Redefining Culture Fit: AI Tools to Improve Diversity Hiring

By Lalitha Varshini

For a long time, companies in the corporate world have followed the idea of “culture fit” when recruiting new candidates. Culture Fit refers to the act of hiring someone similar to the majority of people in the same organisation. This could be in terms of personal values, work style, personality (etc). This is backed by the notion that when employees feel like they belong and their values align with the company’s, they are more likely to be engaged and satisfied in their roles. Though on the base level it sounds harmless, it gives rise to a bigger problem. It often turns into hiring people who look the same, think the same, or come from similar backgrounds, unintentionally killing diversity. 

• Related: Revolutionizing Onboarding: How AI is Transforming HR Processes

A 2017 study by Ashley and Empson examined recruitment practices at six elite professional service firms and found that candidates were often excluded based on cultural or social characteristics, like educational background, social profile, aesthetics, and social capital, rather than their abilities. 

Matching Candidates to Culture

Today, the phrase “Culture Fit” is slowly being replaced by “Culture Add”. This is because corporate firms have begun to understand the unique perspectives that come along with hiring candidates who are not of a similar thought process. Culture Add emphasizes diversity of thought and background to foster innovation and creativity, rather than prioritizing conformity to the existing culture. While “culture fit” emphasizes finding candidates who align with the existing culture, “culture add” focuses on finding candidates who will enrich the culture by bringing new perspectives and skills. The goal is to find a balance between shared values and diverse contributions. Artificial Intelligence helps to strike this balance effortlessly. AI doesn’t just automate things, it also helps spot and remove bias in the hiring process. It does this in the following way:-

Bias-Free Resume Screening

Back in the day, interview experts subconsciously leaned towards selecting candidates with similar surnames or backgrounds in terms of similar educational qualifications, skills, etc. Today, the usage of Artificial Intelligence helps overcome this setback as AI can anonymise resumes. AI anonymising resumes means using technology to hide personal details like the candidate’s name, photo, gender, age, and sometimes even the university or location. This is done to prevent unconscious bias during the screening process, thus ensuring a fairer and more diverse workforce. 

Smarter, Inclusive Job Descriptions

Job descriptions are often the first impression a company gives to candidates. But sometimes, they unintentionally turn people away, especially women or those from minority groups. Artificial Intelligence can help to use a wider range of words that are not narrow in terms of their approach. This doesn’t make prospective candidates feel excluded or alienated, in turn encouraging a diverse pool of applications during the hiring process. 

Skill-Based Screening

In traditional hiring practices, interview experts rely heavily on following a rigid format and sticking to a degree or ‘big brand’ experience-based selection process. This approach is especially limiting in tech hiring, where demonstrated ability and problem-solving are more important than pedigree. This discourages the notion that candidates with the necessary skills that align with the job requirement can get hired. Ultimately, the applicants with a formal degree may bag the position despite not possessing crucial skills that may ensure long term involvement with the firm.

Artificial Intelligence brings with it a more ‘Skill Based’ screening process, where candidates are not judged exclusively by the degree they hold. This may include considering skills like communication, decision making, problem solving, etc. Thus, such a process is more fair for people from non-traditional backgrounds as well. Moreover, according to a recent article, such AI-driven edits can boost applications by around 30% and increase female applicants by 40%.

Debiasing Job Descriptions – AI Tools That Promote Inclusive Hiring

Interview Analysis & Bias Detection

Artificial Intelligence tools are now being used to make interviews more fair and consistent, helping reduce unconscious bias in hiring decisions. Now, AI-powered platforms can analyze video or written interview responses to ensure that every candidate is evaluated based on the same criteria, and not on gut feelings or personal preferences. These tools can detect if certain interview experts are consistently scoring one group lower than others, and flag these patterns for review. This is particularly impactful in tech hiring, where consistency in evaluation is key to identifying genuine talent across diverse applicant pools.

This is the foundation of Interview as a Service — where AI-led, structured, and skill-focused interviews replace intuition-based assessments. They also encourage structured interviews by guiding recruiters to ask the same set of questions to all applicants. This standardization ensures that interviews are more focused on skills, communication, and values, making the hiring process more effective. 

Diversity Analytics

AI-powered diversity analytics help organisations track and improve inclusivity in hiring. These tools monitor each stage of recruitment to identify where diverse candidates may be dropping off. Platforms like HireVue and Pymetrics use real-time data to uncover hidden biases and recommend improvements. Dashboards can show patterns by gender, ethnicity, or background, enabling companies to fix bottlenecks and meet their diversity goals.

Unilever’s innovative use of AI in recruitment illustrates how technology can reshape hiring practices for greater diversity. By partnering with tools like Pymetrics and HireVue, the company replaced traditional resume screening with neuroscience-based games and AI-driven video interviews. This approach resulted in a 16% increase in diversity among hires—from a broader ethnic mix and more gender diversity—while also cutting time-to-hire by about 75% and saving over £1 million annually

Next Gen AI in Action: Unilever’s AI-Powered Recruitment Revolution

In conclusion, in today’s evolving workplace, diversity and inclusion are no longer just buzzwords; they are business imperatives. Redefining “culture fit” into “culture add” represents a crucial shift in mindset that moves beyond hiring for comfort and familiarity, and toward building teams that reflect a range of perspectives, values, and thoughts. While culture fit once meant hiring someone who blended in easily, this often reinforced a similar flow of ideas and excluded candidates from underrepresented backgrounds. By focusing on culture add, organizations actively seek individuals who challenge the status quo and bring something new to the table, thus bringing a new flow of ideas. 

• Related: How Generative AI Transforms Talent Acquisition

Solutions like Interview as a Service offer a scalable way to deliver consistent, fair, and bias-free candidate evaluations across industries. Ultimately, embracing Artificial Intelligence for diversity hiring is not about replacing interview experts or erasing company culture; it’s about evolving the culture to be more inclusive and dynamic. When we combine thoughtful Artificial Intelligence tools with a genuine commitment to inclusivity, we stop hiring for sameness and start hiring for strength. In doing so, organizations don’t just build better teams, they build cultures where everyone has the chance to belong. 

At the heart of this shift is the adoption of Interview as a Service platforms, where structured interviews, AI analysis, and skill-based assessments are transforming how we evaluate talent.