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$ cat projects/recruta.md

Recruta+

An agent that replaces two tools and handles research participant recruitment in a conversational flow. In 10 weeks of testing, nearly 40,000 messages were sent at no sending cost and without depending on who had access.

company
iFood · AI Lab
my role
Give recruitment autonomy to more than 180 designers, with no per-message cost: I conceived and built the agent, the conversation and the templates.
period
2026
$ result
~40,000messages sent in 10 weeks of testing, at no sending cost
60%came back to use Recruta+ on two or more days
20people from 7 areas used Recruta+
01 · the problem

Only 40 of 180 designers had access to the recruitment tools, and every message send had a cost

To recruit participants, you had to use two tools. Of the 180 designers, only 40 had access to them. In practice, the other 140 ended up using colleagues' access whenever they needed to run a recruitment.

There was also an issue with the participant lists. To send messages, a person needed to receive the contacts of the audience they wanted to reach. These lists were shared as CSV files, so data such as phone numbers circulated among different people during the process.

On top of that, each message sent cost R$0.35, and in a normal month the team sent around 10,000 messages.
02 · the solution

A conversational flow that replaces two tools

I built Recruta+ on Toqan, the AI platform iFood uses internally to build agents, and structured the solution as a multi-agent architecture. An orchestrator runs the flow and calls different agents throughout the recruitment. The list agent selects the participant segment without exposing phone numbers to the person recruiting, the templates agent selects and fills in the message, and the sending agent handles delivery.


The person recruiting defines the audience they need but doesn't receive the participants' data directly. Phone numbers stay inside the flow between agents, and the lists no longer circulate as CSV files.

Sending required an action outside the agent's environment. To send messages through Faster, it had to communicate with the tool's API. I created a custom tool to bridge that gap: it receives the information needed for the send and makes the API call. This integration also solved the cost problem. Before, each message sent cost R$0.35. With message sends through Faster, that cost went away.
behind the scenes · how it was built
ToqanPersonsays what they needorchestratorRecruta+runs the conversationpicks the flowvalidates each step1 · List agentsegmented selection, without exposing phone numbersor the person sends their own list2 · Templates agentvalidates and fills in 1 of 5 templates3 · Sending agentsends to the confirmed listcustom toolconnects to the WhatsApp APIParticipantsreceive the inviteUsage log
Multi-agent architecture on Toqan: the orchestrator calls three agents in order, and the custom tool connects the send to the WhatsApp API.
The person starts by choosing the type of research they want to run: qualitative, quantitative or a scheduling reminder. Then they define who they want to reach. They can send their own list or describe the audience they need.

Based on that information, Recruta+ prepares the invite using one of the five available templates and shows a preview of the message. Before sending, the person reviews everything and confirms.
on screen · what the person sees
Recruta+New recruitment
Hi! I help you prepare and send research invites over WhatsApp. Where would you like to start?
Qualitative researchInterviews, usability tests and focus groups
Quantitative researchSurveys with a higher volume of responses
Scheduling reminderSend a reminder before sessions
Qualitative research
How do you want to define the participants?
Use my own listUpload a CSV or paste the numbers
Create a segmentDescribe the profile you need
I want 500 active delivery drivers, on motorbike or bike, from the last 30 days.
Finding participants…
List ready500 participants, phone numbers hidden
All set. Review the invite before sending.
Want to get R$50 to spend on iFood however you like? Hi! This is Ana, from the iFood Research team. We're putting together an interest list to talk about delivery routines.
Recipients 500Type QualitativeChannel WhatsApp
Confirm and sendEdit
Yes, send now
Sending messagesSend complete
✓Preparing sendSend prepared
✓Validating contactsContacts validated
✓Sending messagesMessages sent
✓FinishingDone
Type your replySend
Recruta+ recreated from the project's screens, with illustrative content.
03 · results

20 people from 7 areas used Recruta+ in 10 weeks

Between August and October, 20 people from 7 areas used Recruta+. The experience was rated 4.5/5 for satisfaction and 4.7/5 for ease of use.

Usage recurrence
20 unique users100%
12 came back on 2 or more days60%
8 used it in 2 or more months40%

Cost no longer limited the size of research

Over the whole period, nearly 40,000 messages were sent at no sending cost.

Before, the budget determined how many messages could be sent. In some studies, the send limit was reached before getting the number of responses needed.

With Recruta+, it became possible to work with larger lists and look for samples better suited to each study, without the budget determining the volume of messages sent.