AI removes human touch in hiring, increases workplace diversity

While workforce recruitment is generally considered a human resource responsibility, artificial intelligence may be taking the human touch out of hiring as more self-learning hiring programs hit the market.

Utilizing data caches and algorithms, programs like Ansaro, SmoothHiring, Mya and Ideal claim to be able to identify top tier applicants from a pool without ever laying an eye on them. Instead, these systems amass resume, interview and experience to determine which applicants would be best suited for a position.

While a recruiting team may spend days sifting through stacks of applications, AI hiring programs curate applicant pools, ensure position requirements are met and streamline applicants to the interview stage in a matter of minutes.

According to The Job Network, AI hiring can also be used a tool to improve diversity throughout the hiring process by eliminating human biases. While programs still document information like age, race and other features, these metrics can be excluded so that information like skills and experience stand alone.

Citing a meta-study compiled by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, it states that despite a growing awareness of the need for diversity in a workplace, minority applicants receive 30-50 percent fewer callbacks than their white counterparts.

Hiring bias − or rather hiring the wrong individual for the job − can cost a company thousands of dollars. Even the most impartial interviewers may sway toward an applicant who graduated from the same high school or toward the one with great jokes but a poor track record.

AI is still a ways away from operating the entire recruiting process independently, but many businesses are using the technology to hire qualified candidates quicker and in a more fair way than ever before.