Recent headlines about AI in hiring have sparked a debate about transparency, data rights, and fairness.
Trust must be designed into an enterprise AI system, governed continuously, and proven with evidence. Trust isn’t a sentiment, it is an engineering requirement.
In a market filled with noise and speculation, clarity is paramount. Below is how Eightfold approaches responsible AI in practice, and the standards we believe every serious enterprise vendor should meet.
1. Data integrity and candidate agency
A responsible AI platform must be built on the foundations of transparency and data integrity.
- Data sources: We use information applicants choose to submit and data authorized by our customers under contract. We do not scrape social media and the like to assess an applicant’s fit for a specific role.
- Explainable matching algorithm: We don’t just provide a match score; we provide the why.
- The nature of the Match Score: Our Match Score is an indicator of alignment between a candidate and a specific role based on a customer’s calibrated job requirements. It is not a universal or portable score that follows a candidate across different companies or unrelated roles, and it is not generated outside the context of a role.
- For candidates: Eightfold supports individuals uploading their resumes so they can see which specific skills and experiences they may be a good fit for. This shifts the focus from rigid job titles to transferable skills, helping them discover roles they may have otherwise overlooked.
- For recruiters and hiring managers: Our platform provides job-related explanations with every match score. These insights empower hiring teams to make more informed decisions rather than relying on a black box number.
- The logged-in candidate experience: Eightfold additionally supports a dedicated experience where candidates can view the resume information used by our system, correct inaccuracies, and represent their skills accurately.
2. Algorithmic safeguards and bias mitigation
AI should widen access to opportunity, helping people be seen for their skills and potential. That’s why we design our technology to support recruiters and hiring managers with better information, not to replace human judgment.
- Human-in-the-loop decision making: Our AI is assistive. It identifies potential and surfaces qualified individuals, but it does not reject an applicant.
- Reducing unconscious bias: We provide tools like candidate masking, which hides personally identifiable information (PII) such as names or gender. This ensures recruiters focus on candidates’ qualifications when making hiring decisions.
- Rigorous bias auditing: Eightfold undergoes regular internal and external bias testing, including independent third-party bias audits such as those required by NYC Local Law 144. To ensure our models remain independent of protected characteristics, we use industry-standard statistical checks:
- Disparate impact analysis: Measuring whether the system’s results are significantly different for one group versus another.
- Equalized odds checks: Validating that the model’s accuracy is consistent across different demographic groups.
3. Verification through global governance
Governance is the difference between a policy and a practice. We hold ourselves to the most demanding standards and regulatory benchmarks in the world.
- ISO 42001 (AI management): Eightfold is certified under ISO/IEC 42001, the first international standard for AI management systems. Unlike general IT certifications, this specifically focuses on the ethical development of AI, requiring rigorous controls for algorithmic transparency, risk management, and bias monitoring across the entire product lifecycle.
- Federal-grade security: Our commitment to data protection is validated by our FedRAMP Moderate Authorization and DoD Impact Level 4 (IL4) status. These represent the same security benchmarks used by the U.S. federal government and Department of Defense.
- Comprehensive compliance: We align with GDPR, CCPA, and OFCCP, and other regulatory record-keeping requirements. Our security is further reinforced by annual SOC 2 Type II, as well as ISO 27001, ISO 27701, and ISO 27017.
- Ethics oversight: Our AI Ethics Council and internal Ethical AI Committee, a cross-functional group of engineering, legal, and product leaders, oversees AI and product development to ensure it meets our rigorous ethical standards.
The standard is set
We welcome scrutiny. We believe trust is earned through transparency, rigor, and consistency, not fear-driven narratives.
Responsible AI is not an aspiration, it is a present-day requirement. It is no longer enough for a vendor to simply claim they are fair or secure. They must be able to prove it.
As enterprises evaluate the technology that will shape their workforce, they should demand transparency, governance, and proof, not promises.
We believe our approach is ahead of the industry today. We welcome open dialog with the market to ensure these standards continue to evolve and improve.
At Eightfold, we remain focused on building AI that helps people discover opportunity, and helps organizations hire, grow, and empower talent fairly.
That’s the reality of Eightfold, today and every day.
