How Vodafone Flipped Candidate NPS by 101 Points With AI

What does it take to go from negative candidate satisfaction scores to a net promoter score of plus 86? Vodafone just did it — and the number that got them there is 101 points. That's the NPS swing their HR team achieved after deploying Eightfold AI's Talent Intelligence Platform across a 100,000-person global workforce. But the NPS flip is just the headline. The real story is a complete rethinking of what HR can do when a company commits to skills-first hiring. We're talking a 50% reduction in time-to-hire, 16 hours saved per recruiter per week, and around 500 employees successfully moved into new internal roles — all while Vodafone was in the middle of pivoting from a telecom giant into a technology company. In this episode, we dig into the Vodafone playbook: what they actually built before they touched any AI tool, why the "treat candidates like customers" mindset changed everything, and what CHROs at other large enterprises can take from this case study. Plus, an honest look at the parts the vendor case studies don't always mention — like the 11,000 job cuts happening at the same time. If you're navigating AI talent transformation at scale, this one is worth your full attention.