A majority of workers want AI to stay out of hiring tasks, study finds

Dive Brief:

Sixty-nine percent of workers think artificial intelligence (AI) has no place in some hiring tasks, according to a Yoh survey of 2,000 adults.
Around 40% of respondents said AI is unacceptable in selecting new hires, while about one-third agreed AI should not be used to conduct virtual job interviews. One-third of respondents said AI is not appropriate for assessing candidates’ truthfulness about their experience or qualifications in interviews, and about one-fifth said AI should not be used to notify rejected candidates of final hiring decisions, screen resumes or onboard new hires.
In other survey results, employed respondents were slightly less accepting of AI in hiring than unemployed respondents. College graduates were less open to AI than those with less education, the survey said, and respondents 55-years-old and older were more likely than younger workers to find AI acceptable for some aspects of hiring.

Dive Insight:

Talent professionals have integrated AI into more of their tasks to try to speed time-to-hire and to more efficiently screen for candidates with the just-right skills, qualifications and potential. Some even think machine learning has the potential to predict the ideal candidate. However, the survey results indicate that swaths of workers still don't totally trust AI, and that's not without cause. In some cases, using algorithms in hiring has amplified human biases, but still others say that an algorithm based on an unbiased model can eliminate human bias es in hiring. A human touch is still necessary to maintain and monitor this type of automation, according to Yoh.

"AI technology should be used only to augment and enhance, not replace, the recruitment function," Yoh President Emmett McGrath said in a press statement. "In order for it to be fully effective, this technology must be used in conjunction with the experience, skill and intuition of human recruiters and hiring managers.”

To ensure their methods won't alienate younger workers or college grads who largely prefer face-to-face communication, talent professionals might consult workers' preferences uncovered by this survey — or ask their own workforces how they feel about AI in hiring — before changing their sourcing, screening and onboarding practices. If HR leaders find a beneficial application for AI in their hiring processes, they might also discuss the solution with tech leaders in their organizations to help them decide if it's worthwhile in the long term.