Martyn Redstone: Burnham is wrong about AI hiring

Martyn Redstone is Head of Responsible AI and Industry Engagement at Warden AI

When Andy Burnham called on employers to abandon AI screening tools and video interviews in favour of “old-fashioned” recruitment, he offered a textbook example of technological retreat.

On a recent ‘Jimmy’s Jobs of the Future’ podcast episode, Burnham offered a diagnosis: that young people face a brutal battle breaking into the workforce. Whilst it is an accurate reading of the situation, his solution is entirely backwards. Retreating from modern technology to legacy hiring processes reflects a wider, damaging impulse. Whenever they are confronted by technological disruption, the default instinct on the political left is to restrict, regulate, and mandate progress out of existence.

As Head of Responsible AI at Warden AI – an assurance platform that audits automated hiring systems for risks – I see the operational reality of recruitment technology every day. The “old-fashioned” hiring process Burnham idealises was never a golden age of meritocracy. It was an opaque system dominated by subjective human bias, unwritten social codes, and informal networks. For decades, candidates without personal connections or prestigious credentials were routinely filtered out before they even reached the door.

Turning back the clock will not level the playing field for young talent. Harnessing market-led, transparent technology will.

Critics argue that automated recruitment tools simply encode past prejudices. That risk exists with unverified software, yes, but it misunderstands how modern, skills-first technology operates when properly audited.

Unconscious human bias is invisible, unmeasurable, and nearly impossible to challenge. When an interviewer rejects a candidate because of an unexamined preference, a regional accent, or a lack of personal rapport, there is no paper trail.

An algorithmic system, by contrast, consists of code and data. It can be tested, measured, audited, and recalibrated. Responsible AI adoption is about assurance. About ensuring algorithms evaluate demonstrated competencies rather than superficial proxies like postcodes, elite university labels or family background. When properly implemented, AI strips away traditional gatekeeping and evaluates raw capability.

Banning these tools does not remove prejudice from hiring – it simply hands power back to human subjectivity.

Similarly, remote video interviews have lowered entry barriers for young jobseekers. By eliminating travel costs, geographical constraints, and time off from shift work, digital interviewing democratises access to opportunity. We should certainly reject unproven biometric tracking or video sentiment analysis, but scrapping digital access altogether punishes the very candidates who lack financial backing or social mobility.

But there is a market-related issue here too. Burnham’s call to abandon technology is very clearly detached from commercial reality. Recent data from Greenhouse Software reveals that recruiters are managing an overwhelming 412 per cent increase in applications per recruiter, with an average of 254 applicants per role. Expecting businesses to manually sift through hundreds of applications per vacancy using pen and paper is a recipe for administrative paralysis.

If British enterprise is to compete globally, our economy requires urgent supply-side efficiency. Forcing businesses to abandon modern sifting tools inflates overheads, drags down productivity, and stalls hiring for candidates who are genuinely qualified.

Instead of teaching young people to fear automation, policy should focus on preparing them to lead in a digital economy. That means equipping school leavers with practical digital skills, expanding apprenticeships, and encouraging businesses to adopt transparent, skills-first recruitment models.

Fairness in a modern economy is not achieved by looking backward. It is achieved by breaking down legacy barriers, embracing innovation, and ensuring that raw merit wins over background or connections.

Where the left offers intervention, state overreach, and anxiety over technological change, the conservative response must be confident, aspirational, and pragmatic: promote responsible AI adoption, cut unnecessary administrative burden, and empower British business and young talent to harness the full potential of the digital age.

Britain will not build a high-productivity economy by retreating to the past. It is time to let technology drive a genuine meritocracy.

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