Artificial Intelligence Takes Center Stage at EEOC

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently released a draft of its new Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP), outlining its priorities in tackling workplace discrimination over the next four years. The playbook, published in the Federal Register in January, indicates that the agency will be on the lookout for discrimination caused by artificial intelligence (AI) tools. "The EEOC is signaling in its draft SEP that it intends to enforce federal nondiscrimination laws equally, whether the discrimination takes place through traditional recruiting or through the use of modern and automated tools," said Andrew M. Gordon, an attorney with the law firm Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Over the last decade, AI use in the workplace has skyrocketed. Nearly 1 in 4 organizations uses AI to support HR-related activities, according to a 2022 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).