Artificial Intelligence and ‘Humanness’: Exploring Recruiters’ Attitudes Toward AI in Hiring

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in human resource management (HRM) remains largely confined to routine tasks, despite their potential to enhance the strategic role of personnel experts by enabling more efficient and bias-free decision-making processes. The present research aims to uncover the reasons behind the hesitation in using AI for non-routine tasks in recruitment. Specifically, through a qualitative, inductive research design drawing on multiple data sources, we examine the factors contributing to recruiters' ambivalence toward AI. Our findings add to our understanding of algorithmic aversion in the specific case of AI by underscoring the centrality of "humanness" to the occupational identity of recruiters. Skepticism toward using AI for non-routine tasks stems either from its perceived lack of "humanness" or, conversely, from concerns that AI may exhibit human-like qualities, posing a threat to the identity of recruiters as members of the HR occupation and human beings. The study lays the groundwork for recommendations aimed at overcoming aversion towards AI through narratives that emphasize co-existence rather than competition between humans and AI technologies.