Thanks to scores of competing AI systems clogging up online application portals, applying for a new job in 2026 can feel more like applying for a bank loan than seeking a job.
At least, that’s what a group of disgruntled job seekers is claiming in a lawsuit against an AI screening company called Eightfold AI. According to the New York Times, the plaintiffs allege that Eightfold’s employment screening software should be subjected to the Fair Credit Reporting Act — the regulations protecting information collected by consumer credit bureaus.
The reason, they say, can be found deep within Eightfold’s AI algorithm, which actively trolls LinkedIn to create a data set of “1 million job titles, 1 millions skills, and the profiles of more than 1 billion people working in every job, profession, industry, and geography.” That data set, in turn, is used in marketing material to help sell its services to potential clients.
Using an AI model trained on that data, plaintiffs say, Eightfold scores job applications on a scale of one to five, based on their skills, experience, and the hiring manager’s goals. In sum, their argument is that it’s not at all unlike the opaque rules used to govern consumer credit scores.
In the case of Eightfold, however, applicants have no way of knowing what their final score even is, let alone the steps the system took to come up with it. That creates a “black box”: a situation where the people subjected to an algorithmic decision can only see the system’s outcome, not the process that led to it. And if Eightfold’s AI starts making things up on the fly — an issue AI models are infamous for — the job seeker has no way of knowing.
There’s also the issue of data retention. With no way to take a peek under the hood, there’s no telling how much data from job applicants’ résumés Eightfold collects, or what the AI company and its clients are doing with it.
“I think I deserve to know what’s being collected about me and shared with employers,” Erin Kistler, one of the plaintiffs told the NYT. “And they’re not giving me any feedback, so I can’t address the issues.”
Kistler, who has decades of experience working in computer science, told the publication she’s kept a close score of every application she’s sent over the last year. Out of “thousands of jobs” she’s applied for, only 0.3 percent moved on to a follow-up or interview, she said.
It all underscores the sad state of the job market, which has become the stuff of dystopian nightmares thanks to AI hiring tools. Whether the lawsuit can gain enough momentum to challenge the massive legal grey area of AI hiring remains to be seen. If it does, it could bring relief to throngs of despondent job seekers whose careers quite literally hang in the balance.
Eightfold AI didn’t respond to the NYT‘s request for comment.
More on AI: Majority of CEOs Alarmed as AI Delivers No Financial Returns
The post Job Seekers Sue Company Scanning Their Résumés Using AI appeared first on Futurism.
