“Bob will be dead by then.” AI is doing more HR, and it isn’t good.
October 2, 2025
By Matthew Pietz
This article was written and edited without the use of AI.
Companies that adopt AI are using it to automate administrative tasks first, because they seem like low-hanging fruit that a machine can competently handle. Trouble arises, though, when Human Resources is considered “administrative”.
During the AI Governance conference in Boston I attended last month, this topic came up repeatedly, and three anecdotes from attendees reveal an alarming state of affairs.
A woman I met at breakfast had just had a job interview given by an AI. The prospective employer did not warn her, or give her the chance to opt out. Another colleague who works in AI said it’s the norm in her world, and she’s had “several” such interviews. When we know AIs can give biased analysis of applicants, why outsource the interview? The cost savings cannot compensate for the bias. One study found AI interviewers gave higher score when the interviewee had bookshelves in their background!
An AI auditor told how a client company’s AI system perpetuated cultural stereotypes as it reviewed CVs. For a Japanese branch it said women should focus on helping to maintain harmony in the office, and men were better suited to executing strategy.
Most shocking of all: One speaker’s company used AI to draft performance review letters for ten employees, but the machine only returned nine. “Where’s [Bob]’s letter?”, they asked the AI. It replied that Bob didn’t need a letter, because he would be dead soon The machine explained it had read Bob’s insurance claims, and his terminal medical condition was so serious he wouldn’t make it to the performance review. This obviously raises grave privacy questions and is a HIPA violation, at the very least.
As companies search for use cases for AI, and understandably prioritize those that bring cost savings, they cannot put HR tasks into the same bucket as ordering supplies or scheduling meetings. HR determines the fate of human beings, and its functions must be carried out with the greatest care and avoidance of bias.
Until machines do better on these scores than humans, HR must be left to the (organic) professionals.
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