Your AI Interview Vendor Does Not Own Your Compliance Risk
Many employers believe that if an AI interviewing vendor built the tool, the vendor also owns the compliance risk.
That belief does not survive contact with California law. AI-driven interview platforms, whether chat, voice, or video, are increasingly filling the gap left by shrinking recruiting teams and rising application volume. California’s automated-decision-system regulations under Gov. Code § 12940 (the Fair Employment and Housing Act, FEHA) apply directly to that shift. If an AI interviewing tool screens out candidates on a disparate basis tied to a protected characteristic, the employer using the tool is liable under FEHA, regardless of whether the employer designed the system, licensed it from a vendor, or fully understands how its scoring works.
The break point usually happens quietly. A hiring manager adopts an AI interview tool to handle volume, nobody documents how the tool scores candidates or what data it weighs, and no one audits the outputs for disparate impact across protected groups.
The consequence shows up later, usually in a rejected candidate’s request to understand why they were screened out, or in a pattern across hires that an investigator or opposing counsel can chart from the outside even if nobody inside the company ever looked at it that way.
The corrective frame is not to abandon AI interviewing. It is to know what the tool weighs, keep records of that, and periodically review outcomes across protected categories before a regulator or a rejected candidate does it first.
If your business uses an AI or automated tool anywhere in interviewing, scoring, or screening candidates, the compliance obligation sits with you, not the vendor. Contact Michael Trust Law, APC for a no-charge initial consultation. The facts determine what needs to be addressed — and how much of a conversation that takes.
This post shares general information based on common patterns I see in California workplaces. It is not legal advice, does not create an attorney-client relationship, and outcomes depend on specific facts — no lawyer can guarantee a result. Past results do not guarantee or predict future outcomes. AI may have been used to create this post. All content reviewed by a CA attorney before publication