Amazon is getting rid of recruiters because the company has advanced AI technology that will automate the hiring process.
OK, that technically may not be exactly what is happening, but that’s how such developments typically get spun. So, what is really happening?
A leaked internal memo indicates that the company is moving forward with AI recruiting — or rather, candidate evaluation tech — called “Automated Applicant Evaluation,” or AAE, that began years ago. At the same time, Vox’s Recode reports that the retail giant was extending buyout offers recently to hundreds of its low- and mid-level recruiters, which included three months of severance, along with one week of pay for every six months worked at the company.
Are the buyouts related to the new tech? (An Amazon spokesperson did not provide a comment.)
Let’s get back to that question in a moment. In the meantime, it’s worth pointing out that an earlier version of the AI make decisions that discriminated against women. It will be interesting to see what Amazon has done to change the technology to make the software less likely to transfer biases of previous hiring managers and recruiters.
The newer iteration reportedly looks at resumes of highly performing current employees and selects applications that mimic them. “[T]he model is achieving precision comparable to that of the manual process and is not evidencing adverse impact,” the 2021 internal paper read, according to Recode.
Still, if the human-done hiring was biased, that carries through in programming. AI is supposed to learn on its own, but it’s dependent on data and programming. There is no other-worldly morality added.
Regardless, this isn’t a threat to the job of recruiters in general. Not yet, anyway.
To keep reading, click here: Why Is Amazon Encouraging Recruiters to Resign?
I would think that if they’re shedding warehouse workers so rapidly that they’re projected to run out of employees in a year, they might need more recruiters, not fewer.
Human workers in any position cost labor dollars so it doesn’t matter to the company if they can achieve the same results (however biased) with less cost.