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Unmuted Podcast | Episode #90

Topic: The AI Trust Gap: Who's Responsible When HR Uses AI?

Guest: Haley Friary-Schenk – Founder & CEO, HumaniCore AI

Host: Jeff Waldman – Founder & HR Tech Evangelist at ScaleHR & SocialHRCamp

Episode Overview

AI is increasingly influencing how organizations hire, evaluate, promote, compensate, and manage people. But as these technologies become more deeply embedded in workplace decisions, a critical question is emerging:

Who's responsible for ensuring we can actually trust them?

Vendors build the technology. Employers choose and deploy it. Employees and candidates experience the consequences. Regulators establish the rules.

But when something goes wrong, where does accountability begin and end?

In this episode of Unmuted, Jeff Waldman sits down with Haley Friary-Schenk, Founder and CEO of HumaniCore AI, to explore the growing trust gap in AI-enabled HR technology and what it will take to close it.

Drawing on her experience as a former Chief People Officer who has implemented complete HR technology stacks across five organizations, Haley explains why trust cannot rest on vendor assurances alone. Organizations need independent, defensible evidence that AI-enabled people decisions are being made responsibly.

Together, they explore emerging AI regulations, the challenges of evaluating increasingly complex HR technology stacks, the importance of independent verification, and why employers cannot simply outsource accountability to their technology providers.

We Explore

  • Why AI trust and accountability are shared responsibilities across vendors, employers, and regulators
  • What HR leaders should demand from vendors before deploying AI-enabled technology
  • How fragmented HR systems, missing data, and algorithmic bias can undermine fairness
  • Why emerging AI regulations are changing expectations for employers and technology providers
  • Whether HR technology is approaching its own version of cybersecurity's SOC 2 moment
  • Why independent verification must be ongoing, reproducible, and supported by meaningful human oversight
  • What organizations need to do today to establish defensible evidence of responsible AI use

Five Questions HR Leaders Should Ask AI Vendors

    1. Who tested the tool, and did they also sell you remediation?
    2. How many people were not counted in the audit?
    3. Whose data was used for testing -- real applicants or a designed dataset?
    4. When is the model retrained, and will you be notified before it happens?
    5. Where does the vendor's responsibility end and the employer's begin?

    • Timestamps

    00:36 – Introducing Unmuted and the AI trust gap
    01:35 – Why AI trust matters in HR
    02:05 – Trust and accountability across the AI ecosystem
    03:31 – Meet Haley Friary-Schenk
    04:37 – Haley's HR background and the origin of HumaniCore AI
    05:05 – Independent certification for AI-enabled people decisions
    06:23 – The role of regulation in AI adoption
    07:15 – Existing laws and emerging AI regulations
    09:08 – Who needs to trust whom?
    10:37 – Why employers can't outsource accountability to vendors
    11:33 – The risks of fragmented HR technology stacks
    13:15 – What HR leaders should ask AI vendors
    13:52 – Five critical vendor questions
    14:21 – How missing applicant data affects audit results
    15:46 – Model retraining, accountability, and legal review
    16:58 – Navigating global regulatory differences
    19:17 – Is HR technology approaching its SOC 2 moment?
    20:21 – What meaningful independent verification must prove
    21:18 – Reproducibility, ongoing audits, and certification
    23:42 – Building genuine trust in AI-enabled HR technology
    24:11 – Why evidence must exist before a complaint or lawsuit
    25:11 – Making human oversight real and measurable
    26:01 – AI in hiring, promotion, compensation, and termination
    27:05 – The most important takeaway
    27:36 – Why "our vendor said we were covered" isn't a defense
    28:28 – HumaniCore AI's launch plans
    29:53 – Closing remarks

    About Haley Friary-Schenk

    Haley Friary-Schenk is the Founder and CEO of HumaniCore AI and a former Chief People Officer with extensive experience leading HR technology transformation.

    Throughout her career, Haley has implemented complete HR technology stacks across five organizations, ranging from startups to publicly traded companies operating in 28 countries.

    After witnessing AI begin to reshape HR technology and recognizing growing gaps in accountability, Haley pursued further education in artificial intelligence, including studies at MIT Sloan and graduate studies at Penn State's Smeal College of Business.

    She founded HumaniCore AI to help establish greater accountability, transparency, and trust in AI-enabled employment decisions.

    Connect with Haley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haleyfriarysphr/

    About HumaniCore AI

    HumaniCore AI is an independent third-party certification body focused on AI-enabled people decisions across the full employment lifecycle.

    The organization works with technology vendors developing AI-powered HR solutions and enterprises deploying these systems, with a focus on independent verification, accountability, and defensible evidence.

    As AI becomes increasingly embedded in hiring, performance management, career advancement, compensation, and other employment decisions, HumaniCore AI aims to help organizations move beyond vendor assurances toward independently demonstrating that their systems meet appropriate expectations.

    Key Takeaway

    Trust in AI-enabled HR technology cannot be built on promises alone.

    Vendors and employers each need to establish independent, defensible evidence for the decisions and processes they control.

    As Haley emphasizes, "Our vendor said we were covered is not a defense."

    About ScaleHR

    The Unmuted Podcast is powered by ScaleHR (https://goscalehr.com/), helping emerging HR, Recruitment, and Work Tech companies accelerate brand awareness and lead generation through Catalyst, our community-driven content and omnichannel marketing solution.

    Unmuted is also part of the WRKdefined podcast network, making it easy to listen or watch on your preferred platform, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more.

    🌐 Explore Unmuted: https://goscalehr.com/theunmutedpodcast

    🎧 Find Unmuted on WRKdefined: https://wrkdefined.com/podcast/unmuted

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