Can AI Make Hiring Less Biased?

General purpose AI can be more biased than humans. AI built for hiring can widen the candidate slate and raise quality at the same time. Tina Shah Paikeday, Senior Advisor for Responsible AI at Findem, has tested both, and she explains what HR leaders should check before they buy.

Jackye Clayton and Katee Van Horn get into how to vet an AI hiring tool, why only about 5% of CHROs have real AI fluency, what new laws mean for anyone using automated hiring decisions, and how recruiters move from order taker to consultant.

Key Takeaways

General purpose AI draws on vast, unstructured data, and in Tina's testing it produced more bias than humans.

AI built specifically for recruiting can widen candidate slates and raise quality at the same time.

What goes into the data and the algorithm decides what comes out. Ask every vendor how theirs was built.

Hiring teams now need AI to sort through the flood of AI written applications.

Critical thinking and judgment are gaining value while tool specific skills lose it faster.

Of roughly 7,000 US CHROs Tina reviewed, about 5% showed strong AI fluency.

AI should make the recruiter role more strategic, not just faster.

The person you need may already work for you. Check inside before you post the job.

What you put into an AI tool can come back to you. Use tools with guardrails built for HR.

Hiring laws are moving from guidance to enforcement in New York City, California and the EU.

Timestamps

00:00 – Why general AI can be more biased than humans

03:36 – How AI can reduce bias in hiring

05:00 – How to vet an AI hiring tool

06:52 – The biggest hiring challenge: AI to sort through AI

12:17 – Only 5% of CHROs have AI fluency

14:33 – From order taker to consultant

20:27 – The scariest part: no guardrails

22:24 – Are your AI prompts protected?

25:54 – AI hiring laws: from soft law to hard law

27:27 – AI as a bias interrupter

Keywords

AI in hiring, hiring bias, responsible AI, recruiting technology, talent acquisition, AI regulation, CHRO, AI fluency, skills based hiring, HR technology

Before your next AI vendor demo, ask two questions: was this built for hiring, and how did you test it for bias?

Remastered from our original conversation with Tina Shah Paikeday, former partner and global practice head at Russell Reynolds.