Phenom unveils dozens of AI tools for recruiting

We were deep into the third uninterrupted hour of the “innovation keynote” when a serious young man in a sharp suit announced he was about to “dive into” the next topic.

Behind me, an attendee joked to a friend: “Please, no more diving.”

This was the second day of IAMPHENOM, the impressive, content-dense annual conference from Phenom, a pre-IPO, acquisitive tech firm that describes itself now as “applied AI for the HR domain.” Phenom grew from its early days as a mobile recruiting platform to encompass an ever-widening suite of HR tools toward its unifying goal to “help a billion people get jobs they love.”

I make it a point to attend Phenom’s annual event. Technical.ly has covered the company from its startup phase through anticipated IPO. As a homegrown tech unicorn driving global hiring, it’s become something of a bellwether.

The conference has long been all in on AI. In 2022, cofounder and CEO Mahe Bayireddi described Phenom as an “automation engine.” The following year, it was “generative apps.” Now, it’s an “AI platform.” The latest iteration this March hosted 2,500 customers, employees and stakeholders into Philadelphia’s downtown convention center,  replete with cheesesteak and Rocky references.

During a lengthy morning session, Bayireddi’s team unveiled two dozen specialized “agents” — software bundles designed to achieve specific outcomes. One such agent, for instance, can schedule interviews for frontline roles, like retail cashiers, by parsing resumes and initiating text engagement. “This is a breakthrough for skills-based hiring,” one staffer said, claiming the agent demonstrated real intelligence, not just a match.

After thumping music, laser lights, and pastel slides shouting LOW CODE NO CODE, a steady parade of Phenom staffers took turns presenting each AI agent. Including so many employee voices was admirable. But for a company that constantly emphasizes “experience” — candidate, customer, employee — the lack of attention to attendee experience was jarring.

The firm seemed so focused on what it could do, no one stopped to ask if it should.

The prevailing logic is clear: AI agents give Phenom and its clients a way to manage ballooning hiring demands. Bayireddi noted that in February alone, Phenom processed 27 million resumes.

Recruiting is now a tech arms race. Career sites have made it easier than ever to apply, resulting in an avalanche of low-quality applications. One analysis showed five times as many hiring managers feel overwhelmed compared to 2017. That glut has prompted even more automation — and in turn, job seekers apply to more roles than ever before. This attracted a slew of tech unicorns, competing with each other (with espionage) and against big incumbents. 

A fleet of specialized AI agents, each addressing a discrete part of the hiring funnel, feels like a logical next step. 

Phenom’s black-suited VP of marketing, Jonathan Dale, told analysts the number of agents is now effectively infinite. “So it’s not a useful metric,” Dales said. “Focus on outcomes instead.” And the company had plenty to share.

Take biopharma firm UBC, a Phenom customer. Just three years ago, a niche job posting might draw 30 applicants. The same posting last month got 200 — too many, said hiring lead Jonathan Berlan, so Phenom software helps them fine-tune the goal. Their target is closer to 40–50, as volume starts to dilute quality.

Or consider ThermoFisher Scientific, which saved a reported 1,500 administrative hours last year while handling 100,000 applicants and 5,000 interviews with Phenom. Time-to-fill dropped 54%, according to a company rep.

Bayireddi — an engineer by training and temperament — is growing into his role as an industry thought leader. He closed his keynote with an AI-generated image of a quad-copter drone walking a family dog. It wasn’t clear if the message was about time savings or something more existential: technology replacing the human experience.

Late in the marathon keynote, a Phenom staffer proudly introduced a fraud detection agent. After showcasing hours of tools meant to supercharge employers, this one promised to catch candidates who used their own AI tools. 

At an analyst lunch that followed, I asked Bayireddi if it was fair to unleash AI tools on behalf of employers while restricting job seekers from doing the same. The company was addressing an imbalance, he said — the market would ultimately deliver consumer tools for individuals. Phenom, he argued, was simply helping employers keep pace.

Ever the tech optimist when talking about AI’s influence on the labor market, he evoked the Jevons paradox: efficiency breeds more demand. “AI won’t displace software developers,” Bayireddi predicted. “The job’s not coding. It’s orchestration.”

I asked about policy: With Phenom’s workforce deeply reliant on immigration and its business tied to global macro trends, were federal dynamics reshaping plans?

“No,” he said. After a long pause, added, “But we don’t know what we don’t know.”

Bayireddi, like his team, has long promised Phenom would scale with its humanity intact. But after a few coffees and two and a half hours of relentless demos, some of us just needed a bathroom break.

“Our goal is not to eliminate work,” Bayireddi said. “Our goal is to amplify work.”