When AI Hiring Tools Land in Court: The 2026 Compliance Buyer's Guide

A major lawsuit dropped in January 2026 alleging that one of the biggest names in AI hiring scraped data on over a billion workers, quietly scored them before any human saw a resume, and never told candidates a thing. And here's the uncomfortable truth: the vendor builds the algorithm, but the employer takes the legal hit. In this episode, we break down the Kistler v. Eightfold AI case, what NIST-funded research says about AI screening bias (the numbers are stark), and exactly what the NYC Local Law 144 fine structure looks like when things go wrong. Then we get practical: four questions you should put in writing before signing any AI screening contract in 2026. The buying question has changed. It's no longer which tool screens fastest. It's which tool can prove its process is fair and auditable — in court, if it comes to that. This episode gives you the framework to find out.