AI has become an increasingly important part of the recruitment process in recent years, with most organizations now deploying it to help them filter through applications.  As research from Rice University reminds us, however, it is by no means a silver bullet.

The study, which looked at the legal and ethical issues surrounding the use of AI in selection found that it can easily incorporate biases and miss out on key characteristics among applicants.  On the flip side, the technology, which can include games and data mining tools, can help recruiters to save time.

“To use games as an example, remember how kids avoid tests and love games?” the researchers say. “The same idea applies when hiring, where the hope is that applicants will be attracted to playing a game, and the game data will be at least as effective as a traditional employment test. No doubt games are engaging, but we need much more data to argue for the effectiveness of games as selection tools in hiring situations.”

Filtering talent

The authors also highlight the concerns the technology presents in terms of diversity and accessibility.

“Take an example where job applicants go through a video interview, and their data are then scored by a machine learning algorithm,” they say. “It might pick up on job-relevant features such as responses concerning job knowledge or conscientiousness. But we are now highly aware that machine learning algorithms may also pick up on many incidental features irrelevant to the job, such as tone of voice, gestures and facial expressions.”

For instance, many AI-based systems lack data on people from minority groups or with a disability, which can make it harder for the system to adequately assess their capabilities and therefore unfairly rule them out of the process.

The use of these systems can also result in information being reviewed that wasn’t part of the official application.  Whereas in the past applicants could manage the material submitted to a recruiter, now systems often trawl the internet for whatever it can find.

“Just because organizations can mine the internet for applicant information doesn’t mean that they should,” the researchers conclude. “And related to this concern, we are now seeing how issues of applicant privacy and fairness are beginning to influence organizational policies as well as state and federal laws.”