HR Departments Skeptical About AI, Fear Lawsuits, But Use It Anyway

Although they are concerned about possible litigation, most HR departments still don’t have an AI policy. Ryan Golden, reporting in HR Dive, says they also have enough regulatory concerns to back off some on AI implementation, but it’s still being widely adopted.

Much of the article is based on data from survey findings, primarily conducted by the Littler Mendelson law firm. In one survey, more than half of the respondents said they were concerned, either moderately or “to a large extent,” about litigation that would target the use of AI in Human Resources departments. 

“We’re already seeing some rather high-profile names become the subject of AI lawsuits in the HR context,” Golden notes. One such lawsuit targets HR vendor Workday, alleging that its AI software discriminated against applicants on the basis of race, age, and disability status. 

However, resume screening and hiring are only some areas where HR departments use AI. In one survey, only 30 percent of respondents said AI was being used for recruiting (including resume screening and candidate assessments), but 42 percent said they were using it for “creating HR-related materials,” such as job descriptions and onboarding materials. 

The writer also addresses the question of how the public regards businesses’ use of AI. Gallup polls conducted in 2023 and 2024 asked respondents “how much trust they had in businesses to use AI responsibly.” The short answer could be summarized as “not much.”

In both years, only two percent of respondents said they had “a lot” of trust in businesses’ use of AI. There were, however, some signs of a modest increase in trust. From 2023 to 2024, the percentage indicating no trust that businesses were using AI responsibly decreased from 38 to 33 percent.