Sense
Sense is a conversational AI talent engagement platform that screens, scores, matches, and schedules candidates for high-volume recruiting via chatbot, SMS/WhatsApp, and voice AI on top of a customer's ATS.
HireAIScore rates Sense 58 out of 100 (grade F, Substantial gaps) under rubric v1.0, last reviewed June 7, 2026. Sense ranks 7 of 92 vendors rated in Screening AI, against a category average of 47. That score is drawn from 19 evidence items across 7 rubric criteria for Sense — 16 with a cited source, 3 recording that nothing was located.
§ 01 - Company facts
- Legal name
- Sense Talent Labs, Inc.
- Founded
- 2016
- Headquarters
- United States · US
- Pricing tier
- Enterprise
- Market side
- Employer-side (AEDT)
- Categories
- ScreeningSchedulingSourcing
- Website
- sensehq.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%60
+12.0 · category avg 50
- 02
Bias Audit Transparency
Weight 18%72
+13.0 · category avg 46
- 03
FRIA Support
Weight 15%38
+5.7 · category avg 32
- 04
Data Governance Disclosure
Weight 15%58
+8.7 · category avg 54
- 05
Human Oversight Design
Weight 12%64
+7.7 · category avg 56
- 06
Post-Market Monitoring
Weight 12%52
+6.2 · category avg 40
- 07
Customer Documentation
Weight 8%62
+5.0 · 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
Bias Audit Transparency
Raw score 72 · contributes 13.0 to total.
72 against a 46 category average
Weakest category
FRIA Support
Raw score 38 · contributes 5.7 to total.
38 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
- 19
- Documentation
- 9
- Audit report
- 3
- Public statement
- 4
- Absence
- 3
- With a source URL
- 16 of 19
- Source hostnames
- 2
- Fewest items
- 2
- FRIA Support
These figures measure how thoroughly Sense was reviewed, not how Sense performed — an absence row, recording that nothing was located, is counted like any other item.
Article 11 Technical Documentation
3 items60
- DocumentationCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Sense AI Policy sets out a responsible-AI framework (fair, transparent, accountable, compliant), a High/Medium/Low risk-classification table, a Map-Measure-Manage-Monitor model lifecycle, and states clients 'can request model cards and rationale behind outputs.'
- Public statementCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Blog post explains how Sense's Candidate Matching and Chatbot AEDTs were evaluated and frames the company's approach to documenting model behavior for compliance.
https://www.sensehq.com/blog/sense-passes-bias-audit-to-comply-with-nyc-hiring-law
- AbsenceCaptured Jun 7, 2026
No ISO 42001 certification, formal system/model card, or published instructions-for-use document found on sensehq.com; model cards are only available on request and the AI policy names no technical-documentation standard (e.g., NIST AI RMF, ISO 42001).
Bias Audit Transparency
3 items72
- Audit reportCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Public Warden AI NYC Local Law 144 bias-audit report for Sense Candidate Matching dated May 18, 2026, with downloadable PDF and intersectional impact ratios of 0.99-1.00, but carrying a 'for demonstration purposes only' disclaimer (test data, not employer-specific).
- Audit reportCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Public Warden AI assurance dashboard for Sense shows ongoing third-party bias auditing across 15 protected categories on 111,408+ candidate profiles, mapped to NYC LL 144, Colorado SB 205, EU AI Act, and California FEHA, all marked 'Clear.'
- Public statementCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Sense states its Candidate Matching and Chatbot completed an independent bias audit by Holistic AI finding no adverse impact under the four-fifths rule, and gives NYC customers AEDT disclosure guidance.
https://www.sensehq.com/blog/sense-passes-bias-audit-to-comply-with-nyc-hiring-law
FRIA Support
2 items38
- DocumentationCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Sense's Warden EU AI Act page references Regulation 2024/1689, acknowledges high-risk AI systems, and notes deployers must run post-market monitoring and human oversight, but is marked 'for demonstration purposes only.'
https://trust.warden-ai.com/sense/candidate-matching/eu-ai-act
- AbsenceCaptured Jun 7, 2026
No Article 27 Fundamental Rights Impact Assessment template or structured FRIA / deployer-assessment guidance found on sensehq.com/ai-policy, the security page, or the Warden EU page; the EU page mentions deployer obligations but offers no FRIA workflow.
