Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping hiring. Employers increasingly use AI-enabled recruiting tools to screen resumes, rank applicants, administer assessments, and support hiring decisions. These tools may improve efficiency and consistency while also creating new litigation risk under existing employment discrimination laws and newly developing regulations.
Implementing AI tools in the hiring process warrants careful assessment of evolving AI-specific state and local regulations, including notice requirements, potential opt-out rights, and requirements for bias audits. Because some of these laws do not expressly create a private right of action, enforcement is often left principally to government agencies.
Beyond these emerging AI requirements, employers may wish to prepare for litigation challenging AI-assisted hiring decisions. Plaintiffs’ attorneys are increasingly alleging these tools illegally discriminate under traditional discrimination theories, and courts are confronting novel questions about discovery, algorithmic transparency, and employer responsibility for vendor technology.
The technology may be new; the legal principles are not. This GT Alert explores those legal principles, impact on discovery, and the role governance plays for risk mitigation.