Still image from the Ideal Behavior video.
Part 2 - July 2024
Interview by Mia Mäkelä
In the second part of our interview we will focus on the project Andreas Zingerle and Linda Kronman (kairus.org) have been working on during their EMAP residency at M-Cult.
Click here to read the first part.
IDEAL BEHAVIOR explores the use of AI technology in Ikea´s recruitment practices. What interests you about this topic and why did you choose IKEA?
In general, we are interested in the automatisation of the recruitment process, especially in larger international corporations such as IKEA, Nike, Unilever, you name it. And with the growing automatisation of the recruitment process, it also becomes more dehumanising how applications are being processed. So, often the resume or the motivation letters are getting scanned automatically, people are getting categorised and also rejections are sent out automatically.
We also saw that people who are then ranked higher are getting potentially invited to a video interview. This interview is also often automated, consists of multiple choice questions or of videos that you record on your laptop and upload. These videos can again be analysed by an AI or by an algorithm and maybe in the next level you are then finally interviewed by HR person and it's actually the first time that you interact with a human throughout this application process.
And this is really much impacting all of our lives because job seeking is something that most of us do in our adulthood and that's why it was also interesting to pick up the topic of recruiting.
In Spring 2024 the EU AI Act has been formally adopted by the European Parliament. Described as “the world’s first comprehensive legal framework on AI worldwide” it ensures that AI systems are used safely and ethically, prohibiting certain practices that pose an unacceptable level of risk, and setting out clear requirements for other AI systems that have potentially harmful outcomes. The recruitment process is already heavily influenced by algorithmic automatisation. Recruitment, selection, promotion, termination: these key workplace decisions are all considered automatically “high risk” under the EU AI Act, meaning that these pose a significant threat to the health, safety, or fundamental rights of individuals or groups and are subject to strict requirements. In a recently published OECD paper Using AI in the Workplace:
" it is well documented that AI systems used in the recruitment process can "replicate and systematise human biases”. Specifically young people applying for entry-level jobs can be affected by this algorhytmic pre-screenings and make it harder to start their career in an already highly competative job market.
IKEA was then chosen as a case study for several reasons: According to Forbes IKEA is the world's largest furniture retailer and as an internationally well-known employer has pioneered the use of AI in job recruiting. Already in 2018 they use a machine learning recruitment robot called Vera to interview over 1500 applicants per day, sorting through potential hires at a rate that would take most recruiters months to match. More recently IKEA launched a generative AI tool in cooperation with Microsoft called "The Hej Copilot". The tool helps employees with tasks such as image creation, idea generation and creating presentations. IKEA is actively training its employers in AI literacy in order to harness technology for greater creativity, efficiency, and results. For customers the AI assistant "Billie" is available 24/7 answering questions about Ikea’s catalogue and product availability at a specific store. But to become an employer at IKEA you go through a quite automated application process that is a bit different in each country, since IKEA is a franchise corporation. In many countries the level of automatisation can involve automated resume and motivation letter screenings and recorded and analyzed video interviews. As part of our research, we were applying for jobs in Austrian and Finnish IKEA stores which all belong to the Ingka Group, the largest IKEA franchisee holding company. In the "Ingka Group Privacy Notice for Recruitment" document, we found that the applicant's data is processed by third party platforms Avature and HireVue. Both advertise AI driven products e.g., for automatically analyzing keywords and sentence structure in job application material. AI models are also used for assessing personality traits using formats form occupational psychology like the the Big 5 also called the O.C.E.A.N. personality tests, or for categorizing facial expression and voice in video interviews for skills assessment. All this is done according to specific parameters that a company wants to meet, to find the 'ideal candidate' for their open position. In their promotional material IKEA, Avature and HireVue imply that AI is the solution to de-bias recruiting, make it more fair and foster diversity in a company, a claim that has been contested by critical AI scholars. In this context we were curious about the ways IKEA applies this technological features for their recruitment process and it was something we wanted to take a closer look at.
But we also chose IKEA as an artistic case study because it is branded as a sustainable, climate aware, future oriented, constantly experimenting and reinventing itself company. Being a non-profit, it's mission states: to "offer a wide range of home furnishing items of good design and function, excellent quality and durability, at prices so low that the majority of people can afford to buy them." Pretty much everyone we know has something from IKEA in their home or at their office and are familiar with the company and the brand. It has become the standard of ideal living.
