Artificial intelligence (AI) will inevitably transform human societies. However, experts disagree on whether the overall effects of this transformation will be positive or negative for ordinary citizens. When it comes to AI and job recruitment, some experts argue that ‘intelligent’ algorithms can be designed to assess job applicants in an unbiased manner. Therefore, algorithmic evaluations will be more fair than human judgement. Other experts argue that these algorithms will come to reinforce the cultural biases of the societies in which they are employed. Therefore, algorithms will create discriminatory rules and discriminate systematically and at a much larger scale than humans.
However, there is yet no empirical research on the effects of AI recruitment in practice, i.e. in real organizations. The aim of this project is to begin to fill this void by studying the consequences of AI in recruitment concerning the inclusion of groups that are known to suffer from discrimination or inequality; women, foreign-born and older people of working age. The project has a mixed methods approach and will study employee and recruitment data at Swedish companies that have recently begun to employ AI-technology in their recruitment processes. It will aim to understand organizational change using qualitative methods and compare outcomes concerning employee composition and other relevant outcomes before and after the implementation of AI using quantitative methods.
