First Advantage (FA) 2026 Baird Global Consumer, Technology & Services Conference summary

Business Overview and Market Positioning

• Provides global workforce solutions for screening, hiring, and talent management, operating in over 200 countries with $1.6B revenue and 80,000 customers, including a majority of Fortune 100 and 500 firms.

• Differentiates through scale, proprietary data, and a tech platform integrated with customer workflows, underpinned by AI and compliance expertise.

• Operates in a highly regulated industry, leveraging compliance and data infrastructure as key competitive moats.

• Emphasis on serving the full employee lifecycle with solutions spanning background screening, digital identity, and compliance.

• Industry analysis underscored a $24B+ total addressable market with mid-to-high teens growth in digital identity.

Labor Market Trends and Customer Sentiment

• Labor market has stabilized, with enterprise customers maintaining or increasing hiring across all regions and verticals.

• Base growth has normalized to neutral, with upsell and cross-sell driving strong growth and 97% retention.

• Layoffs in headlines are offset by reinvestment in technology and churn, which increases screening demand.

AI, Compliance, and Competitive Moat

• AI is used for optimizing data sourcing and search speed, but not for employment decisioning due to legal restrictions.

• Compliance requirements (FCRA, GDPR, etc.) and fragmented data sources create high barriers to entry and disintermediation.

• Proprietary databases and physical infrastructure (e.g., drug testing sites) further strengthen the competitive moat.

• Competitive advantages include deep system integrations, proprietary databases, and AI-driven platforms.