So, it matches with the topic of Ideal Behavior and yeah, IKEA aesthetics is very recognizable and that's why you also can be very playful with them. You can use all these elements and people will recognize it to be IKEA. We were shooting the video at IKEA, there we had the idea to use the recognizable IKEA price tags and use them to give more background information about the big five personality traits and to create IKEA style assembly manuals to show how we as job seekers also can optimize our workflow and application by using AI tools. During the residency we also work with photographer Vanessa Riki and played around with IKEA aesthetics and the notions of the ideal in a photo shootings trying to bring forth the emotional rollercoaster applying for jobs can involve.
One of your previous works is titled Suspicious Behavior (2020). Is there a connection between this work and IDEAL BEHAVIOR?
Definitely yes! Both connect to AI and labour but approach it from two very different perspectives. Suspicious Behavior is based on our research on different annotation workflows for AI. So, in Suspicious Behavior we were looking at the click workers that are training these algorithms and that are actually labelling and drawing the borders around videos and images. The artwork brings forth power asymmetries in data labour that can be understood as a type of AI colonialism. This project also involved looking into what data sets are used to create software to detect anomaly behavior used in surveillance cameras and how data is categorized for these algorithms. So, the artwork questions how suspicious behavior is categorized, and what kind of data labour is hidden at the back stage of AI.
In Ideal Behavior we look at the job seekers more generally. Those who are searching for entry-level jobs and how they must beat the bot or the algorithm in order to reach a stage where they get in contact with a human. In Ideal Behavior we also investigate systems of categorisation, like the Big Five that have been used widely in recruiting. These types of models are now becoming the backbone of AI assessments and are claimed to be more objective than humans. Both Suspicious Behavior and Ideal Behavior are also about how we change our behavior when assessed by algorithms. How we need to fit a norm to avoid being seen as suspicious. Or how do we put out the most ideal of ourselves to become the most ideal candidate for an employee to hire? For this project we have also tested several AI tools to idealize ourselves and try to become the perfect candidate.
So, what we were doing a lot during this residency was to actually apply for jobs at IKEA. We were using different kind of AI tools like ChatGPT or AI generators to create 'professional' corporate photographs of ourselves. We were reading a lot of blogs and videos of certain influencers and consultants who tell you how to apply for jobs at IKEA or other multinational companies. We tested several strategies how to "trick" these AI systems or better said "to optimize your behavior." This involved how to work with AI to create a motivation letter and resume and fit it to a specific job add. How to identify company values or think of transferable skills and then bring forth in the application how you are the perfect fit for this job. We also looked at tips on how to prepare for an interview: the way you present yourself, the way you talk to the camera, how your background should look like, the lighting situation, all this can have an impact on how AI assesses you and the algorithmic ratings that you receive. Yeah, so in a way both Suspicious Behavior and Ideal Behavior deal with labour and work and how our behavior is impacted by the use of artificial intelligence.
You have had three residency periods at M-Cult in Helsinki. Could you describe how your project has changed and developed during 2024?
So, we split up our residency period into three periods for various reasons. We were here in Helsinki one week in February and then one week around the Easter break, and now in July we did the one final month. Whereas the two first periods and the time in between involved research, applying for jobs at IKEA, and filming footage at IKEA stores, the final month we have mostly been producing of the work. We think of the two first phases as kind of research phases, mostly used for reading, structuring ideas and doing some on-site research at the IKEA pop-up store in Mannerheimintie in downtown Helsinki (which closed already in the meantime). The last period in July was considered the production month where we edited the material for our video installation, created furniture tags and manuals, and did professional photo shootings and a video feature for future promotion of the work.
The project developed a lot in between these periods because also we had the chance to think about the topics and conduct research and most importantly it actually took some time to do the job applications at IKEA and get replies. So, for us, it was good to have always like a more intensive time to be here at m-cult, but then have longer periods in between where we work on other things, but continue with the experimenting and tinkering process.
