Recruiting Automation Trends 2025: Rise of AI Bias Audits

This post is part of G2's 2025 digital trends series. Read more about G2’s perspective on digital transformation trends in an introduction from Tim Sanders, VP, research insights, and additional coverage on trends identified by G2’s analysts.

AI bias audits will take HR consulting by storm

Could a new AI framework in recruiting pave the way for higher adoption rates?

The EU’s historical “AI Act” took effect on July 5, 2023. The act designates recruiting as a “high-risk” industry requiring transparency, assessments, and traceability. This could cause a rise in AI adoption and bias audits.

Bias audits are an emerging area of HR services that examine and scrutinize AI recruiting systems. During these audits, specialists review the datasets, the AI engine, and the implementation to see if results are unfairly skewed toward a particular group.

So far, AI adoption in HR is slow. A recent study showed only 38% of surveyed HR decision makers had adopted the technology. This is no surprise, given the importance of compliance in the industry and how it can lead to litigation. On average, it costs employers $75,000 to work with an employment lawyer, and pre-trial defense costs can go up to $125,000.

Let’s dig into AI recruiting by looking at G2 reviews.

Inconsistent numbers show uneven AI implementation in recruiting

To gauge implementation, we’re going to examine reviews calling out the effectiveness of AI features in G2 categories for Diversity Recruiting, Recruiting Automation, and Talent Intelligence.

This relates to reviewer answers in fields such as, “What do you like best?”, “What do you dislike?”, and, “What business problems are you solving? What benefits have you realized?”.

The graph below examines G2 review data from September 2023 to August 2024. The number of reviews in August 2024 was about 51% fewer than the number in September 2023.

Considering that New York’s AI bill was introduced in September 2023, while California’s came in February, it's unsurprising that review numbers vary wildly from month to month.

We can see the impact of AI by looking at the differences regionally in discussions of AI features. From the graph below, you can see mentions of AI features in the EMEA region are lower, especially compared to Asia Pacific (APAC).

Given the looming AI bill, this is unsurprising. Pending legislation may have reduced the number of users discussing these features in the region. Ultimately, departments may hesitate to make changes before the dust has cleared.

With more consistent laws surrounding recruiting being set down, the adoption of AI bias audits will increase, followed by recruiting software that utilizes AI. Hopefully, that means more data to dig into as well.

AI in recruiting: A slow start, but a promising future

AI adoption has been slow for recruiting, but once there’s a framework in place, that’s going to change. Implementation will be slow in 2025 as legislation settles, but by the end of next year, we may see a marked rise.

HR is rarely on the cutting edge of technology. Compliance, ethics, and a general caution for doing things the “right way” stays the hand of many departments. Once that path is laid, others will follow.

With a potential AI Bias Audit Services category on the horizon for G2, we’ll be there to see how things turn out firsthand. Until then, keep an eye on AI recruiting technology.

Learn about how NLP and AI-driven HR software can help prevent employee turnover.

Edited by Jigmee Bhutia