Data Governance Disclosure
3 items58
- DocumentationCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Public subprocessor list discloses infrastructure and AI processors including AWS, GCP, Anthropic and OpenAI (resume entity extraction), Predibase (AI inference), and Retell AI (voice), with stated processing purposes.
- DocumentationCaptured Jun 7, 2026
AI policy states Sense does not use or infer protected attributes, encrypts and access-controls customer data, only uses data in AI models with consent, and lets customers opt out of data training.
- DocumentationCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Security page details TLS in transit, AES-256 at rest, least-privilege controls, MFA, and annual vulnerability/penetration assessments; SOC 2 Type II certification is separately attested via Business Wire (2021).
Human Oversight Design
2 items64
- DocumentationCaptured Jun 7, 2026
AI policy states 'All decisions with employment impact (e.g., hiring, rejection) are made by people. AI is a decision support system - not a decision maker,' with explainable match scores, editable AI content, and escalation paths ensuring human intervention is always available.
- Public statementCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Company messaging emphasizes preserving 'the human element' in recruiting alongside automation, reinforcing a human-in-the-loop posture.
Post-Market Monitoring
3 items52
- Audit reportCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Warden AI dashboard advertises 'continuous bias auditing' and 'post-market monitoring' of Sense's Candidate Matching system with dated, downloadable reports updated through May 18, 2026.
- DocumentationCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Security page publishes a dedicated disclosure channel (security@sensehq.com) and states Sense runs annual vulnerability and penetration assessments.
- AbsenceCaptured Jun 7, 2026
No public product/model-update changelog, status page, or incident-history page found on sensehq.com; the AI policy references internal incident logs but does not surface them publicly.
Customer Documentation
3 items62
- DocumentationCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Public security page documents encryption, certifications posture, pentesting, MFA, and a security contact for customers and deployers.
- DocumentationCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Privacy policy distinguishes Client Data (candidate info, governed by separate client contracts) from Sense's own AI training data, details data-subject rights, and notes EU Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers.
- Public statementCaptured Jun 7, 2026
Blog gives NYC-based customers concrete deployer guidance: disclose AEDT use on their site, link to audit results, and include notices in NYC job postings.
https://www.sensehq.com/blog/sense-passes-bias-audit-to-comply-with-nyc-hiring-law
§ 05 - Editorial notes
Company overview
Sense (legally Sense Talent Labs, Inc.) is a San Francisco-based talent engagement platform founded in 2016 that automates high-volume recruiting through conversational AI. Its products span an AI chatbot, SMS/WhatsApp messaging, conversational Voice AI, interview scheduling, and an AI Candidate Matching/scoring engine that shortlists applicants on top of ATSs like Bullhorn, Greenhouse, iCIMS, and Workday. The company is venture-backed (Series D, $90M+ raised from SoftBank Vision Fund, GV, and Accel) and serves 5 of the 10 largest global staffing firms, placing it firmly in the enterprise tier.
Regulatory exposure
Sense Candidate Matching and Chatbot are screening AEDTs squarely in scope for NYC Local Law 144, Colorado SB 205, Illinois, and the EU AI Act's high-risk Annex III employment category. Sense is unusually well-prepared for a platform of its size: it completed an early Holistic AI bias audit (~2024) and now publishes a public Warden AI assurance dashboard (trust.warden-ai.com/sense) with downloadable, continuously updated reports mapped to NYC LL 144, Colorado SB 205, the EU AI Act, and California FEHA. Its main exposure is that the Warden reports are conducted on Warden's synthetic test dataset and carry a 'for demonstration purposes only' disclaimer, and that no EU AI Act FRIA template or Article 27 deployer assessment is offered.
Path to a higher score
To raise its scores, Sense should publish (or clearly link) a customer-facing model card / instructions-for-use pack and pursue ISO 42001 to lift its Article 11 standing; convert the Warden 'demonstration' audits into employer-applicable or production-data audits and keep two consecutive dated public cycles; and add explicit EU AI Act deployer guidance, an Article 27 FRIA template, and a published DPA and status/incident page to close the FRIA, data-governance, and post-market-monitoring gaps.
§ 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→Sense against its nearest-scoring peers.
In Screening AI.
§ Others rated in Screening AI
All screening vendors→Ranked 7 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.
- 04HiPeople61D
- 05Alva Labs61D
- 06HeyMilo61D
- 07SenseThis profile58F
- 08Tezi58F
- 09Findem58F
Conflicts of interest
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Casework has no commercial relationship with this vendor.