Like a Cog in a Machine: The Effectiveness of AI-Powered Human Resourcing

Introduction

Upon the birth of the second decade of the twenty-first century, the exponential increase of AI employability has reached new records regarding almost every function and department at modern businesses. Nevertheless, the human resource, i.e., people, remains the most valuable asset to any firms, especially within the services sector. Furthermore, the human factor, according to the cogent argument of many AI theorists, is still not replaceable by the machines, at least, on the foreseen future. In this regard, Human resources (HR) professionals are promoting the growing use of software-enhanced modules, to potential job applicants, for precision, cost cut, and time-saving efficiency. However, other scholars (e.g., Goodman, 2017) regard the features of such algorithms as somewhat elusive. Also, when compared to traditional evaluation and recruiting methods, work in this area is somewhat lagging in terms of data protection and the use of proper testing tools, as well as validity checking (Goodman, 2017). A recent study, by Van Esch et al. (2019), shows that adopting AI recruitment will not lower the likelihood of people applying for jobs that way as long as their attitudes are positive towards that technology. Thus, this chapter serves as a scholarly attempt to shed light on AI human resourcing literature, mainly by synthesising how companies are using artificial intelligence in managing human resources. Besides, what opportunities and threats to individual and organisations could the adoption of AI-enabled human resource management bring in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and ethics.