Seventy-one percent of Americans are opposed to the use of artificial intelligence in making final hiring decisions, according to a recent report from Pew Research Center. 

Most of the 11,004 adults surveyed from Dec. 12 to 18, 2022 (by a 55% to 14% margin), also said that AI shouldn’t be used in firing decisions. Beyond that, most said they are not opposed to AI systems being used to track workers’ movements while they are at work or to keep track of when office workers are at their desks.

In fact, many respondents (47%) said that there are instances in human resource management where AI technology might do a better job of vetting candidates than a human; 15% said they believe AI would perform worse than humans in vetting.

“And among those who believe that bias along racial and ethnic lines is a problem in performance evaluations generally, more believe that greater use of AI by employers would make things better rather than worse in the hiring and worker-evaluation process,” the report noted.

A separate survey showed that Black adults are more likely than members of other ethnic groups to identify bias and unfair treatment in the hiring process as a major problem: 64% of Black respondents, 49% of Asians, 41% of Hispanic adults and 30 percent of white respondents.

The majority of respondents (53%) who indicated that they view racial bias in hiring decisions also said that AI could lead to more equitable practices. About a third (32%) said the problem would stay about the same with an increased use of AI.

“I am a person of color. An employer will see that before a careful study of my credentials and probably be biased on hiring or on pay scale. If AI is programmed to identify qualifications and allocate appropriate salary regardless of race or gender, so much workplace discrimination would end,” one Black woman in her 60s responded, according to Pew.

Not everyone agrees, however. Approximately 20% of Black Americans who responded are more skeptical, saying that AI would make things worse, compared with about one in 10 Hispanic, Asian and white adults.