The Phenom Approach to Ethical AI
Find, grow, and retain talent with safe and fair AI
Our approach to artificial intelligence is rooted in the rigorous application of ethical principles and valid data science. We believe that AI should be a tool for good, promoting fairness, inclusivity, and respect for privacy and security. Our guiding principles drive the development of safe and explainable AI at Phenom.
We're committed to maintaining the validity and reliability of our AI models by using job-relevant variables, never training on demographic or biometric inputs, and performing rigorous testing. When using Phenom, you can trust that you're using safe, fair, and ethically developed AI.
Our core principles of ethical AI
Help a Billion People
Our purpose is to help a billion people find the right work. We empower customers to harness the power of AI to find, engage, hire, grow, and retain the best talent at scale. We strive to create safe, fair, and innovative AI models that can be used globally by billions of people.
Avoiding Bias
A layered compliance and safety approach ensures our AI reduces bias and improves fairness. We also leverage science-based practices from industrial organizational psychology, machine learning, and statistics to deliver AI that makes efficient hiring more fair.
Human-in-the-Loop
AI doesn’t replace the decision-making process for hiring and does not make automated decisions. It does empower humans to make more informed and more objective decisions. We advocate for human control to ensure that AI helps you find the right fit faster without undue influence on hiring.
Adaptive, Inclusive, Explainable
We believe in the power of AI to inform fair hiring outcomes that empower all individuals to find the right work. Our AI models are designed to adapt to a variety of jobs and candidates and to explain their predictions.
Privacy and Security
We uphold privacy rights and ensure the security of all data used in our AI systems. Unless necessary for the performance of the contract, Phenom does not share candidate Personal Identifiable Information (PII) with third parties. We comply with laws applicable to Phenom, including data protection and information security regulations.
Application of Ethical AI
Our experience layer uses AI to provide intelligent search, deliver contextual job recommendations, and answer frequently asked questions for candidates and employees.
Our candidate sourcing features use AI to identify best-fit candidates for a specific job based on skills, job title, location, and experience.
Our recruiting efficiency products use AI to progress candidates through hiring stages, schedule interviews, transcribe and interpret interview audio in real-time, and more.
Our platform-wide generative AI helps talent acquisition and talent management professionals operate more efficiently by assisting with search, interview scheduling, writing emails, and more.
Our workforce intelligence solution uses AI to create ontologies detailing skills and role relationships, provide employee development opportunities and ideal career paths, and facilitate succession planning.
Phenom Fit Score 2025 Audit Results
Valid
Audited for accuracy and effectiveness in improving hiring processesReliable
Audited for consistent effectiveness across different jobs and applicantsFair
Audited to confirm lack of adverse impact or biasDownload the report today
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Frequently Asked Questions
Phenom uses only job-relevant variables and never trains its AI on demographic or biometric data. It applies practices from industrial organizational psychology and machine learning to reduce bias systematically rather than relying on aspirational guidelines.
The Phenom Fit Score is independently audited each year for fairness, and those results are published.
Humans make every hiring decision. Phenom AI surfaces recommendations, scores, and insights to inform those decisions, but never automates the outcome.
Human-in-the-loop is a core design principle, not just a policy. Every agent and scoring model is built to support the recruiter or hiring manager's judgment rather than replace it.
Phenom does not share candidate personally identifiable information with third parties unless required by contract. The platform complies with applicable data protection and information security regulations relevant to enterprise HR.
HRIT teams can review data privacy and security status from within the platform rather than relying on external audits.
Yes. The 2025 Phenom Fit Score audit confirmed three things: it is valid, meaning accurate and effective at improving hiring processes; reliable, meaning it performs consistently across different jobs and applicants; and fair, with no adverse impact or bias detected.
The full audit report is publicly available here: Phenom Fit Score Report
Explainable AI means that recruiters and HR teams can see why a candidate received a particular score or recommendation rather than receiving a number with no context.
In HR, this matters for compliance, for building hiring manager trust, and for catching errors. If the reasoning is opaque, you cannot verify whether it is working correctly.
