My Beef With AI in the Hiring Process

As AI creeps into the hiring process mainstream in 2020, here's why hiring managers AND job candidates should tread lightly...

On average, 250 resumes are received for each corporate job opening.

250!!

Yes, that's a lot of resumes to read through for any human being (who likely has other functions to their job besides reading resumes).

So, AI seems like a savior for companies looking to cut down on time spent sifting through resumes to find the right people to interview.

Plus, human beings have biases!

And so AI seems like a savior to protect companies from wrongly rejecting candidates based on certain biases.

That's important.

But here's the problem:

AI still depends on the data it's given.

And a resume is only as good as the candidate's skill and experience AT writing a resume.

Not their skill or experience at the work.

And AI still depends on the algorithm written for it.

Are the signals that guide the algorithm the correct ones?

Are we sure?

So, here's the question we need to be honest about:

Are we really just using AI to deflect accountability?

Hopefully the answer is NO.

Because AI can be a wonderful tool in the hiring process.

But let it be a TOOL for the decision maker.

Not the decision maker.

That's us.