Curated Intel from the Talent Tech Industry
May 29-June 3, 2023:
• Searching for the truth: Is AI hype for real? $20B in investments so far in 2023 says Yes;
• Expanding the AI for HR portfolio: Veritone acquires SaaS provider Broadbean for $52.5M;
• Expressing eleventh hour contrition: Industry leaders declare AI poses human ‘risk of extinction’;
• Adding efficiency to the 24-hour workday: Shift work platform Instawork raises $60M in funding;
• Reaching out to software developers: arc launches Hireai solution for remote work jobs.
PLUS
Worldclass content & business-building connections – that’s what you can expect at TAtech Europe & The EMEA Job Board Forum, coming up in London on December 4-6. It is the only conference in Europe and the rest of the EMEA region that is designed for job board and talent technology company CEOs, their direct reports and rising stars and totally focused on advancing the bottom-line success of their enterprises. The information and insights and the contacts and relationships it provides will accelerate your sales, reinforce your brand and give you a sustainable competitive advantage in the market. So, don’t delay; register today to take advantage of Early Bird Discounts.
Is The AI Hype For Real? $20B In Investments Says Yes
As every investor and their French Bulldog scrambles to get in on the AI action, we look to the data for answers. Ironically, we can’t even define “AI” as a sector per se since almost every startup looking for some coin or decent press suddenly identifies as an “AI-centered-something-or-other.” But for the purists, the numbers don’t lie — or in the very least they tell a clearer story than the prevalent “AI will save the world” narrative. In fact, early this week investors poured $700 million into two AI startups — Builder.ai and Anthropic — and followed up mid-week with another $105 million to AI marketing platform Insider. It seems we’ve reached another level of the AI craze that has dominated the private markets since late last year. Overall, $20 billion has been raised by startups using “AI” in 2023. (Fun fact: $20 billion could pay the salaries of 307,266 teachers for one year.) But let’s definitely keep making those AI-generated selfies.
Veritone to Acquire Broadbean, Signifying Deeper, Global Commitment for Veritone's AI-powered Human Resources Solutions
Veritone, Inc. (NASDAQ: VERI) ("Veritone" or the "Company"), a leader in enterprise AI software and services, today announced its agreement to acquire Broadbean, a global leader of software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology that makes talent acquisition and engagement easier, faster and more efficient, from CareerBuilder. Covering more than 180 countries, serving 3,000+ clients and integrated with over 100 Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) partners, the strategic acquisition of Broadbean will expand Veritone's AI-powered human resources solutions offerings and will build upon Veritone's acquisition of PandoLogic in 2022. Total consideration paid will be $52.5 million in cash on a cash- and debt-free basis. The acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to Veritone's operations, and on a standalone basis, is expected to generate SaaS and GAAP revenues of over $35.0 million on an annualized basis while contributing attractive EBITDA margins. Both Broadbean and PandoLogic hold leadership positions in the rapidly evolving talent acquisition market, which is valued at $36.1 billion globally as of 2022, according to Staffing Industry Analysts. By using AI recruiting tools to engage job seekers, Veritone HR Solutions will accelerate employers' hiring efficiency with advanced data-driven hiring decisions and process automation. With more than half of Broadbean's revenue coming from outside of North America, the combined offerings will further accelerate Veritone's geographic expansion and address the challenges presented by today's remote and hybrid hiring requirements.
A.I. Poses ‘Risk of Extinction,’ Industry Leaders Warn
A group of industry leaders warned on Tuesday that the artificial intelligence technology they were building might one day pose an existential threat to humanity and should be considered a societal risk on a par with pandemics and nuclear wars. “Mitigating the risk of extinction from A.I. should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks, such as pandemics and nuclear war,” reads a one-sentence statement released by the Center for AI Safety, a nonprofit organization. The open letter was signed by more than 350 executives, researchers and engineers working in A.I. The signatories included top executives from three of the leading A.I. companies: Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI; Demis Hassabis, chief executive of Google DeepMind; and Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic. Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, two of the three researchers who won a Turing Award for their pioneering work on neural networks and are often considered “godfathers” of the modern A.I. movement, signed the statement, as did other prominent researchers in the field. (The third Turing Award winner, Yann LeCun, who leads Meta’s A.I. research efforts, had not signed as of Tuesday.)
Instawork bags $60M in funding
Shift-work marketplace Instawork has raised $60 million in a round led by TCV, with participation from new investors 9Yards Capital, Larry Fitzgerald Jr., and existing investors including Benchmark, Spark Capital, Craft Ventures, and Greylock. The San Francisco-based company has now raised $160 million since its launch in 2016. Instawork says it plans to use the money to expand AI-driven capabilities to connect employers with qualified workers. It also plans new self-serve features, including tools that let customers post open shifts in seconds, and custom, data-powered interfaces for workforce management. The funding announcement also mentions a planned marketplace for “training and certification opportunities” and a new Instawork debit card for qualifying users.
Arc Launches Hireai, An AI Recruiter Transforming Global Remote Developer Hiring
arc , the remote jobs marketplace for software developers, has launched HireAI, an AI-powered recruiter that makes hiring top tech talent faster and easier than ever. By instantly matching companies with the right candidates from its global developer network, Arc's HireAI eliminates tedious tasks that hiring managers face, such as candidate search, resume screening, and manual outreach. As a result, it saves companies time and money in finding top remote talent from all over the world and speeds up hiring significantly. Powered by OpenAI's Chat GPT-4, HireAI uses a company's job description to find the best match candidates from Arc's pool of over 250,000 remote developers worldwide. Hiring managers then contact shortlisted candidates directly on the platform for quick interviews and hiring. HireAI also automatically identifies the top applicants for job posts, eliminating the need to manually screen hundreds of resumes. With each match, HireAI learns preferences, resulting in even more personalized and accurate results over time.
TAtech Europe: Worldclass Content & Business-Building Connections
Worldclass content & business-building connections – that’s what you can expect at TAtech Europe & The EMEA Job Board Forum, coming up in London on December 4-6. It is the only conference in Europe and the rest of the EMEA region that is designed for job board and talent technology company CEOs, their direct reports and rising stars and totally focused on advancing the bottom-line success of their enterprises. The information and insights and the contacts and relationships it provides will accelerate your sales, reinforce your brand and give you a sustainable competitive advantage in the market. Whether your company is a niche or general job board, aggregator, talent marketplace, online classifieds business, programmatic platform, conversational AI solution, chatbot, ATS, recruitment marketing solution, CRM platform, interviewing or assessment system or talent technology consultancy, this event will supercharge your company. So, don’t delay; register today to take advantage of Early Bird Discounts.