An A.I. Start-Up Boomed, but Now It Faces a Slowing Economy and New Rules – The New York Times

A New York law, which is scheduled to take effect next month, will require companies using A.I. hiring software to notify job candidates that an automated system is being used and to have the technology checked for bias by independent auditors.

Eightfold’s software is typically the matching engine behind a company’s hiring and career website. A candidate uploads a résumé or link to a LinkedIn profile, and the software returns a few roles it has determined to be good matches. A company recruiter can search by job and be shown a list of strong candidates, with the technology often sifting hundreds down to a half-dozen or so.

Eightfold’s A.I. can also show both the candidate and the recruiter skills that a person lacks but might be able to acquire with a short course online.

The Vodafone Group, a British-based multinational telecommunications company, began using Eightfold’s software at the beginning of 2022. Vodafone is seeking to expand its digitally skilled work force and to hire more women. Job candidates are shown a notification that explains how their data will be used, and they have to opt in to be considered.

Last year, Vodafone hired 19 percent more women and reduced the average time to hire candidates by 58 percent, said Marc Starfield, the company’s head of human resources. “For me, skills are the new currency,” Mr. Starfield said. “A.I. is a different and broader mechanism to understand skills.”

Micron, a big computer chip maker, is also emphasizing skills-focused hiring as it expands, encouraged by the billions of dollars in government money pledged to shore up American semiconductor manufacturing. Micron plans to hire up to 9,000 workers for a new factory complex near Syracuse, N.Y., and add 2,000 workers in Boise, Idaho.

The company is using the Eightfold software to broaden the pool of good candidates for its factory and manager jobs. Military veterans, for example, may lack college degrees but have acquired skills like team leadership and how to operate costly, high-tech machines, said Britt Thomas, Micron’s global director for talent and innovation.

Micron also turned on an Eightfold feature called “anonymous résumé,” removing the last name, gender and address of job applicants. The feature is intended to reduce bias in selecting candidates.

The A.I. technology has improved Micron’s hiring practices at times, Ms. Thomas said, calling it “extremely beneficial.” But the company has not systematically measured the technology’s effectiveness.