Discrimination And Bias In AI Recruitment: A Case Study

Barely a day goes by without the media reporting the potential benefits of or threats from AI. AI is being used more and more in workplace decisions: to make remuneration and promotion decisions; to allocate work; award bonuses; manage performance and make dismissal decisions. One of the common concerns is the propensity of AI systems to return biased or discriminatory outcomes. By working through a case study about the use of AI in recruitment, we examine the risks of unlawful discrimination and how that might be challenged in the employment tribunal.

Our case study begins with candidates submitting job applications which are to be reviewed and "profiled" by an AI system (the automated processing of personal data to analyse or evaluate people, including to predict their performance at work). We follow this through to the disposal of resulting employment tribunal claims from the unsuccessful candidates, and examine the risks of unlawful discrimination in using