Artificial intelligence and people management: A critical assessment through the ethical lens

The dramatic increase in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in workplaces around the world has tremendous potential to increase business profitability. While AI has numerous useful applications and can help speed up business processes or transform systems, its use in human resources (HR) processes and systems presents a complex series of ethical considerations that require organizational leaders to tread with caution. In this paper, we argue that as the foremost worker advocates in the firm, HR managers must be ethically sensitive and accountable. They have responsibility to carefully monitor AI programs to ensure that these systems do what they are purported to do and protect the dignity of the worker through transparency regarding the data being collected and privacy regarding its usage. Lastly, the HR manager must closely monitor the fairness and equity impacts of AI such that its use is procedurally and distributivity just.