Fountain
AI-powered high-volume hiring platform that automates sourcing, applicant screening (including a voice-based AI Recruiter), interview scheduling, and onboarding for frontline workforces.
HireAIScore rates Fountain 44 out of 100 (grade F, Substantial gaps) under rubric v1.0, last reviewed June 7, 2026. Fountain ranks 56 of 92 vendors rated in Screening AI, against a category average of 47. That score is drawn from 20 evidence items across 7 rubric criteria for Fountain — 14 with a cited source, 6 recording that nothing was located.
§ 01 - Company facts
- Founded
- 2014
- Headquarters
- United States · US
- Pricing tier
- Enterprise
- Market side
- Employer-side (AEDT)
- Categories
- ScreeningATS-integratedSchedulingSourcing
- Website
- fountain.com
These are company details, not findings. They are editable by a verified representative and carry no weight in the score, which is built only from the cited evidence below.
§ 02 - Score breakdown
§ Score breakdown
Category scoring
Weighted contribution shown to the right of each bar.
- 01
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Weight 20%50
+10.0 · category avg 50
- 02
Bias Audit Transparency
Weight 18%30
+5.4 · category avg 46
- 03
FRIA Support
Weight 15%30
+4.5 · category avg 32
- 04
Data Governance Disclosure
Weight 15%55
+8.3 · category avg 54
- 05
Human Oversight Design
Weight 12%58
+7.0 · category avg 56
- 06
Post-Market Monitoring
Weight 12%40
+4.8 · category avg 40
- 07
Customer Documentation
Weight 8%52
+4.2 · category avg 58
Category avg is the mean raw score on that criterion across the 92 Screening AI vendors in scope of this rubric, this one included.
§ 03 - Strongest · weakest
Strongest category
Human Oversight Design
Raw score 58 · contributes 7.0 to total.
58 against a 56 category average
Weakest category
FRIA Support
Raw score 30 · contributes 4.5 to total.
30 against a 32 category average
§ 04 - Cited evidence
Download diligence record→§ Evidence
Cited per category
Every score is backed by at least one cited piece of evidence.
Evidence ledger
- Items
- 20
- Documentation
- 11
- Public statement
- 3
- Absence
- 6
- With a source URL
- 14 of 20
- Source hostnames
- 4
- Fewest items
- 2
- FRIA Support
These figures measure how thoroughly Fountain was reviewed, not how Fountain performed — an absence row, recording that nothing was located, is counted like any other item.
Article 11 Technical Documentation
3 items50
- DocumentationCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Ethical AI page commits to bias elimination, clear explanation of AI-powered decisions, and human-AI collaboration, with no model cards or technical pack.
- DocumentationCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Agentic AI page states the system is 'Designed in accordance with EEOC, GDPR, and ISO 42001 frameworks'- framework alignment, not certification.
- AbsenceCaptured Jun 7, 2026
No public material located as of 2026-06-07.
Where we lookedNo model/system cards, instructions-for-use, explainability whitepaper, or ISO 42001 certificate located (including the gated trust.fountain.com center).
Bias Audit Transparency
3 items30
- Public statementCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Fountain's screening article frames adverse-impact testing and bias audits as employer obligations, stating 'compliance responsibility rests with the employer, not the vendor,' and provides no Fountain bias audit.
https://www.fountain.com/posts/ai-powered-candidate-screening
- Public statementCaptured Jun 7, 2026
ADP Marketplace listing claims the AI Recruiter uses the same role-specific questions to 'improve fairness'- an unaudited fairness assertion.
https://apps.adp.com/en-US/apps/759475/fountain-ai-recruiter
- AbsenceCaptured Jun 7, 2026
No public material located as of 2026-06-07.
Where we lookedNo NYC LL 144 AEDT bias-audit summary or independent audit (Warden, Holistic, BABL, DCI, ORCAA, Credo) located.
FRIA Support
2 items30
- DocumentationCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Vanta-hosted trust center exists but covers information-security attestations (gated), not AI deployer fundamental-rights or FRIA support.
- AbsenceCaptured Jun 7, 2026
No public material located as of 2026-06-07.
Where we lookedEU AI Act is never mentioned by Fountain; no FRIA (Art. 27) template or deployer-obligation material located.
Data Governance Disclosure
3 items55
- DocumentationCaptured Jun 7, 2026
July 2025 security whitepaper documenting ISO 27001:2022, SOC 2 Type II, SOC 1 Type II, GDPR/CCPA, AES-256 at rest, and TLS/HSTS.
https://www.fountain.com/wp-content/assets/ebooks/Fountain-Security-Whitepaper.pdf
- DocumentationCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Security page confirming TLS/HSTS, AES-256 document encryption, third-party audits, and a security contact.
