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Stuart Gentle Publisher at Onrec

Could AI eliminate hiring bias?

With 31% of us saying they experience discrimination when job seeking, one HR tech believes AI could be the answer

A third (31%) of us have experienced discrimination when job hunting according to research released today*. But HR tech start up JamieAi, which commissioned the research, believes that the hiring process will increasingly offer equal opportunities via the adoption of artificial intelligence.

When asked what factors were affecting their ability to get interviews or new job roles, 51% of respondents said they felt age played a part, while 25% said gender. A further 21% said social status made an impact while 16% of people said that either their religion or sexuality had been an obstacle in finding employment.

As a result, two thirds of us (64%) have admitted to enhancing our job applications. Alongside the half of us (49%) who embellish qualifications or experience, 27% had excluded information, 14% had changed their name to sound more “English”, 18% added their picture to boost chances of securing a position and 13% had given the wrong age.

But while discrimination is currently a common occurrence, according to JamieAi’s CEO Adrian Ezra, developments in AI could soon make hiring bias a thing of the past.

He explains: “Bias is an intrinsic part of the human character but by harnessing technology in the right way we can start to counteract this. When recruiters currently ask candidates for demographic information, they inadvertently create space for discrimination to fuel existing biases. We are now seeing new models emerge that focus on skills, experience and preferences. Doing this not only reduces and prevents discrimination but also increases the overall accuracy of the service.”

He continues: “At JamieAi we are working on best fit and match accuracy – making our technology as powerful as a top recruiter. I urge the industry leaders to add a tech first approach to their hiring process and focus on activating solutions that not only achieve greater efficiency and accuracy but begin to put an end to hiring bias altogether.”


About JamieAi

JamieAi is a UK-based HR-tech start-up with the mission to be the most accurate job matching platform in the world. JamieAi pairs technology insight with human expertise to deliver cost-effective, transparent and unbiased hiring for data professionals, with the aim to automate the recruitment process. Since inception in 2017, JamieAi has worked with a range of blue-chip clients and start-ups.

*Research of 500 job hunters conducted by Atomik Research in January 2019 on behalf of JamieAi