The Implications of AI Recruiting for Workplace Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: A Literature Analysis and Research Agenda

Background: AI recruiting, defined as procedures leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to assist organizations in selecting job applicants, presents promising opportunities for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. Although AI recruiting garners growing attention from the industry, research on AI recruiting and workplace DEI remains fragmented and dispersed across disciplines. Additionally, concerns about algorithmic biases complicate the understanding of the topic. Thus, the current study aims to comprehend the existing knowledge on the implications of AI recruiting for workplace DEI.

Method: Using the two-stage concept-centric search approach, we identified 35 relevant articles that were published between 2018 and 2024. Articles were analyzed based on five guiding questions. We further deployed the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework to consolidate the key variables in the existing literature. Based on the integrative framework, we presented a research agenda to guide future research.

Results: Our literature analysis revealed that research on AI recruiting and workplace DEI spans multiple disciplines, falls short in theoretical frameworks, predominantly relies on scenario-based experiments, and mainly focuses on the US context. We identified four research streams –applicants, decision-makers, mixed perspectives, and algorithms – with the streams on applicants and algorithms drawing the most attention. By analyzing the research foci, key findings, and DEI implications of studies within each stream, we found that (1) AI recruiting’s implications for DEI were most often examined from the aspect of equity, followed by diversity, and inclusion, and (2) evidence regarding whether these implications are positive remains inconsistent.

Conclusion: This study offers an overview of AI recruiting and workplace DEI research. Overall, our analyses indicate mixed findings on AI recruiting’s positive implications for workplace DEI. We hope to guide and inspire future investigations, ultimately leading to a more comprehensive understanding of AI recruiting and workplace DEI. Specific insights were provided for Asia-Pacific practitioners.