Unilever saves on recruiters by using AI to assess job interviews

Unilever has claimed it is saving hundreds of thousands of pounds a year by replacing human recruiters with an artificial intelligence system, amid warnings of a populist backlash against the spread of machine learning. The multinational told the Guardian it had saved 100,000 hours of human recruitment time in the last year by deploying software to analyse video interviews. The system scans graduate candidates' facial expressions, body language and word choice and checks them against traits that are considered to be predictive of job success. Vodafone, Singapore Airlines and Intel are among other companies to have used similar systems. Polling commissioned by the Royal Society of Arts and released on Friday suggests 60% of the public are opposed to the use of automated decision-making in recruitment as well as in criminal justice.