{"id":65,"date":"2020-04-10T18:26:53","date_gmt":"2020-04-10T22:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-peopleanalytics\/submission\/ai-in-predicting-candidate-potential\/"},"modified":"2020-04-10T18:32:09","modified_gmt":"2020-04-10T22:32:09","slug":"ai-in-predicting-candidate-potential","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-peopleanalytics\/submission\/ai-in-predicting-candidate-potential\/","title":{"rendered":"AI in Predicting Candidate Potential"},"content":{"rendered":"

The use of analytics to predict candidate potential is growing in popularity. Examples abound, such as Teach for America which uses analytics to supplement their selection process for new teachers, or Pymetrics which does analytics as a service for other companies seeking to hire top potential candidates.<\/p>\n

The article \u201cCan AI predict candidate potential\u201d (https:\/\/www.ciodive.com\/news\/can-ai-predict-candidate-potential\/531828\/<\/a>) reflects on both the promise and dangers of such use. One statement in the article is that algorithms \u201cthink\u201d in a way different from humans, and can find patterns such as paramedic experience being correlated with future leadership. I agree that AI can be valuable in surfacing such patterns, but they can also be valuable in surfacing a lack of pattern<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Human recruiters will often look to brand name schools or companies as indicators of potential. However, an algorithm may find that the effect of such a brand name is practically insignificant, and that factors such as years of experience in a functional role matter more instead. Consequently, the lack of pattern<\/em> can allow the team to consider potentially talented candidates who would otherwise have been missed.<\/p>\n

However, humans should continue to be involved \u2013 as the article suggests, AI should be a complement, not a replacement. For instance, human guidance is needed to correct for irrelevant patterns like the correlation between a Swiss origin and being a good fit for the clock industry. On this, I entirely agree: during my time with IBM Watson, I worked on multiple products (using AI, though not people analytics) where I constantly emphasized to clients that it was not meant to replace humans, only to assist in their work and provide a second viewpoint. However, not all the clients were happy to hear this: more than one wanted to replace their workforce with the algorithm, for cost-cutting purposes. It\u2019s important for businesses to understand that although AI is a valuable supplement, final decisions should always be given to a human, because (1) they can correct for irrelevant patterns, (2) it gives a sense of control and ownership, and (3) it means a decision can be appealed to a human \u2013 not an algorithm.<\/p>\n

The article also discusses how AI can unintentionally \u201creplicate, and magnify, existing disparities in a workplace\u201d. Consequently, the company Gloat in the article purposely excludes variables such as gender, race, or age, as well as qualities like golfing or skiing which can indicate socioeconomic status. While I view this as good in theory, I think solving the bias problem by excluding variables is very difficult in practice.<\/p>\n

For one example, we can look to Amazon\u2019s failed project in using AI to hire: https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-amazon-com-jobs-automation-insight\/amazon-scraps-secret-ai-recruiting-tool-that-showed-bias-against-women-idUSKCN1MK08G<\/a>. The Amazon algorithm showed a bias against women, because its dataset was based on the last 10 years of applicants, reflecting a pipeline of mostly men. The algorithm had \u2018learned\u2019 that mostly men had been selected in the past, so it began to favor verbs more commonly found on male engineers\u2019 resumes (e.g. \u2018executed\u2019 and \u2018captured\u2019), among other biased behaviors like penalizing the names of women\u2019s colleges. In my view, it would not be practical to exclude the verbs of every resume bullet point, because they are closely tied into the person\u2019s description of what they accomplished. Consequently, controlling for \u2018bias variables\u2019 may be more practical than removing them all, but it\u2019s a difficult issue to solve. Possibly a better dataset (e.g. less male in Amazon\u2019s case) would help, but then bias may be introduced in the selection of the dataset.<\/p>\n

To summarize, the key to using AI well in predicting candidate potential lies in (1) seeking both patterns and lack of patterns (2) using AI only as a supplement to a human\u2019s final decision (3) carefully considering how to deal with the possibility of perpetuating bias through the AI results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can an algorithm really evaluate a person's potential?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11838,"featured_media":67,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"class_list":["post-65","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-peopleanalytics\/assignment\/lpa-blog-assignment\/","yoast_head":"\nAI in Predicting Candidate Potential - Leading with People Analytics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-peopleanalytics\/submission\/ai-in-predicting-candidate-potential\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AI in Predicting Candidate Potential - Leading with People Analytics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Can an algorithm really evaluate a person's potential?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-peopleanalytics\/submission\/ai-in-predicting-candidate-potential\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Leading with People Analytics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-10T22:32:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-peopleanalytics\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2020\/04\/1_ycwawTXjHk1-yuDuugyT5g.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-peopleanalytics\\\/submission\\\/ai-in-predicting-candidate-potential\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-peopleanalytics\\\/submission\\\/ai-in-predicting-candidate-potential\\\/\",\"name\":\"AI in Predicting Candidate Potential - 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