Technology & innovation
Companies are increasingly using AI to screen, score, and sort job candidates, and a wave of lawsuits is now testing whether those tools discriminate and whether workers have any right to know they're being evaluated by them.
A class-action lawsuit filed in California against Eightfold AI, whose hiring software is used by hundreds of companies including PayPal, Microsoft, and Netflix, argues the company's applicant scoring system functions as an undisclosed consumer report; plaintiffs say candidates are ranked on a 0-to-5 scale predicting job performance without any notice or opportunity to challenge the results.
Workers have also sued Meta, alleging an internal AI system targeted employees for layoffs based on parental or medical leave, and IBM, alleging its AI tools discriminated against older workers.
90% of employers used some form of hiring automation last year, according to the World Economic Forum, ranging from basic résumé filtering to AI-conducted phone interviews.
Research finds AI hiring tools can amplify rather than reduce bias; a recent University of Chicago study found that newer, more advanced AI models produced more biased hiring decisions than their predecessors, and more bias than human hiring managers.
Experts warn that because many companies use hiring software built on the same underlying AI models, a negative flag from one system could follow a candidate across employers, a phenomenon researchers call "algorithmic blackballing."
New York City requires employers using automated hiring systems to conduct annual bias audits and notify candidates in advance; Illinois and Colorado have passed laws prohibiting AI hiring tools that result in unlawful discrimination.
Read more via The Guardian
A Gallup survey of 102 chief human resources officers finds near-universal agreement that AI is central to their organization's future, but significant doubt about whether the people responsible for implementing it are ready. CHROs are the senior executives who oversee workforce strategy and HR functions.
99% of CHROs surveyed say AI is somewhat or very important to their organization's strategy.
50% say they are not very confident or not at all confident in their managers' ability to guide employees on using AI at work.
Employees whose managers actively champion AI are significantly more likely to say their workplace culture has improved in the past year (31% vs. 21% for those without supportive managers).
57% of CHROs are now providing AI training specifically for people managers, and 62% are creating internal AI centers of excellence or champion programs.
Read more via Gallup
A CNBC and SurveyMonkey survey of 1,686 US workers and students finds that how often someone uses AI at work shapes not just their productivity, but their entire outlook on the technology's effect on their future.
30% of workers use AI daily, 34% use it a few times a week, and 37% never use it.
Only daily AI users say the technology makes them feel more secure in their jobs; workers who use it less frequently say it makes them feel less secure.
More than half of employers have no official AI policy, leaving workers unclear on expectations and accountability.
Analysts say the problem is less about the technology than about how it's being introduced: employees often feel AI is something being done to them rather than with them.
Read more via HR Dive
Walmart is rolling out AI tools across its 1.6 million US store workers, but employees say the technology regularly produces errors, unrealistic targets, and irrelevant alerts that they must fix, manage, or ignore.
Workers say AI-assigned task routes, timelines, and performance targets frequently fail to account for real-world conditions, including expiration date checks, spills, and damaged merchandise.
A store-level HR manager told Business Insider her location is not holding employees to AI-generated metrics that don't reflect actual working conditions: "We're not going to hold people to these impossible standards."
A survey of more than 250 Walmart employees by worker advocacy group United for Respect found more than 85% do not trust Walmart to prioritize their needs in AI development, though roughly 40% said AI could make their jobs easier or help eliminate repetitive tasks.
Nearly three-quarters of surveyed workers said their top concern was AI making HR decisions such as wage reviews and time-off requests.
Read more via Business Insider
A new LinkedIn study finds that AI roles are among the fastest-growing and highest-paying jobs in the US labor market, with young workers capturing a disproportionate share of the opportunity. But access is sharply uneven by gender and education.
AI job postings roughly doubled between 2023 and 2024, then surged another 156% between 2024 and 2025.
The typical AI job posting lists compensation of about $177,000, more than double the $80,000 median for non-AI roles.
Gen Z workers account for more than two-thirds of new hires for forward deployed engineer and AI engineer roles, which carry median salaries of $199,000 and $166,000 respectively; millennials make up 60% of new hires for head of AI roles, with median pay of $236,000.
Women accounted for just 26% of US AI hires in 2025, compared with 50% of hires in non-AI roles, with representation falling further at senior levels: 20% of head of AI hires, 18% of member of technical staff hires.
91% of workers in AI roles hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the share rises above 95% in the highest-paying AI occupations.
Read more via CNBC, LinkedIn
New research from Stanford University's Digital Economy Lab finds that employment growth has been weakest among early-career workers in occupations most exposed to AI, and that young women in those roles are faring worse than their male peers. A Fast Company analysis argues the pattern reflects structural problems in how work has long been organized, not a new divide created by AI.
Young women are disproportionately concentrated in routine cognitive roles, including administrative, clerical, and support work, that generative AI is increasingly capable of performing.
Economists note that many of the most persistent gender gaps in pay and advancement have historically reflected workplace designs that reward constant availability over productivity, disadvantaging workers who carry greater household and caregiving responsibilities.
A PWC report cited in the analysis found that job postings in roles most exposed to AI are adding tasks requiring human skills such as empathy, judgment, and creativity at 2.5 times the rate of the least AI-exposed roles.
Read more via Fast Company Middle East
