Blue John launches GREY for people risk intelligence

Blue John has launched GREY, a people risk intelligence platform for small and medium-sized businesses and growth companies in regulated industries. The product is led by Founder and Chief Executive Officer Lorna Cobbett.

The launch comes as employers face closer scrutiny over conduct in financial services and broader questions about the reliability of conventional hiring methods in the age of AI-generated applications.

GREY is designed to sit alongside existing recruitment systems rather than replace them. The platform reviews public data, applies reputation analysis and uses neuroscience-based assessment methods to produce a human-reviewed report on a candidate before a hiring decision is made.

It identifies what Blue John describes as high-stakes reputational issues, hidden risks and untapped potential, then assesses workplace traits through a model it has branded Traitmarks. Reports are guided by Violet, which the company describes as GREY's AI analyst.

Blue John is targeting employers in regulated sectors, where hiring decisions can carry compliance as well as operational risk. It argues that existing tools such as CVs and psychometric tests provide only a partial picture of a candidate, particularly when AI tools can help applicants produce highly polished applications.

Cobbett, a former Goldman Sachs banker who later became a reputation agency Chief Executive Officer, said the existing model for assessing candidates no longer reflects the realities facing employers.

"The talent system is broken and we've been assessing talent the same way for too long," said Lorna Cobbett, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Blue John.

"It's time to look at who a person actually is, not what they claim to be," Cobbett said.

Blue John said one in three hires is a wrong hire, with the average cost estimated at three times salary. It argues that the damage extends beyond direct financial loss to include disruption to culture, performance and corporate reputation.

Regulatory pressure

Part of Blue John's pitch rests on changing regulation. The company pointed to the Financial Conduct Authority's Non-Financial Misconduct Rules, which it said will extend to around 37,000 non-bank firms, and to the Employment Rights Act 2025, which it said changes the significance of the probation period in employment decisions.

Against that backdrop, Cobbett said employers are facing a convergence of pressures in recruitment and workforce management.

"GREY gives organisations the insight to see the person - not the AI-perfect CV - before they become a costly wrong hire," Cobbett said.

"We're here to protect your talent system, not replace it," she added.

Blue John said the platform can also be used beyond recruitment, including for onboarding, talent management and leadership development. It described this broader use as a way for organisations to build a growing base of internal intelligence over time.

The business was founded by a team with experience in reputation management, due diligence and Open Banking. Cobbett said that background shaped a model that looks outward at a person's public reputation and behaviour rather than relying solely on self-description in interviews or tests.

Funding plans

Blue John said it has backing from strategic angel investors in financial services, professional services and serial entrepreneurs. It is preparing a seed fundraising round targeting £3 million.

The company also outlined a broader ambition to create what it calls "Open Reputation", a framework intended to make talent-related reputation data more visible and usable in hiring and workforce decisions.

Cobbett linked that idea to earlier changes in financial data sharing.

"We are at a defining moment for talent. AI has made the CV so perfect it has become unreliable and no-one trusts it. Alongside this trust collapse, the Employment Rights Act 2025 is about to turn the traditional six-month probation period into a legal milestone. And the FCA's Non-Financial Misconduct Rules extend to 37,000 non-bank firms from September this year, making every talent decision in financial services a risk and compliance event," Cobbett said.

"These are three forces converging at once and the trust infrastructure organisations need to respond simply does not exist yet. No one has been looking outward at the person - at who they actually are, how they behave and how they will show up in the workplace. This is what GREY changes and is the foundation of a new category: people risk intelligence. Organisations need to start thinking about how they will mitigate people risk now," she said.

She said the longer-term goal extends beyond a single hiring tool.

"My vision has always been to create Open Reputation, doing for talent data what Open Banking did for financial data," Cobbett said.

"This is about building trust infrastructure and establishing a level playing field for talent. Personal reputation is no longer just a risk to be managed, it's an asset to be understood," she added.