Phenom adds Plum psychometric science to its agentic AI hiring stack

Artificial intelligence-based human resources company Phenom People Inc. announced today that it has acquired Plum.io Inc., a psychometric-based talent assessments company that measures the durable skills AI cannot manufacture and quantifies workforce potential.

Founded in 2012, Plum applies industrial-organizational psychology to predict how candidates will perform on the job. The company’s platform measures behavioral traits, social intelligence, personality and cognitive ability, surfacing qualities such as empathy, judgment, adaptability and resilience that resumes and skills tests miss.

Plum’s offering is powered by what it calls Role Model technology, which maps behavioral blueprints against more than 40,000 real-world jobs to deliver validated predictions of candidate fit. The company claims its assessments are four times more accurate than resume screening alone and are independently audited to detect adverse impact across demographic groups.

The company’s customers use the platform across the talent lifecycle, including hiring, internal mobility, succession planning, leadership development and manager coaching.

Post-acquisition, Plum says, its technology will be combined with Phenom’s agentic delivery and Hypercell context to allow enterprises to measure the durable human skills that determine on-the-job success, such as empathy, judgment, adaptability and resilience, for any role, in any market. It will also do so without the historical burden that Phenom argues has historically kept behavioral science out of hiring at scale.

“AI is making general intelligence a commodity and human skills have never mattered more; yet hiring still relies on gut feelings to assess them,” said Phenom co-founder and Chief Executive Mahe Bayireddi. “By bringing Plum’s psychometric science and models together with our skills ontologies and agentic workflows, we’re enabling every enterprise to scale behavioral assessments that predict employee performance for every role in every market.”

According to Phenom, the combination of Plum’s science with its Hypercell framework and automation capabilities will give enterprises the ability to address the issues of “synthetic talent” by empowering them to rapidly scale comprehensive skills validation to emerging and transforming roles.

Though the amount Phenom is paying for Plum was not disclosed, Plum had raised $12.1 million in funding. Investors in the company included Pearson Ventures, JFF Ventures, Strada Education Network, Export Development Canada, Real Ventures, BDC Capital Women in Technology Venture Fund, EduLab Capital Partners and Impact Engine Management PBC.

The acquisition of Plum is Phenom’s third acquisition this year and follows Included Inc. in January and Be Applied Ltd. in February.

Image: Plum