AI, rekryterares nya verktyg för en effektiv, objektiv och kvalitetssäkrad rekrytering? : En studie om rekryterares attityder till AI-användning i rekryteringsprocessen

Sammanfattning: This qualitative study investigated recruiters’ attitudes towards the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the recruitment process. The purpose of the study was to gain a deeper understanding of how recruiters perceive the use of AI in the recruitment process based on three aspects: efficiency, objectivity, and quality. Ethical issues were also considered in relation to each of all aspects. The study is built upon previous research highlighting opportunities, challenges, and the relevance of ethics related to AI use in recruitment. The theoretical framework of the study was based on D. Davis’s Technology Acceptance Model and Everett M. Rogers’s Innovation Diffusion Theory, which were applied in the analysis. To address the study’s research questions, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six recruiters with professional experience ranging from two to eleven years. A thematic approach was used to analyze the empirical material. The results regarding objectivity indicated skepticism among the recruiters. AI, being created by humans, may contain programmed errors and thus may not be entirely objective. However, there was also optimism about AI as a tool to increase objectivity by eliminating the human factor. Concerning efficiency, it was found that recruiters largely believed AI could streamline their work, although there were opinions that AI might hinder efficiency. In terms of the quality aspect, the importance of maintaining human interaction in recruitment for both the recruiter and the candidate was emphasized. Recruiters’ trust in AI as a tool varied, but the overall result suggested a predominantly positive view of AI as a decision-maker in the future. Regarding ethics, the recruiters identified issues with using AI, such as privacy concerns and the impact of different data inputs on an AI system. However, the study also revealed the idea that AI use in recruitment could be ethically justifiable as AI is considered more objective than a human. The study’s conclusion showed that the recruiters hold diverse attitudes toward the use of AI in recruitment. There was a clear openness to AI and a belief that AI has the potential to improve recruitment work in the future. However, it was emphasized that current AI use is characterized by a loss of the human factor, ethical issues, and uncertainty about whether AI is truly objective.