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Recruiters using AI extensively, but "black box" issues remain

"Cutting edge" research into the impact of unconscious bias in AI-based recruiting has highlighted a strong need for more training.

The study is being conducted by Monash University and Diversity Council Australia (DCA), in collaboration with Hudson RPO, and some of the preliminary findings have been unexpected, says Professor Andreas Leibbrandt, from the University's faculty of business and economics.

"Although artificial intelligence is used quite extensively for most recruiters, they have difficulties identifying the artificial intelligence software that they use and have a really hard time describing those tools. That's one thing that came as a surprise," he told a recent DCA panel discussing the results.

"What didn't come as much of a surprise but is important to note is that AI is often labelled as a 'black box' for them. Their level of understanding is very low, so people are using it but have difficulty describing the tools and do not really know what the tools do in the back end..."