The so-called Great Resignation, a mass restructuring of the workforce that coincided with the coronavirus pandemic, continues to loom large for companies, with surveys of corporate leadership showing staffing issues remain among the most pressing near-term risks. Many have turned to AI to bulk up their recruitment muscle, despite perennial warnings from regulators and experts of the potential for algorithms to effectively learn from and then magnify human biases. Proponents, though, argue that removing the human element can actually help. Output from AI can be readily audited, and computers stripped of some of the hidden biases that can lurk in a person's mind. A computer doesn't have a hometown, didn't go to college and doesn't have hobbies, so won't unconsciously warm to a friendly candidate the way a real recruiter might. Our Morning Risk Report features insights and news on governance, risk and compliance.

Job candidates rarely know when hidden artificial intelligence tools are rejecting their resumes or analyzing their video interviews. But New York City residents could soon get more say over the computers making behind-the-scenes decisions about their careers. A bill passed by the city council in early November would ban employers from using automated hiring tools unless a yearly bias audit can show they won't discriminate based on an applicant's race or gender. It would also force makers of those AI tools to disclose more about their opaque workings and give candidates the option of choosing an alternative process -- such as a human -- to review their application. Proponents liken it to another pioneering New York City rule that became a national standard-bearer earlier this century -- one that required chain restaurants to slap a calorie count on their menu items.

Recruiters fit to the iconic phrase'trying to find a needle in a haystack.' The process of recruiting is increasingly becoming critical as more people come in with more diverse talents. The job market is also updating to be more demanding with spiking job qualifications. When it is high-time for recruiters to keep up the pace, they rely on technological shifts. Artificial intelligence is at the core of the changes that the recruitment industry is seeing today.

For all the attention that AI audits have received, though, their ability to actually detect and protect against bias remains unproven. The term "AI audit" can mean many different things, which makes it hard to trust the results of audits in general. The most rigorous audits can still be limited in scope. And even with unfettered access to the innards of an algorithm, it can be surprisingly tough to say with certainty whether it treats applicants fairly. At best, audits give an incomplete picture, and at worst, they could help companies hide problematic or controversial practices behind an auditor's stamp of approval.

A growing number of tech companies are placing their bets on algorithms to reinvent talent acquisition and create a more inclusive workforce. In some cases, this might mean entirely removing traditional aspects of the hiring process. Introduced in the nineties, applicant tracking systems (ATS), were created to help HR professionals organize the surge of applications that resulted from the growing use of the internet. Over the last several decades, ATS became increasingly advanced, using algorithms to sift through thousands of resumes based on various data. The promise was efficiency and blind hiring, but the algorithms have proven to perpetuate structural inequities in hiring.

A growing number of tech companies are placing their bets on algorithms to reinvent talent acquisition and create a more inclusive workforce. In some cases, this might mean entirely removing traditional aspects of the hiring process. Introduced in the nineties, applicant tracking systems (ATS), were created to help HR professionals organize the surge of applications that resulted from the growing use of the internet. Over the last several decades, ATS became increasingly advanced, using algorithms to sift through thousands of resumes based on various data. The promise was efficiency and blind hiring, but the algorithms have proven to perpetuate structural inequities in hiring.

With parents using artificial intelligence to scan prospective babysitters' social media and an endless slew of articles explaining how your résumé can "beat the bots," you might be wondering whether a robot will be offering you your next job. We're not there yet, but recruiters are increasingly using AI to make the first round of cuts and to determine whether a job posting is even advertised to you. Often trained on data collected about previous or similar applicants, these tools can cut down on the effort recruiters need to expend in order to make a hire. Last year, 67 percent of hiring managers and recruiters surveyed by LinkedIn said AI was saving them time. But critics argue that such systems can introduce bias, lack accountability and transparency, and aren't guaranteed to be accurate. Take, for instance, the Utah-based company HireVue, which sells a job interview video platform that can use artificial intelligence to assess candidates and, it claims, predict their likelihood to succeed in a position.

When it comes to recruiting, many people focus on the problems technology can create. Even in this newsletter, we've talked about the headaches caused by applicant tracking systems (ATS), for example. Yet, a slew of companies are working to introduce more tech in the hiring process, and they say it will be a net benefit. "It's not like technology is not being used, but it's being used in such a janky way," said Frida Polli, who is CEO and co-founder of Pymetrics, which uses neuroscience and artificial intelligence to match applicants to the right positions. Like an ATS, their system can serve as a tool for companies to comb through the initial onslaught of applicants.

We've seen predictions about the "death of the resume" for nearly a decade now. So many things have promised to take its place, from social media profiles and personal chatbots to futuristic "brand bios." Still, nobody's knocked the resume off its throne for over 70 years, but will that change in 2019? New and advanced HR companies are aiming to replace resumes with a variety of data tools and interactive tests, and their results are promising. One approach that's been popular and effective for some years now is the skills test.

When Conor Sprouls, a customer service representative in the call center of insurance giant MetLife talks to a customer over the phone, he keeps one eye on the bottom-right corner of his screen. There, in a little blue box, A.I. tells him how he's doing. The program flashes an icon of a speedometer, indicating that he should slow down. A heart icon pops up. For decades, people have fearfully imagined armies of hyper-efficient robots invading offices and factories, gobbling up jobs once done by humans.