Hmmm... Not so Fast With A.I. Video Interviewing Maybe

 

 

I love watching recruiting technology trends. Anything that potentially disrupts the recruiting process will certainly go through all kinds of scrutiny, especially if it is going to eliminate humans. The bottom line with most of the concerns questions whether any artificial intelligence or machine learning is "learning" and acting on the biases already present in a company's recruiting process. In other words, while humans can be biased, when AI does a deep dive, it accesses millions of data points from all current and former employees. It can help figure out which people are the most productive and profitable and develop a recruiting strategy to find more of this "gold." The potential issue, of course, is what Amazon ran into last year when their AI recruiters were hiring all males.

You are now starting to see states develop laws to help job seekers with their security and privacy. 

Illinois just passed the Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act. This is very interesting. AI in video interviews take a candidates expressions and speech patterns during the interview and analyze them against millions of data points to determine if their expressions are "gold" and match the successful people already in that position.  

This piece of legislation requires the employer to inform the applicant AI technology is being used to evaluate their interview and requires them also to have them sign a consent form. For job seekers, video interviews are not well-liked anyway, and now you have to have them sign a waiver. Talk about nerves. I am curious to find out what happens when someone declines the video interview.

This act also limits the use of the video and who can view it, and it must be destroyed in 30 days upon receiving a request the employer is responsible for getting to the job seeker. I can hear the lawyers getting in line.

For the employer, why would you even put yourself in this situation? If you research vendors like HireVue, employers using their AI video interviewing technology are testifying that they get a better match for their open jobs. Are chatbots (like Mya) that use AI via text next? Is the way you use your phone's keyboard, an indicator of how you perform on a job? 

I am sure some venture capital firm is already pouring money into this idea.

For job seekers, instead of Googling how to answer the greatest weakness question, they will have to search for "how to kick ass with an AI interview." Believe it or not, this is a real thing. The top three tips are practice facial movements, smile, and say a lot of keywords since the robot can't see you as a human. The current knock with AI is that it has a hard time figuring out women, darker skin, trans, and non-binary people already. Vox has a compelling article on this subject worth the read.

The bottom line for employers is most do not use any of the AI recruiting tools available. The tools that are gaining ground are most of the front-end tools that include chatbots, video chats, video interviews, and assessments. 

I say it all the time if one hundred people apply to a job if I can have a robot (don't need AI) access all these candidates for the bare minimums (skill sets, education, location, etc.), it would instantly narrow that list down to thirty people. The seventy that didn't make it could be professionally contacted (no more blackhole) as well as suggest other jobs within the company that would be a better fit. A better candidate experience for sure! Yes, this technology exists.