Who wants to be hired by AI? How message frames and AI transparency impact individuals’ attitudes and behaviors toward companies using AI in hiring

Abstract

In recent years, many companies have begun to adopt Artificial intelligence (AI) in their recruitment and personnel selection. Despite the increasing use of AI in hiring, little is known about how companies can better communicate about their AI use with job applicants to increase their positive attitudes and behaviors toward companies. Three experimental studies were conducted to investigate the impact of exposure to gain- and loss-framed messages and AI transparency information (third-party audit vs. sharing AI information with job candidates) in job advertisements on individuals' attitudes, organizational trust, and positive word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions. The results showed that the presence of AI transparency information in job advertisements increases individuals’ favorable attitudes, trust, and positive WOM intention toward companies using AI in hiring. Loss-framed messages than gain-framed messages increased the outcome variables in the context of recruitment process time, but not in the context of unconscious hiring bias.