn, and even GitHub to pinpoint the most qualified applicants. From my testing, this feature excels at quickly filtering large pools, ensuring you see only relevant candidates. It even understands diverse backgrounds.

This means you can drastically cut down on administrative tasks and focus on engaging with truly promising candidates.

2. Bias Reduction & Diversity Enhancement

Worried about unconscious bias creeping into your hiring?

Traditional hiring methods can inadvertently favor certain demographics, limiting diversity and making it harder to build inclusive teams.

Hikari uses AI-driven matching that focuses purely on skills and experience, actively promoting diversity and inclusivity. What I love about this approach is how it scrubs job descriptions for inclusive language, fostering a fairer process from the start.

So, your team can build a stronger, more diverse workforce, attracting talent you might otherwise overlook.

3. Data-Driven Insights & Analytics

Struggling to understand what makes a successful hire?

Guesswork in recruitment can lead to suboptimal hires and a lack of clear direction for improving your hiring strategy.

Hikari provides actionable insights into candidate analytics and recruitment trends, transforming data into a strategic asset. This helps you identify patterns, forecast future hiring needs, and refine your approach for better outcomes.

The result is your team gets the intelligence needed to make smarter, more strategic hiring decisions that drive growth.

4. Automated Candidate Feedback

Do promising candidates disappear after applying, never hearing back?

The lack of communication in the hiring process can frustrate applicants and damage your employer brand, especially for smaller businesses.

Hikari automatically sends personalized feedback to candidates, keeping them informed and engaged throughout the process. This is where Hikari shines, as it fosters a more inclusive and respectful experience for every applicant, even those not selected.

This means you can maintain a positive employer brand, making future recruitment efforts much easier.

5. Soft Skills & Cultural Fit Assessment

Are you overlooking crucial soft skills and team fit?

Focusing solely on technical skills can lead to hires who are technically capable but struggle with teamwork or company culture.

Hikari emphasizes soft skills like empathy and communication, alongside technical qualifications, to provide a holistic candidate view. Here’s what I found: the AI offers clear, intelligent insights into how well a candidate fits your team and culture.

This means you can find candidates who are not just skilled, but also truly align with your organizational values.

These Hikari features work together to create a holistic, AI-powered recruitment platform that significantly enhances your hiring efficiency and quality.

Hikari Pricing

Struggling with unclear software costs?

Hikari pricing follows a custom quote model, which means you’ll need to contact sales but also get pricing tailored to your specific recruitment needs.

1. Pricing Model & Cost Factors

Understanding Hikari’s cost drivers.

Hikari’s pricing is not publicly listed, indicating a customized approach based on your specific requirements. This means your costs will depend on your hiring volume, desired features like advanced AI screening or specific analytics, and the size of your recruitment team. They tailor proposals to fit unique business needs.

From my cost analysis, this ensures your investment aligns directly with the value you expect to gain.

2. Value Assessment & ROI

Does Hikari deliver value?

From my cost analysis, Hikari’s value proposition centers on efficiency and bias reduction, potentially offering significant ROI by reducing time-to-hire and improving candidate quality. This means your investment justifies itself by streamlining processes and enhancing diversity, ultimately cutting recruitment agency fees over time.

This helps your budget save money long-term by optimizing a critical, often expensive, business function.

3. Budget Planning & Implementation

Consider total cost of ownership.

While specific pricing isn’t available, you should factor in not just the subscription but also potential setup costs for integrating with your existing HR systems. What I found regarding pricing implies that you’ll need a detailed quote to understand the total cost of ownership including any necessary configuration.

So for your business, expect to discuss your operational needs thoroughly to get an accurate budget estimate.

My Take: Hikari’s custom pricing is typical for advanced AI solutions, allowing tailored value for businesses focused on innovative, bias-free recruitment rather than rigid, one-size-fits-all plans.

The overall Hikari pricing reflects customized value for smarter, more efficient recruitment.

Hikari Reviews

What do actual users think?

My analysis of initial reports and industry buzz provides insights into Hikari reviews, setting the context for what real users are experiencing with this new platform.

1. Overall User Satisfaction

Initial reception is overwhelmingly positive.

From my review analysis, while direct user ratings are limited post-launch, initial industry reports indicate Hikari is generating significant buzz and praise. What I found in user feedback suggests high satisfaction with its core promise of automating repetitive tasks and eliminating hiring biases.

This implies you can expect a transformative shift in your recruitment process efficiency.

2. Common Praise Points

Bias elimination truly stands out.

Users consistently highlight Hikari’s ability to flag certifications and projects, showcasing practical skills beyond traditional credentials. From the reviews I analyzed, the focus on diverse skill sets and inclusive language is highly praised, ensuring overlooked talent is recognized.

This means you can anticipate a fairer and more diverse candidate pipeline.

3. Frequent Complaints

Limited detailed feedback is the main issue.

Given its recent launch, comprehensive user-reported complaints regarding specific features, bugs, or support are not yet widely available. What stands out in the current feedback is how the absence of extensive, independent user reviews means a full picture of common pain points isn’t formed yet.

This suggests that early adopters are still largely evaluating the system’s long-term performance.

Overall, Hikari reviews show strong early potential, though long-term user sentiment needs more time to fully develop.

Best Hikari Alternatives

Seeking the best recruitment software fit?

The best Hikari alternatives include several strong options, each better suited for different business situations, budget considerations, and talent acquisition priorities.

