AI and “Automated Employment Decision Tools” – Frequently Asked Questions

How does Indeed use AI on the site? 

What measures does Indeed take to mitigate risk of bias in AI?

Can Indeed help employers comply with California’s Employment Regulations Regarding Automated-Decision Systems (Title 2, California Code of Regulations, §§ 11008–11079)?

Can Indeed help employers comply with Ontario’s Working for Workers Four Act (Bill 149)?

Does Indeed offer Automated Employment Decision Tools regulated by New York City’s Local Law 144?

How does Indeed comply with laws related to AI in hiring such as the Colorado AI Act, the Texas AI Act, the Illinois Human Rights Act, and the EU AI Act?

Indeed uses both predictive and generative AI across its platform. Indeed has leveraged predictive AI machine learning models across its platform for years to provide job recommendations to jobseekers, recommended matches to employers, and job optimization recommendations. More recently, we have introduced a suite of generative AI tools to continue to enable employer and job seeker connections. Our goal is to help you adopt these tools with confidence, while supporting an experience that is transparent and inclusive. Ultimately, employers are in control over their hiring processes, including how they use or do not use our AI-powered features or recommendations. 

In Indeed’s Smart Sourcing service, for example, AI is used to show employers job seekers who have elected to share their Profiles and who might match the employer’s job requirements. Smart Sourcing also allows employers to use keywords to search for job seekers and invite them to apply to their open roles. On the job seeker homepage, AI is used to show and highlight jobs that could be relevant to a job seeker’s job search. AI may be used to generate summaries of candidates’ skills, including whether they match employer criteria, or to suggest message content or resume content for users. Employers are free to use or disregard this content.

Indeed continually evaluates its AI models for performance and accuracy, and provides the ability for job seekers and employers to give feedback on AI performance. However, Indeed does not make employment decisions or determine candidates’ eligibility for employment for a job.

Indeed is committed to enabling a fair and inclusive experience for job seekers and employers. While employers are solely responsible for their hiring processes, including any use of AI, Indeed does take care to identify and mitigate the risk of discrimination on our platform. For example: 

• Indeed has policies, review processes, and guardrails that aim to prevent unlawful use of protected demographic characteristics—such as race, national origin, gender, age, etc.—in AI systems involved in employment recommendations.
• Indeed also takes measures to minimize the possibility that non-demographic inputs result in discriminatory outcomes. Indeed’s Legal and Responsible AI teams regularly conduct assessments of outputs of such AI systems across demographic groups.

Indeed cannot give employers legal advice or guarantee employers’ legal compliance. Employers are responsible for their use of our Site, including AI features, as they control all aspects of their hiring process. While Indeed leverages artificial intelligence in our offerings, our tools are not a substitute for human discretion and review, and as our Terms of Service note, Indeed is not an agent for any user.

Indeed does take care to identify and mitigate the risk of discrimination on our platform, including measures recommended in California’s regulations regarding Automated Decision Systems. As stated above, Indeed has policies, review processes, and assessments of inputs to and outputs of AI systems involved in employment recommendations.

For more information about Indeed’s practices, please see our Terms of Service, Privacy Center, and Responsible AI page. 

Indeed cannot give employers legal advice or guarantee employers’ legal compliance. Employers are responsible for their use of our Site, including AI features, as they control all aspects of their hiring process.

Indeed offers services for employers to source candidates for jobs, review applications, and assess candidates, some of which incorporate the use of AI, such as Smart Sourcing and AI Screening. Whether an employer uses Indeed’s services to screen, assess or select applicants, which may include the use of artificial intelligence, is up to the individual employer. Employers are responsible for the content of their job postings and should ensure that their job postings comply with all applicable laws.

If you have questions about how a particular product or feature functions, please contact us through the Employer Help Center and we can answer your questions, though we cannot make the legal determination of whether it qualifies as AI under a particular law.

Local Law 144 regulates “Automated Employment Decision Tools,” which are defined in that law. This is not legal advice, and users are advised to consult counsel about their obligations under Local Law 144.

We do not consider any of our offerings that are available in New York City to be “Automated Employment Decision Tools.”

Employers have a responsibility to review all applications to their jobs and make employment decisions. Indeed offers functionality that can sort or group candidates based on whether they meet or may meet employers’ criteria, but in any case employers can view all applicants at all times and make their own decisions. (Note: Indeed’s offerings may be different in different markets, and the functionality described above may vary.)

Indeed also offers employers the option to set screening questions for job seekers in which case the employer may instruct Indeed to send rejection notices to candidates that answer the employer’s questions incorrectly. These candidates are still available to the employer, however, and a human, not a computer, sets the screening question and the correct answer.

Indeed maintains a robust and comprehensive AI compliance program to adapt to the changing and market-specific legal landscape of AI regulation, which includes cross-functional collaboration between Indeed’s Legal, Research & Development, Responsible AI, Data Protection and Governance, and other teams.  

Indeed maintains a worldwide Prohibited Practices Policy consistent with these laws. Prohibited Practices include: discrimination against individuals on the basis of protected characteristics, including using zip codes as proxies for protected classes; systems that infringe individuals’ legal rights; use of biometric data to create facial recognition databases; use of individuals’ biometric data to identify individuals without their consent; predicting individuals’ likelihood of committing a criminal offense; exploiting users’ vulnerabilities; and other practices prohibited by law. Relevant employees receive regular training on these issues.  

Indeed may make additional information available as laws become effective in the coming months and years. 

Indeed does not make employment decisions and Indeed’s tools are not a substitute for human review of these hiring decisions.  Employers are recommended to review their own compliance obligations with these laws independently, including with their counsel.