Anthony Onesto on why AI in HR is coming whether you like it or not, and how to do it without tanking trust. Research shows AI hiring systems can cut opportunities for underrepresented groups by 30%, and over 60% of workers fear unfair judgment. His fix: audit for bias, demand transparency from vendors, lock down privacy, and build an ethics charter before you deploy.
Questions this video answers
May 23, 2025.
Approximately 30% reduction in opportunity.
Over 60% of employees feared they would be unfairly judged by AI.
About 78–79% of Americans expressed worry that AI surveillance could compromise their privacy.
Chapters
Everyone, it's Anthony Ernesto and this is my latest AI drop from my newsletter, AI in HR Today. Subscribe, don't wait. You don't want to miss out on anything. So the buzz around artificial intelligence and human resources is totally undeniable. We're starting to see a movement and there's a lot of promises about the operations streamlining intelligent decision making. But one of the things I wanted to explore was this balance. How do we navigate the ethical tightrope that us, the folks in H, are going to have to look out and watch out for, especially when weaving AI into the fabric of hr? Well, let's first look at the numbers. Research highlighted that AI recruitment tools trained on historical hiring might result in 30% reduction in opportunity for underrepresented groups. Cathy O' Neill Weapons of Math Destruction Great, great book. Check it out. There's a lot of bias that can be exemplified. Employee trust. Over 60% of employees feared that they would be unfairly judged by aud. Automated systems and privacy. Privacy, privacy always an issue. A 2022 report by the Electronic Frontier foundation found that 78, 79% of Americans express worry about how AI surveillance could compromise their privacy. So what can we do? We could be a catalyst for this and we can navigate these ethical minefields as a group. Right? So first and foremost, let's think about the watch outs. Be proactive about bias management. Make sure that you are not exemplifying bias that existed in the past. Transparency, when you're working with vendors and other folks, explainability, how is your algorithm work? What does that look like? And continue to check on that. And there's some state and hopefully some federal laws that will force a lot of these tools to be transparent about it. Make sure you have data governance and privacy protocols in place. Work with your legal teams, work with your IT teams. By the way, when you're working, AI is coming, so there's no scenario where we don't use AI. That's a bad idea. So when you're working with these folks, first and foremost for yourself, use it. Second, work with your IT and legal departments and set the mandate that it's not a yes or no, it's a yes. But work with you. Like how can you help us make sure that we're, you know, we are toeing the ethical tightrope here. And I think again, one of the things that I've been talking about a lot is the importance of having the human at the center of all of this. Right? And that's why I believe the chro, the CPO and the human resource leaders that are out there can be critical and lead this transformation. Right? So a couple of things, things to think about. Embed the ethics from the start. Create an HR specific ethics charter before you even start with AI. Foster AI literacy, get trained folks, start playing with it, see what it's all about. And then collaborate and communicate, like I said before, with your IT departments, your legal departments, and even your operational groups. Make sure that you're looking at these things and there's a constant flow of collaboration and communication. That's my latest drop. We'll see you next time.
