Independent advisors for
AI-enabled talent acquisition.
Expert advice on AI-enabled hiring, from people who have built, bought, and delivered assessments for the world’s leading employers.
experience of building, buying, and implementing assessments.
25+ years
Global expertise
delivering assessment solutions to enterprise clients worldwide.
Over 10 million
candidates assessed through systems we have built, bought, or implemented
We address the challenges facing
talent acquisition in an AI world
AI-augmented candidates
Candidates now use AI to draft applications, prepare interview answers, and complete written tasks.
We help clients redesign selection processes so they still measure real capability in a world where AI use is normal.
AI-powered hiring tools
AI-powered hiring tools are more than software.
They are measurement systems built on scientific assumptions, modelling decisions, validation choices, and fairness constraints.
Hiring for
AI skills
Most organisations say they need to hire for AI capability, but can they define what that means for individual roles, assess it consistently, and defend the criteria under scrutiny?
We help clients turn vague AI capability language into role-calibrated hiring criteria, interview content, and assessment methods.
Transform your talent acquisition.
Email us to book a scoping call: a short conversation to see if there is a problem worth solving, what it would take, and if The Hiring Science Studio is the right fit.
AI-Augmented Candidates
Candidates are using AI to draft applications, prepare interview answers, and complete written tasks.
The issue is not that candidates are ‘cheating’: they are using the tools available to them. The real problem is that organisations have not set updated their processes for a world where AI help is normal.
If your process does not account for this, you are not measuring capability. You are measuring who has access to AI.
We help clients redesign selection processes so they still measure real capability in a world where AI use is normal.
AI-coached interview answers undermine competency-based frameworks that are meant to reveal real behaviour.
Unequal access to AI tools creates new fairness risks that current bias audits miss.
People who seem well-prepared but lack real skills can now pass hiring processes that no longer separate genuine ability from performance.
The challenge
Processes that measure real capability, whether or not candidates use AI, are more accurate and fair.
Rigorous review of which signals remain reliable and which have been compromised, rather than guessing
Set clear and defensible transparency principles to stand out as an employer.
A genuinely updated process - not just a tightened one - that hiring managers can trust again.
Our solutions
AI-powered hiring tools
AI-powered hiring tools are not just software. They are measurement systems built on assumptions, modelling choices, validation decisions, and fairness claims.
Evaluating the claims made about these tools needs experts with the depth of understanding about compliance and governance.
We help clients evaluate vendors, audit live systems, review fairness and validity claims, and build governance that works in practice.
In the EU, the AI Act classifies AI used in recruitment, screening, selection, promotion or performance evaluation as high-risk.
In the US, local and state laws are increasingly addressing the risks of AI-powered tools used for hiring and other employment decisions.
Employers - and not just their suppliers - can be found liable when candidates are discriminated against.
The challenge
We deliver vendor due diligence, independent audits of live systems, fairness and defensibility reviews, and governance framework design.
Our solutions
Hiring for AI Skills
Most organisations say they need to hire for AI skills, but few have defined what that means for each role, built criteria that can be assessed, or checked if their hiring systems measure anything relevant.
AI skills are rising fast as a priority for employers, but the gap between demand and supply is huge.
Most organisations either ignore AI skills in hiring, add superficial items to job specs, or attempt to design and implement AI skills frameworks that take too long and are outdated before they finish.
The challenge
Role-calibrated AI criteria, immediately usable by hiring managers
Update the whole hiring system-criteria, tools, and interviews-not just the criteria.
Our solutions
What we deliver
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A weak buying decision locks an organisation into the wrong tool, the wrong evidence model, and the wrong assumptions for years.
We provide structured guidance and support to make sure you can ask the right questions - what tools are actually measuring versus inferring, quality of validation evidence, fairness and bias controls, governance implications, and fit with your specific hiring context.
Deliverables
Evaluation report with clear vendor comparisons
Recommendation with rationale
Implementation risk plan for the preferred vendor
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We redesign selection processes to measure real capability in a world where AI help is common. The goal is not to remove AI assistance, but to make sure it does not undermine the assessment.
Deliverables
Redesigned selection architecture with tool recommendations and re-design
Interviewer and reviewer guidance
Candidate transparency principles
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Defining AI capability in hiring criteria is genuinely hard. The market has produced 46 AI skills frameworks - most too abstract to anchor an interview question. We deliver a targeted, time-bounded engagement to update hiring criteria, assessment design, and scoring: role-calibrated, evidence-based, and implementable without an 18-month competency overhaul.
Deliverables
Updated person specifications for priority roles
Competency-anchored interview question bank
Specific recommendations for tool adjustments and scoring
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Fairness problems are usually accidental. They come from decision rules, drop-off between stages, or validation samples that do not match your workforce. We run adverse impact analysis, test vendor fairness claims, and find hidden risks before they become legal issues.
Deliverables
Prioritised mitigation roadmap with practical remediation steps
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Once a tool is in place, internal teams often lack the distance or technical depth to review it objectively. Risks build up quietly. We check if the tool predicts what it claims to in your context
Deliverables
Independent evaluation of signal quality and fairness
Traffic-light summary of key findings and risks
Clear keep / fix / replace recommendation
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A governance document is not the same as governance.
In many organisations, HR bought the tool, Legal joined later, IT owns the data, and Risk is trying to catch up.
We build governance that assigns ownership, sets review points, and creates an audit trail.
Deliverables
Monitoring and review protocols
Documentation and audit trail guidance
Transform your talent acquisition.
Email us to book a scoping call: a short conversation to see if there is a problem worth solving, what it would take, and if The Hiring Science Studio is the right fit.
The Team
Every engagement is scoped and delivered by Kate and Ben.
No junior associates, no account managers, no team finding its feet on your engagement.
The specific combination of disciplines that matters here cannot be assembled from a general consulting background.
Kate Young
Hiring science & assessment design
Kate has worked in assessment science for over twenty years. She has seen the field move from predictive validity, to diversity and fairness, to candidate experience, and now to AI explainability and governance.
She has built market-leading AI-based hiring tools and evaluated systems for FTSE 100 organisations and UK government clients. She knows what buyers usually see, and what they usually miss.
Ben Hawkes
Implementation and governance
Over the last twenty-five years, Ben has led the transformation of hiring and assessment for many of the world’s leading organisations.
He founded and leads TAPnet, a network of over 80 senior Fortune 500 talent and AI leaders. He keeps his view of how top organisations use AI in hiring up to date by learning from the people doing the work.
Independence & transparency.
Alongside buyer-side advisory, we work selectively with AI hiring vendors on product quality, validation methodology, and fairness documentation.
We understand how these products are built because we have done it ourselves.
We have a straightforward rule: we do not advise buyers on any vendor with whom we have a current paid relationship, or a paid relationship that ended within the previous 12 months.
We disclose vendor relationships at the start of every buyer engagement.
Transform your
talent acquisition.
Email us to book a scoping call: a short conversation to see if there is a problem worth solving, what it would take, and if The Hiring Science Studio is the right fit.