The Silent Assassin: The AI Job Interviewer (Live & Kicking).

In a remarkable story of a long-standing employee of MAC Cosmetics (owned by Estée Lauder), Anthea Mairoudhiou who was asked to reinterview for her job. She passed, as far as the human interviewers were concerned but the AI tool that they were using failed her on body language. To make a long story (you can read it in full here) short she sued and settled out of court. The curious thing is, however, is why didnt the human HR team override the AI scrutiniser? Was is confirmation bias? Was it the fact they had spent money on this technology and didn’t want to let their leadership down or was it that they fully trusted the AI’s judgement?

This issue of giving over or abdicating responsibility to AI is growing within the HR industry and, rightfully or wrongfully, human judgement is being replaced by AI judgement with real world consequences. Was the AI right? I am not sure even the inventors of that particular tech know. For that matter, is AI always right?
According to a recent study of 20 countries by IBM, 41% of companies use AI to “improve recruiting and human resources”. Algorithms within AI hiring tools have the power to destroy your future perhaps without you ever knowing it.

Are we rushing down a rabbit hole which is about to completely transform company culture and the talent space? Only time will tell but there is no abatement of companies, worldwide, happily diving headfirst down the AI vortex.