A Comparison of the Attitudes of Human Resource (HR) Executives and HR Practitioners on the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Enabled Tools in Recruiting

As part of the technological growth in HR, companies are developing and adopting AI-enabled solutions for recruitment of qualified talent for a job opening. AI-enabled recruiting tools provide a variety of potential benefits to an organization: from improving overall efficiency and lowering hiring costs, to automating repetitive tasks and removing human biases. AI-enabled tools in recruiting also introduce concerns about dehumanization of the hiring process, increased discrimination, and accidental exclusion of qualified candidates. These benefits and concerns are discussed at the HR executive level in industry and in academic contexts; however, the data on the perspectives of HR practitioners is much more limited. Studies show that only 32 percent of companies include individual practitioners within the talent acquisition technology discussions. HR practitioners leverage AI-enabled tools in hiring and, therefore, should be aware of and able to mitigate potential risks of leveraging AI-enabled tools. Lack of consideration of perspectives of HR practitioners on the benefits and risks of AI-enabled tools increases the possibility of ethical concerns and legal liability for the individual companies (Nankervis, 2021). HR executives need take into consideration the perspectives of HR practitioners who work with AI-enabled tools as this awareness is likely to help the businesses successfully realize their talent management goals. This paper is based on the hypothesis that the perspectives of HR practitioners on the use of AI-enabled tools in hiring differ from the perspectives of HR executives and need to be addressed to ensure that organizations can successfully and ethically implement AI-enabled tools within organizations. Robinson 2019, states that “examination of the practitioners’ perspective [is] a valuable part of AI technology adoption, if organizations hope to have employees support and embrace the accompanying changes." This paper contributes to the examination of practitioner’s perspectives by identifying an information gap that may influence attitudes of individual HR practitioners on the use of AI-enabled recruiting tools. The paper provides additional insights into the attitudes of individual HR practitioners in the United States (U.S.) through a new small-sample survey finding. The survey findings highlight the different attitudes that individual HR practitioners have towards the use of AI-enabled recruiting tools, especially when compared with those of HR executives. This survey is an initial step for more robust research and lays the foundation for follow up research topics. Finally, the paper provides recommendations that can help organizations ethically implement AI-enabled tools by ensuring the attitudes of individual HR practitioners are taken into consideration.