Ep. 44: The Double-Edge Sword of AI

Whether you love it, hate it, embrace it or avoid it — or try to, AI is ubiquitous now. It’s an integral part of everything from manufacturing, to writing resumes, to recruiting and hiring processes. Including both screening out candidates and interviewing them. In hiring and recruitment in particular, AI is a double-edge sword. It can help level the playing field for job seekers, including those who have a disability. And it also can be a significant barrier. There’s no single reliable statistic that shows how many resumes are screened out by AI before they ever reach a human. But research shows, 87% of companies say they’re using AI somewhere in their recruitment process. AI can screen out candidates at scale — including in ways that may disproportionately affect job seekers who have a disability. At the same time, job seekers who don’t use AI — or who use it irresponsibly, risk falling behind in a market where the majority of both employers and candidates are already using the power of AI tools. In this episode, we explore these questions and more: Why do employment service providers and job seekers who have a disability need to use AI? What are the real benefits of using it? What can go wrong when AI is used poorly, irresponsibly or not at all in hiring and job-search processes? This is a engaging — and sometimes humourous — conversation with: Jesse Preston, Disability Employment Specialist for Epilepsy Toronto Jeff Waldman, the founder of ScaleHR   SHOW NOTES Episode 44 transcript (PDF) TechXplore feature (June 2026) — AI hiring software screens millions of applicants, but new evidence shows racial bias can hide job by job Research study: Algorithmic Monocultures in Hiring