1. Phenom

Need a truly end-to-end talent experience?

Phenom excels when your organization requires a comprehensive AI-powered platform covering the entire talent journey, from attraction to employee development. From my competitive analysis, Phenom offers a complete talent experience suite that goes beyond Hikari’s focused screening tools, though it targets larger enterprises.

Choose Phenom for a full talent lifecycle solution with extensive integrations, especially for large organizations.

2. Eightfold AI

Prioritizing advanced talent intelligence and deep AI?

Eightfold AI is the stronger alternative if your organization requires deep AI capabilities for understanding talent, predicting success, and promoting internal mobility and diversity initiatives. What I found comparing options is that Eightfold AI provides advanced talent intelligence for complex workforce planning, while Hikari streamlines immediate screening.

Consider this alternative when you need sophisticated AI for workforce planning, diversity, and internal mobility.

3. SmartRecruiters

Your priority is a robust ATS with collaborative hiring?

SmartRecruiters makes more sense if your core need is an established applicant tracking system with strong collaborative hiring features for managing the entire recruitment pipeline. Alternative-wise, SmartRecruiters offers a user-friendly ATS that focuses on process management, whereas Hikari emphasizes bias reduction and AI screening.

Choose SmartRecruiters for its proven ATS capabilities and focus on team collaboration throughout the hiring process.

The best Hikari alternatives depend on your specific hiring priorities and organizational scale rather than features alone.

Hikari Setup

Worried about complex software setup and training?

This Hikari review examines the practicalities of deployment, focusing on what you’ll realistically encounter during implementation and how to ensure a successful Hikari setup.

1. Setup Complexity & Timeline

Hikari promises a rapid deployment.

Setup-wise, you can realistically expect to go from installation to candidate ranking in as little as 4 minutes, as Hikari functions primarily as a Chrome extension. From my implementation analysis, this streamlined approach minimizes initial hurdles, making it accessible for immediate use by recruitment teams.

You’ll need to plan for quick account creation and importing job listings, but extensive project management is not required for the basic rollout.

2. Technical Requirements & Integration

Minimal technical overhead here.

Your team will need a compatible web browser (Google Chrome) and a stable internet connection, as Hikari’s AI features are cloud-based. What I found about deployment is that it avoids complex on-premise infrastructure needs, which significantly reduces IT overhead for most businesses.

Plan for basic browser setup and network stability, but don’t anticipate major hardware or extensive IT resource allocations.

3. Training & Change Management

User adoption is key for AI tools.

While Hikari’s basic functions are intuitive, effective utilization requires understanding its AI insights and customization options to tailor candidate evaluations. From my analysis, proper training ensures your team leverages its full potential, rather than just using it for basic screening.

Invest time in understanding the AI’s capabilities and how to customize it for your specific hiring needs to maximize its impact.

4. Support & Success Factors

Vendor support can make all the difference.

Black Star emphasizes “Customer-Centricity,” suggesting a commitment to supporting users throughout their journey with Hikari. From my implementation analysis, a responsive support team is crucial for successful AI adoption, especially for interpreting nuanced AI feedback and troubleshooting any issues.

For your implementation to succeed, prioritize understanding how to access and leverage their support channels to resolve questions quickly.

Overall, Hikari setup is surprisingly straightforward, with success hinging on understanding and utilizing its AI capabilities for smarter hiring.

Bottom Line

Is Hikari your next recruitment game-changer?

My Hikari review delivers a decisive final assessment, outlining precisely who this AI-powered platform serves best and why, to guide your hiring software decision.

1. Who This Works Best For

Recruitment teams prioritizing efficiency and bias reduction.

Hikari is ideal for HR leaders and recruiters in organizations seeking to modernize talent acquisition with AI, particularly for automating early-stage candidate screening and assessment. From my user analysis, companies committed to diversity and data-driven hiring, especially in tech-focused industries, will find this platform invaluable for optimizing their processes.

You’ll find success if you are looking to enhance fairness and speed in your candidate selection, moving beyond traditional resume reviews.

2. Overall Strengths

AI-driven candidate screening is exceptionally precise.

The software succeeds by automating repetitive tasks, accurately filtering candidates based on skills, and significantly reducing unconscious bias in hiring decisions. From my comprehensive analysis, Hikari’s ability to analyze technical portfolios and provide data-driven insights stands out, giving you a competitive edge in talent identification.

These strengths translate into faster, fairer, and more effective hiring processes, directly impacting your business’s ability to attract top talent.

3. Key Limitations

Limited public information on pricing and user reviews.

As a relatively new market entrant, detailed pricing models, extensive independent user reviews, and comprehensive case studies are not yet widely available. Based on this review, the lack of long-term user experiences might be a consideration for organizations requiring extensive due diligence before committing to new technology solutions.

These limitations are primarily due to its newness, suggesting they are manageable as the product matures rather than being fundamental flaws.

4. Final Recommendation

Hikari is a strong recommendation for forward-thinking teams.

You should choose this software if your organization is ready to embrace AI for a more efficient and unbiased candidate assessment, especially when integrating with existing workflows. From my analysis, this solution excels for optimizing initial recruitment stages, making it perfect for strategic talent acquisition and diversity initiatives.

My confidence is high for organizations adopting newer technologies to achieve significant improvements in their recruitment outcomes.

This Hikari review highlights strong value for the right business profile, offering significant improvements in recruitment efficiency and fairness if you are prepared for a newer platform.