HR leaders have started to embrace AI as an integral part of their work, particularly in hiring, suggesting a significant shift in their overall attitude towards AI compared to a year ago, one study revealed.

Global recruitment company HireVue surveyed 3,100 workers and 1,000 HR professionals about how AI is influencing hiring across workplaces. The results showed just how much opinions about the tech have changed over the past few months.

Of the HR leaders asked, two-thirds (66%) said they now have a more positive view of AI than they did last year.

This shift in attitude may have also influenced their increase in trust in AI when it comes to hiring people: 67% of respondents claimed the technology is the same or even better at finding well-qualified applicants.

Lindsey Zuloaga, chief data scientist at HireVue, believes more HR professionals and candidates are seeing the potential of HR in streamlining the hiring process.

“AI can automate repetitive tasks, freeing up recruiters to focus on the human aspects of hiring, and candidates can receive timely communications about where they stand in the process,” Zuloaga said.

“Secondly, concerns about bias are being addressed through a combination of company policies and government regulations.”

According to Zuloaga, the emergence of AI in hiring allows candidates to have a better understanding of how their qualifications are being assessed by employers. This purportedly results in a more positive opinion of the hiring process among workers.

AI-powered hiring from the workers’ point of view

HR leaders are not the only ones starting to appreciate the benefits of AI in the hiring process. Workers have also expressed greater trust in the technology.

The HireVue survey found 2 in 3 candidates felt AI was somewhat fairer compared to humans when it came to hiring. Additionally, nearly half (49%) said the technology could address the bias and unfair treatment that sometimes taint the hiring process.

Workers also shared their concerns about deploying AI in hiring: nearly 4 in 5 (79%) said they would like to know whether employers rely on such technologies when screening candidates.

Not all workers are comfortable in having AI play a key role in the hiring process. About 75% of candidates interviewed by HireVue said that they were averse to the idea of using AI to make the final decision on hiring.

For Zuloaga, companies should be more proactive in explaining how exactly AI influences the hiring process: “Transparency is key to building trust and comfort with AI in hiring. HR departments can achieve this by clearly communicating how and when AI is used throughout the process.”

This includes explaining to candidates the types of information to be used and how these might influence the final decision.

While AI can help HR leaders in some aspects of the hiring process, Zuloaga reminded them that the technology should not be relied upon to deliver the entire process.

Removing potential AI biases in hiring

To help reduce or even eliminate potential biases in AI-powered hiring, researchers at Massey University identified several steps that companies can do.

1) Employers should implement a structured training programme to educate HR professionals about AI and information systems development. This should allow users to learn about the fundamentals of AI tools, as well as how to identify and mitigate biases in such systems.

2) Companies should foster better collaboration between HR professionals and AI developers. Teams should include both HR and AI specialists to allow for better communication and align efforts between departments.

3) Companies should develop culturally relevant datasets to reduce the potential of biases in AI systems. By having HR and AI specialists within teams, they can ensure that the recruitment process remains diverse and representative of different demographics even when AI is used for screening.

4) Governments should implement new guidelines and ethical standards when it comes to AI-powered recruitment to foster better trust in the hiring process. Companies should also adopt policies that promote transparency and accountability if they are to use AI in recruitment.

The reliability of AI in hiring – questions remain

As more companies incorporate AI into their hiring process, experts warned about the dangers of relying too much on the technology. They believe some AI tools might even be exacerbating biases in hiring instead of curtailing them.

“We haven’t seen a whole lot of evidence that there’s no bias here … or that the tool picks out the most qualified candidates,” said Hilke Schellmann, assistant professor of journalism at New York University, as quoted by the BBC.

Schellmann pointed out that the biggest risk AI poses on workers is not that the technology would take over their roles but that it would keep them from getting hired in the first place.

One of the most popular cases of AI purportedly influencing hiring in a negative way is that of make-up artist Anthea Mairoudhiou.

In 2020, Mairoudhiou’s employer supposedly told her to reapply for her position in the company after being furloughed during the COVID pandemic. Aside from reviewing Mairoudhiou’s past performance, her company also used HireVue’s AI-screening programme to reassess her application.

While Mairoudhiou ranked well in her skills evaluation, she said the AI gave her poor scores in her body language assessment. This supposedly resulted in her not getting rehired by the company.

Schellmann said there are many glaring examples of systemic flaws when using AI for hiring. Some candidates have even filed complaints against the use of such tools.

One problem remains: transparency. Candidates rarely ever find out whether AI was the sole reason why they were not hired. Employers who deploy such tools don’t always let applicants know how they are being evaluated.