Can You Boycott AI and Still Have a Career?

I've had two candidates withdraw from recruitment processes because they were uncomfortable with the use of AI.

Now, not simply AI being used in the recruitment process, no. AI being used within the organization more broadly.

And I found that fascinating.

Because both decisions there, whether it's recruitment process or organization more broadly, they raise a much bigger question.

If you fundamentally refuse to work for an organization that uses AI, then where exactly are you going to work? And perhaps the harder question.

Could we eventually create a cohort of people who aren't displaced by AI, but effectively exclude themselves from parts of the labor market because they refuse to work alongside it? That's what I want to discuss today.

And before I go any further, I want to make something really clear.

I respect the decision that those candidates made.

Completely.

People should make decisions about employment based on their values.

We talk constantly about values alignment from the employer's perspective.

Does this person align with our purpose, our culture, how we operate? Well, honestly, candidates get to make exactly the same assessment of us.

And if somebody decides that our approach to technology doesn't align with their values, they're entitled to walk away.

I'd actually prefer that conversation happens during recruitment rather than six months after somebody joins.

So this isn't an episode having a crack at two candidates.

The decision simply made me realize there is a conversation emerging that I don't think we're having seriously enough.

Because resistance to AI isn't necessarily coming from ignorance.

There are people with deeply held objections to this technology.

And some of those objections deserve serious consideration.