Any AI System that Costs People Time is Systematically Flawed

AI is running our job interviews — and current outcomes appear to be terrible.

Man Shows Up to Job Interview and Finds Out He's Being Interviewed by AI - Newsweek

Due the rise in artificial intelligence in the workplace, some job candidates are experiencing a unique situation.

newsweek.com

The idea is that AI can handle repetitive tasks, freeing up human effort. However, when candidates wrestle with poorly designed AI interfaces, face impersonal digital interrogators that miss critical nuances, or get stuck in automated loops, the system backfires. Instead of saving time, it adds a new layer of needless work and anxiety.

This isn't just about candidate experience. For white-collar workers, AI should be a powerful tool to leverage, automating tedious parts of their workflow. But prescriptively mandating AI that is clunky or ill-suited for a task deeply defeats this purpose. If the AI requires more time to manage or correct than the original task, it's a net loss.

Organizations are adopting out of pressure, fear, excitement and optimism — a conflicting stew of rationale. But systems that seem like a win for the decision-maker often act as a constraint or problem downstream — either for employees or customers.

Ultimately, any AI system integrated into hiring or other professional workflows must adhere to a fundamental principle: it needs to save time, not add to it. Its integration must be genuinely helpful, not a source of new hoops to jump through.

"Time-saving" is only one of a few goals and directions we can have with adoption of this technology — but it's probably the most important one. In some capacity, it needs to be strictly measured for everyone in the pipeline. In the hiring use case, if the evaluators are saving time, but candidates are burning time, it is at best a short-term win with major consequences down the line.

It's crucial that AI as a "productivity" tool evolve to be a true time-saver and a genuine aid, rather than another obstacle in the path of efficient hiring and productive work.