Quick wins for a faster PC:
Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Yes. Employers may use automated tools to screen résumés, assess online information or analyze video interviews, and those tools can affect who advances. But a rejection alone does not show that AI was used or that discrimination occurred. The strongest specific transparency rules covered here apply to certain automated employment decision tools used in New York City—not nationwide.
Can AI reject your job application?
An automated tool can influence whether an application advances, even if a person makes the final decision. Tools may scan résumés for keywords, review an applicant’s online presence or analyze video interviews for behaviors and mannerisms. These are examples described by the New York State Office of the State Comptroller in its December 2025 report on New York City’s Local Law 144.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Employers may use automation to handle large applicant pools more efficiently. But a system can also reproduce patterns in past hiring data, introduce other forms of bias or make its criteria difficult for applicants to see. The available evidence does not establish a reliable nationwide percentage of applicants screened by AI, or a nationwide rate of discriminatory harm. It would be misleading to infer that a particular rejection was automated or biased without more information.
How can you tell whether an employer uses AI to screen résumés?
Ask the recruiter or employer whether an automated tool is used and what part of the hiring process it affects. A tool might rank applications, assess a test or analyze an interview; learning its role is more useful than assuming that every online application uses AI.
#1 Best Overall
In New York City, employers and employment agencies covered by Local Law 144 must provide specified notice when using a covered automated employment decision tool (AEDT). The rule is not a general nationwide right to notice about every use of AI in hiring. Outside that covered context, the materials cited here do not establish a universal disclosure requirement for AI screening.
What does New York City require for covered hiring tools?
For covered AEDTs used in New York City, Local Law 144 requires a bias audit conducted no more than one year before the tool is used, public availability of a summary of the most recent audit, and notice to candidates about the tool’s use and the data collected. The New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) summarizes these requirements in its AEDT guidance; the State Comptroller’s December 2025 report also describes them.
Rank #2
A notice or audit summary can give applicants information to examine, but neither proves that a tool is fair, valid for a particular job or easy to challenge. An audit is not the same thing as a guarantee of an unbiased outcome.
What’s actually slowing this PC down?
Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
What the enforcement audit found
The State Comptroller evaluated DCWP’s enforcement system for the period from July 2023 through June 2025. The December 2025 report found that the agency had difficulty identifying non-compliance, particularly when employers did not disclose AI use or post audit summaries, and characterized complaint handling and enforcement as inadequate. Those are findings about DCWP’s enforcement system; they do not establish that the law has no effect or that every employer failed to comply.
Rank #3
What researchers found—and what they did not establish
A 2024 FAccT paper by Groves, Metcalf, Kennedy, Vecchione and Strait analyzed interviews with 17 experts and practitioners about the NYC regime. The authors raised concerns about unclear definitions and auditor independence, difficulty obtaining employer and vendor data, and the limits of transparency alone as a way to prevent biased systems from being used. Interview-based findings about this regime are not direct measurements of every hiring tool.
A separate 2024 study, Null Compliance: NYC Local Law 144 and the Challenges of Algorithm Accountability, reports that 155 student investigators examined 391 employers. They observed 18 employers with published audit reports and 13 with published transparency notices. The authors caution that employers have discretion in deciding whether a tool is covered, so those observations alone do not prove non-compliance. The study also describes accessibility and usability challenges for job seekers.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Can an AI hiring tool discriminate against you?
It can pose a discrimination risk, but determining whether a specific tool or hiring decision violated the law depends on facts beyond the fact that automation was involved. Federal nondiscrimination laws continue to apply when employers make decisions using applicant background information, according to EEOC guidance. The EEOC’s selection-procedure guidance also explains how adverse impact and evidence of validity are addressed under the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures.
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
What the four-fifths rule means
The EEOC describes adverse impact as a substantially different selection rate that disadvantages members of a race, sex or ethnic group. The four-fifths rule generally flags a group’s selection rate when it is less than 80% of the rate for the group with the highest selection rate. The EEOC explicitly calls this a rule of thumb, not a legal definition. A ratio by itself does not resolve whether an individual has a legal claim.
Where a selection procedure has an adverse impact on a protected group’s opportunities, the Uniform Guidelines expect the employer using it to produce evidence that the procedure is valid for its use. A vendor’s unsupported assertion that a tool is “validated” is not, by itself, that evidence. The question is whether the procedure is supported for the way it is actually used.
Why an audit is not the same as validation
A bias audit, a validation study and a vendor’s claim answer different questions. To understand what an audit summary shows, look for the hiring stage and job criteria involved, the demographic groups and outcomes examined, how recent and independently conducted the audit was, and whether the notice explains how applicants can seek an accommodation or raise a concern. The NYC law’s audit and notice requirements do not by themselves establish that a tool predicts job performance accurately or that an applicant can readily contest an outcome.
In a public comment in NYC’s AEDT rulemaking record, a commenter described tests of two personality-assessment systems, Crystal and Humantic AI, whose outputs changed when job-irrelevant inputs such as résumé file format or profile source varied. That is a commenter’s account of tests of those systems, not a regulator’s finding about AI hiring generally.
Recommended Free Tools
Quick Recap
What can you do if you think an automated system screened you out?
- Ask what role automation played. Ask the employer or recruiter whether an automated tool was used and which stage it affected. If the job is in New York City and a covered AEDT is involved, the employer must provide the notices required by Local Law 144.
- Keep a record. Save the job posting, screening notices, assessment instructions, application dates and relevant correspondence. A factual timeline can help if you need to ask follow-up questions or seek advice.
- Raise an accessibility barrier. If an assessment creates a disability-related barrier, ask the employer about an accommodation or an alternative assessment process. Do not assume that every automated process offers a general opt-out.
- Separate background reports from AI-screening notices. If a third-party background report appears inaccurate, consult the report-specific notice and dispute information. When an employer obtains a report from a third-party reporting business, Fair Credit Reporting Act procedures may apply; these are distinct from the NYC AEDT notice requirements.
- Seek advice about a specific discrimination concern. Consider contacting the relevant employment-rights agency or qualified counsel. Whether a claim is available depends on the circumstances, and the sources discussed here do not determine individual claims or filing deadlines.
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