- AbsenceCaptured Jun 7, 2026
No public material located as of 2026-06-07.
Where we lookedNo AI training-data disclosure, data-exclusion list, model data-retention policy, or ISO 42001 certificate located.
Human Oversight Design
3 items58
- DocumentationCaptured Jun 7, 2026
AI Recruiter page states 'Human override and review options available at all steps,' provides justification for decision-makers, and 'audit-ready documentation and logs.'
- DocumentationCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Agentic AI page lists 'Human-in-the-loop options at every key step,' audit trails, and decision logs.
- Public statementCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Screening article says borderline candidates are flagged 'for human review rather than auto-reject.'
https://www.fountain.com/posts/ai-powered-candidate-screening
Post-Market Monitoring
3 items40
- DocumentationCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Security page publishes a Responsible Disclosure Policy, a security@fountain.com contact with PGP key, and a one-week critical-issue resolution target.
- DocumentationCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Whitepaper describes 24/7 security monitoring and weekly release notes published to new.fountain.com.
https://www.fountain.com/wp-content/assets/ebooks/Fountain-Security-Whitepaper.pdf
- AbsenceCaptured Jun 7, 2026
No public material located as of 2026-06-07.
Where we lookedNo public status/uptime page, AI model-update changelog, or continuous bias/fairness monitoring dashboard located.
Customer Documentation
3 items52
- DocumentationCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Detailed public product page for the AI Recruiter covering evaluation, scoring, human override, and audit logs.
- DocumentationCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Privacy portal hosting the privacy policy, Terms of Service, and Master Subscription Agreement.
- AbsenceCaptured Jun 7, 2026
No public material located as of 2026-06-07.
Where we lookedNo public DPA, NYC LL 144 candidate-notice template, or EU AI Act/AEDT deployer-compliance guidance located.
§ 05 - Editorial notes
Company overview
Fountain, founded in 2014 and headquartered in San Francisco, builds a high-volume hiring and frontline-workforce platform whose customers collectively hire over a million workers a year. Its suite covers sourcing, an ATS, onboarding, and shift scheduling, but the regulated core is its AI Recruiter - an agentic system that reads a job description, holds a voice conversation with applicants, evaluates responses, and advances "top candidates" with a structured score and justification. In 2026 it launched "Cue," an agentic orchestration layer pushing screening, sourcing, and scheduling further toward autonomous execution with human-oversight controls.
Regulatory exposure
An AI tool that scores and ranks applicants is squarely an AEDT under NYC Local Law 144 and a likely "high-risk" system under the EU AI Act, with parallel exposure under Illinois and Colorado law. Fountain's marketing leans on fairness, explainability, and being "designed in accordance with EEOC, GDPR, and ISO 42001 frameworks"- but ISO 42001 is referenced as a design framework, not a held certification, and Fountain publishes no bias audit, no model card, and no FRIA material. Notably, its own screening blog states that "compliance responsibility rests with the employer, not the vendor," pushing the regulatory burden downstream without supporting artifacts.
Path to a higher score
The highest-leverage move is commissioning and publicly posting an independent NYC LL 144 bias audit with disparate-impact ratios and sample sizes, ideally for two consecutive years. Fountain should convert its "designed in accordance with ISO 42001" claim into a real certification or a published AI-management-system statement, release a system/model card and explainability statement for the AI Recruiter, and add deployer-facing compliance guidance (LL 144 notice templates, an EU AI Act deployer pack, a public DPA and subprocessor list).
§ Regulatory frame
What applies to screening ai.
Treated as high-risk under Annex III §4 when the screening output is decisive. EU AI Act Article 13 transparency obligations apply; deployers must give candidates a way to contest.
§ Compare
Build any comparison→Fountain against its nearest-scoring peers.
In Screening AI.
§ Others rated in Screening AI
All screening vendors→Ranked 56 of 92 by weighted total under rubric v1.0. The ordering is arithmetic on the rubric and carries no view on which tool suits a given hiring process.
- 53Jobvite45F
- 54Cangrade45F
- 55Equalture44F
- 56FountainThis profile44F
- 57UKG44F
- 58JazzHR44F
Conflicts of interest
No vendor pays for placement, scoring, or removal. Casework - the consulting firm that operates this directory - provides paid services to some vendors. Any active or recent (within 24 months) commercial relationship is disclosed on the affected vendor profile and the review is reassigned to an independent reviewer. See the full policy on About.
Casework has no commercial relationship with this vendor.