Sapia.ai reveals chat-based job interviews preferred by women and minorities

Sapia Labs, the research and development arm of Sapia.ai, is poised to reveal its latest AI research at the Society for Industrial-Organisational Psychology (SIOP) in Chicago. Among its findings is the preference for chat-based job interviews rather than video calls amongst women and racial minority groups.

The research, titled Chat Over Video Interviews: Examining Candidate Reactions to Two Online Asynchronous Interview Formats, draws on an extensive dataset with feedback from over one million job candidates.

The findings highlight a clear preference for chat interviews due to it making hiring processes more inclusive and accessible. It underscores significant benefits, such as reduced anxiety and a more comfortable interviewing environment, which could lead to more genuine and open exchanges during the recruitment process.

Sapia.ai raised $17 million in Series A in 2022 and has collaborated with high-profile companies like Qantas, Woolworths, and Starbucks.

In 2023 it released a conversational AI chatbot, Phai, that was built on Natural Language Processing (NLP) with an aim to conduct seamless and fair interviews. This technology not only optimises the recruitment process but also aims to mitigate unconscious bias, thereby enhancing diversity outcomes.

These most recent findings echo a white paper from Sapia.ai in 2023 titled Does Artificial Intelligence Help or Hurt Gender Diversity?

Despite general concerns around AI and bias, this research found that women were 30% more likely to complete job applications compared to men if AI was involved in the recruitment process.

The white paper also found that human evaluators generally score women “substantially lower” than men when gender-revealing names are shown with applications.

“Our aim is to not only advance the technology but to deeply understand its impact on real-world hiring practices. This understanding helps us to tailor our AI tools to meet the needs of a diverse candidate pool, promoting a more inclusive hiring landscape,” chief data scientist and head of Sapia.ai Labs, Buddhi Jayatilleke, said.

The study’s findings are particularly relevant in today’s rapidly evolving corporate environment, where there is a pressing need to adopt more equitable hiring practices.

The insights provided by Sapia Labs could influence a broader adoption of chat-based interviews, which appear to offer a less intimidating and more accessible option for candidates, potentially leading to higher completion rates and satisfaction.

This research is part of a broader effort by Sapia Labs to contribute to the responsible adoption and ethical implementation of AI in hiring. It sits alongside other studies presented at the conference, which collectively aim to enrich the dialogue around the use of AI in various contexts and push the boundaries of what AI can achieve in the corporate sector.