Recruiting software and AI have become increasingly popular, especially right now with remote work becoming the norm. However, this has not been without problems. To solve the problems with recruiting AI people must program their AI with unbiased data. With unbiased data, recruiting AI makes the hiring process a snap. It makes selecting the top applicants quick and easy and even increases the talent pool’s diversity. Learn more by reading the rest of this article and visual deep dive. 

The past problems with recruiting AI are easily solvable, but do pose a threat. Recruiting AIs have been found to learn similar biases to human recruiters, intensifying the lack of diversity within the workforce. In 2018, Amazon scrapped its recruiting AI because the program developed a preference for male candidates, penalizing resumes that included the word “woman” or mentioned an all female college. This is of course in conflict with the effort to improve the hiring process. Excluding part of the talent pool based on factors that have no correlation to a candidate’s qualifications is detrimental to hiring successfully. 

Having the AI pick up on certain keywords creates a large potential for bias to sneak into the system. It also shifts the value from an applicant’s qualifications to their resume building abilities. The ability to jam as many keywords into a resume or cover letter is not the most important skill for a person to have once they get hired for a job. With 90% of enterprises and 68% of small businesses using applicant tracking systems, this has to be tackled under control. And, it can be by using a recruiting AI programmed with unbiased data. 

The biases that affect fair hiring exist in humans and are transferred to the AI through the use of flawed data when it is being programmed. Luckily, the software is able to completely avoid these biases, unlike humans. The AI just needs to be programmed with varied, unbiased data. It needs to be taught to value factors like a person’s interests and skills while disregarding their age, gender, or race. 

An unbiased recruiting AI is easier and allows for more diversity in the talent pool, which leads to more success. In the S&P 500, the 20 most diverse companies achieve a greater long-term profitability than their less-diverse counterparts. Diversity fuels new ideas and innovation, allowing a company to take on problems to find better solutions. Creating a more diverse workforce begins with improving the recruiting process, which can easily be done with unbiased recruiting AI.

Artificial intelligence in recruiting software is a great way to speed up the hiring process while also making it more effective. Recruiting AI can also be integrated into a company’s current applicant tracking system or other software. When unbiased data is used, recruiting AI is able to find the best applicants to any job regardless of a person’s socioeconomic background. It has the potential to improve hiring and improve the workforce overall. It can make companies more diverse and therefore more successful.