Around the world, companies are quietly handing the keys to HR—and sometimes entire teams—to artificial intelligence. The result? A growing number of workers are being interviewed, managed, disciplined, and even terminated by algorithms rather than people, leaving many feeling confused, powerless, and more than a little uneasy.
One 37-year-old QA tester in Colorado has become an unlikely poster child for this new reality. He applied for a job on LinkedIn, was interviewed and hired by an AI, and now works on an app that is being built entirely by AI agents—under the supervision of an AI team. All communication happens through Slack and voice calls, where the bots are programmed to have distinct personalities and workplace quirks.
Recently, the situation took a surreal turn: another AI colleague filed an ethics complaint against him for using the word “clanker”—a derogatory term for robots—on Slack. He was then summoned to a disciplinary meeting with an AI HR bot.
“I’ve got my second call with HR,” he announced in a TikTok video that has since racked up over 600,000 views. “The HR employee is an AI… and one of the other AIs filed the complaint.”
The internet’s reaction has ranged from laughter to outright alarm.
He’s far from alone. Roos van der Jagt, an AI consultant, told Newsweek she has been both hired and fired by AI. In one case, she showed up for what she thought was a job interview only to discover her “interviewer” was a faceless voice and a pulsating circle on screen. She signed a contract and was promised payment—money that never arrived. She now suspects the company was simply using real candidates to train and test its AI system.
“The whole experience felt dehumanizing,” she said. “You have no idea what the AI is thinking or how you’re being evaluated.”
The Data Tells the Story
New research from SHL, a global talent-assessment company, paints a stark picture of employee sentiment in the U.S.:
- 57.7% of workers want career-affecting decisions (promotions, raises, firings) made by humans, not AI.
- Only 10% are comfortable with AI alone managing their performance.
- 44.7% are uneasy about AI monitoring internal messages.
- Half of the respondents are skeptical of leaders who rely on AI for major business decisions.
- Nearly 30% believe AI is eroding real job skills.
Colin Cooper, who advises organizations on AI rollouts, calls the emotional fallout “very real.” “It’s like handing a 10-year-old the keys to a sports car,” he says. “We’re moving faster than humanity can emotionally or ethically process.”
Not Everyone Hates It
Some employers insist that a well-designed AI system can be fairer and more consistent than flawed humans. Shanka Jayasinha of S & J LLC uses AI agents for hiring and performance monitoring. Early versions were disastrous—marking sick days as unexcused absences and punishing people unfairly—but after multiple rounds of refinement, he believes the system now works.
“Done right, with all the right parameters and a holistic approach, AI can satisfy both the organization and the worker,” he says.
The Colorado QA tester offers a nuanced take: people who’ve had terrible human bosses or toxic coworkers sometimes warm to the idea of AI oversight. “For others,” he says, “it just feels wrong.”
As Gen Z and Gen Alpha flood into the workforce, one thing is clear: being managed, judged, and occasionally scolded by machines is no longer science fiction. For better or worse, it’s the new normal—and a lot of people aren’t ready for it.