What's on Your Mind? Bosses Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Find Out

Companies are using artificial intelligence (AI) for help with hiring and firing, as well as to gauge employees' feelings toward their bosses, reports the Wall Street Journal . For example, SPS Companies is using the AI-based Xander software to rate responses to employee surveys. The software analyzes text to interpret open-ended questions based on language and other data, tagging employees with attitudes or opinions. Some employers also are using software to read differences between what employees say and how they feel. Xander helped First Horizon National rapidly analyze worker poll feedback to gain insights much faster than human resource staffers could. A Deloitte study estimates that more than 40 percent of employers worldwide have implemented AI processes of some kind, but regulators are lagging behind such deployments. The availability of AI tools to help companies make hiring, firing, and compensation decisions are worrisome for employees who do not like the idea of being psychoanalyzed by software, while employment attorneys are concerned that AI programs might contain prejudices that could lead to workplace discrimination. Lawyer Garry Mathiason says any algorithmic bias is likely to have an outsize impact on minorities and other protected classes of workers. Meanwhile, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has yet to issue official rules governing how AI can be used in HR decisions, and a 2016 panel concluded that the technology can potentially create new barriers for opportunities.