Looking back to our presentation we did at the EMAP network meeting at NeMe in Limassol, back then we mainly wanted to investigate how recruiters and HR professionals are using AI and understand how much of the recruitment process is automatized. But as we were applying for open positions at IKEA Finland and Austria, we also got in contact with their data privacy officers. It was actually a way to ask if IKEA is using the AI products promoted on the Avature or HireVue websites. From the data privacy officers we learned that neither IKEA Finland nor IKEA Austria are processing applicant data with the AI capabilities of these platforms in their recruiting process. At least not up until this date (July 2024), let's see how this continues in the future!
We also used ChatGPT to give us an answer if IKEA uses AI in recruiting and it listed several points like: 'IKEA uses AI-powered systems to screen resumes and applications,' that 'AI-driven platforms conduct initial interviews with candidates' that 'IKEA employs AI chatbots to engage with candidates throughout the recruitment process,' that predictive 'AI tools analyse data from previous recruitment cycles to predict the success of candidates in various roles,' that 'AI streamlines various administrative tasks in the recruitment process, such as scheduling interviews, sending notifications, and processing documents,' but also that 'AI algorithms help IKEA to identify and mitigate biases in the recruitment process.' We sent the whole list to data privacy officers and asked their comment on it. Because IKEA is a franchises and different countries have different hiring practices none of the data privacy officers, we were communicating with could neither confirm nor deny to which extent this answer is true: 'Regarding the answers you got from ChatGPT, we can neither approve nor deny the answers since IKEA and the INGKA Group is a global corporation and has different processes and practices in different countries.'
But the answers were also denying use of AI 'currently' or stating 'up until today there is no AI Tool used in the recruitment process,' so we think that these things are constantly changing and developing with policies and regulations which are rather specific in different countries. This means that a company like IKEA probably use and tests AI recruitment and screening tools in some countries, but in European countries where AI in recruiting is now considered high risk, HR-professionals are still waiting to see how the regulations will actually be applied. However, this does not mean that AI is not used in recruiting in Finland or Austria. During our residency one of our friends in Finland applying for a position in middle management showed us a OCEAN report with the statement that AI was used to create it. However, the content of the report was discussed with a human recruiter as a part of a recruiting process.
You are getting closer to finishing your work, how do you envision the final work to look like?
So, we envision the work to be a single channel video installation of around 20 minutes in length to be shown on a big screen or projected. Part of the video material is shoot at IKEA showrooms providing the backdrop for the daunting process of applying for jobs, waiting and always getting rejected. Until today we have not been offered a job at IKEA. Throughout this process we have been applying as ourselves, meaning that we have used our CV's rather than made up profiles that we think would be the ideal candidate for a job. Instead, we used AI-tools, tips and tricks to convince IKEA that we, with our background in art and design, would actually be the ideal candidates for e.g., a cashier or logistics position at IKEA. We often get the reaction that anyone can get a job at IKEA! But our PhD's don't make us suitable for these jobs even though ChatGPT (which always provides an answer) lists several transferable skills between a digital artist and e.g., a logistic worker at IKEA. The answers we got from ChatGPT to create a motivation letter, about transferable skills and Q&A for preparing for an interview are presented in the video through our 'AI avatars'. We used AI-image generators to create professional corporate shots of us, and with another AI-tool we lip-synced the ChatGPT answers to these images. The corporate style images give us the ideal appearance, but the lip-sync is still uncanny generating a feel of fake over it.
Best case would be to have some IKEA furniture that accompanies it in a way that you can sit on a couch or that there is some kind of Billie shelf, tables, chairs or curtains available. We created five IKEA style 'price tags' that are referring to the OCEAN personality traits. So, these tags would hang on the provided furniture. That would give a little bit more reference not just to the IKEA store but also to the background research that we did on the Big 5 – OCEAN personality traits that are widely used in recruiting. Then we have assembly manuals that provide more information about the ChatGPT prompts we used in the application process for optimizing our CV, resume, and interview answers for specific job positions at IKEA. So, we also provide some of the raw material from ChatGPT for people to look through. Basically, the video gives the essence of our process and how we used AI tools to apply for jobs at IKEA. The printouts accompanying the video give more background information. At the moment the try-out first instalments to see how all the elements work together. We are excited to see a first official instalment in one of the upcoming exhibitions and then also different setups of the work according to available space, furniture and mode of screening.
https://kairus.org/portfolio/ideal-behavior-2024/
https://emare.eu/