A recent survey from Resume Builder found that half of managers use AI to make important decisions about direct reporting, such as which employees will be promoted and which employees will be fired.
The survey found 1,342 U.S. managers voted, of which 60% reported relying on AI to make decisions about employees. 78% and 77% awarded the technology with raises and promotions, respectively, while 66% and 64% decided to use it respectively to layoff and end.
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Over 20% said that “frequently, AI makes final decisions without human input,” but most managers would intervene if AI provided recommendations that disagree.
Specifically, managers reported using AI tools for a variety of tasks related to direct reporting, such as creating training materials and employee development plans. Although 91% reported using technology to assess the performance of their reports, restarting the Builder survey questions did not clarify what comes with these assessments.
Almost half (46%) of managers surveyed are also “responsible to assess whether AI can replace reports,” Resume Builder said. Of these, 57% discovered that AI could take over positions, and 43% went ahead and replaced the human role with AI. Resume Builder did not provide details on the type of position the manager reported to replace.
If AI tools were the most popular among managers, the investigators cited regular suspects. 53% use ChatGPT most frequently, and 29% choose Microsoft Copilot. Gemini has around 16% of the votes, with the remaining 3% using a different tool.
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The survey also notes that two-thirds of people using AI to directly manage reports have no formal AI training. However, given how quickly AI tools are being entered into the workplace, there is no agreed criteria for what appropriate training is. This is an issue exacerbated by the continued lack of regulations.
The authors of the report warned of the risks of blind use of AI.
“AI can support data-driven insights, but it lacks context, empathy and judgment,” Stacie Haller, Chief Career Advisor at Resume Builder, said in the report. “Organisations have a responsibility to ethically implement AI to avoid legal liability, protect culture and maintain trust among employees.”
Still, the “ethical” implementation remains opaque. Resume Builder did not include any guidelines on what this might look like, and the survey did not ask managers to report their own definitions or instincts about where it is more or less appropriate to manage using AI.
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“The ethical use of AI in management requires fundamental transparency from employees, giving them a voice in the decision to use and showing them exactly why — and most importantly, how they are evaluated,” Hirke Schelman, author of “Algorithms,” told ZDNET.
Schellmann added that employees should have a way of appealing decisions made by algorithms. “To be honest, the best way to use AI in management is to use algorithms that help employees. These are algorithms that do not have access to management,” she added.
Ethics and Disputes
AI tools are common to adoption and other HR functions. A survey from Resume Builder found that most managers reported that their companies encouraged them to use AI to manage their reports. This most commonly refers to efficiency tightening, overhead reduction, and more rapidly assessing data.
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However, as many critics have pointed out, these sensitive use cases are when AI bias can be the most damaging. In 2021, New York City passed Local Methods 144 to address AI bias. In one of the first laws of this kind, an automated employment decision tool (AEDT) must be routinely audited for bias at least once a year in use, to publish the results of its audit.
However, the law has been criticized for defining AEDT so narrowly, allowing companies to reduce enforcement and compliance.
The use of AI in HR is essentially at the discretion of the individual company, as there is no explicit worker protection or mandatory means for employees to appeal. Regulators can turn their attention to this AI use case by creating more robust transparency requirements and processes where companies need to adhere to whether they are using AI tools in ways that could impact their employees.
Privacy concerns
A 2023 paper from Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) states that employees should know when and how AI is being used, ask questions, and opt out of the applicable location. It is unclear how many managers investigated their use of AI if they investigated their use of AI, how many managers reported it.
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Resume Builder Survey did not ask questions about information managers that share reports directly with AI tools. Managers can cause serious privacy issues that employees can't control, especially if they contain performance details, pay, and other potentially sensitive data using chatbots, without employee consent.
How employees advocate for themselves
What can employees do if they are concerned about AI-generated decisions that will affect the future of their role? It depends on how AI is used.
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“AI sees being used to monitor more and more employees starting with hourly workers and white-collar workers,” Shelman pointed out. “I propose that workers be united, work together with the union and write a negotiation agreement that says surveillance techniques must be disclosed and joint decisions with union representatives are necessary.”
Beyond monitoring, employees should ask their managers for transparency about how AI tools are being used, if applicable. However, the norms about feedback and how managers reach conclusions without AI tools can make navigable.
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