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AI is learning from us. Yikes
Happy Hump Day {{first_name | Toaster}} 🐪 ,
There’s a comforting story we like to tell ourselves about AI in hiring - humans are biased and AI is objective. Therefore, if we let the machines make more of the decisions, maybe we can finally take the messy stuff out of hiring.
There is currently an ongoing legal battle involving Workday. It’s alleged that its AI-powered hiring tools can disadvantage applicants based on characteristics including age, race and disability. What happens when we automate decisions that were already shaped by human bias? You don't eliminate the bias, you just scale it and make it more efficient.
Think about some of the things we've historically treated as signals of a “good candidate.” A prestigious university, recognizable company, perfectly linear career, no employment gaps, the right communication style. None of these things are inherently meaningless. But they're also not neutral measures of someone's ability to do a job. We teach machines what “good” has looked like historically, and then ask them to find more of it.
If the historical record says certain people were more likely to be hired, promoted or considered “high potential,” an algorithm can learn those patterns without ever being explicitly told to discriminate. That's how something can look completely neutral on the surface and still produce very different outcomes.
New research from Stanford looked at approximately 4 million applications processed through an AI-based screening tool and found racial disparities in recommendations for many job postings. Researchers also found evidence of “systemic rejection,” where some candidates were repeatedly screened out across multiple jobs using AI tools from the same vendor.
Human bias is inconsistent. One recruiter might overlook your employment gap. Another might not care that you went to a less prestigious school. Someone else might see your unconventional career path as exactly what makes you interesting. An algorithm can make the same decision over and over again.
From where we stand the answer isn't to abandon AI in hiring, we are currently using it in the new hiring platform we are building, Toast Talent Marketplace.
But we have to stop viewing AI as the neutral referee. If we're going to use technology to help make decisions about people's careers, companies need to understand what data these systems use, what they're actually measuring, how outcomes differ across groups, and where humans remain accountable.
That's why the future of hiring isn't simply about building smarter AI, we have to decide what we actually want the machines to learn from us. AI didn't walk into the workplace and invent all of our biases, we gave it the playbook.
Team Toast 🥂
Open Roles 🥖
We have a cornucopia of open roles in tech just waiting for you to apply. Resume isn't up to snuff? Don't worry - we don't use resumes! Simply submit what you have. Or jump into our talent pool for general consideration 🤿
New roles this week
Upcoming Events 🗓️
Tired of tech conferences that are just a bro-flex fests? Good news: The Toast Summit is nothing like that.
The Toast Summit is made for women in tech, by women in tech. Four years in, we've built a community that's not waiting around for the future of tech to include us, we're shaping it.
This year's theme, Shaping the Future of Tech, is exactly that: dream bigger, build smarter, and help design what comes next. Because women can’t change the system unless we are in it.
📍Platform Calgary
🗓️ October 1, 2026
⏰ 8:30am - 6:00pm
What's on deck this year
We'll be revealing all the toasty details leading up to the event but here's a taste of what's cooking:
Panels & fire side chats – expect a day that touches on AI, leadership, women betting on themselves, and workplace culture with voices from some seriously cool names both inside and outside of the tech industry. Find the full panel & speaker line up here.
The Women+ Founded Market — shop local goods made by women
Choose Your Own Adventure Hour — to give you a break to explore and find your niche
A Sober Happy Hour — to wind down at the end of the day
Our anti-stim lounge — so you can decompress whenever you just need a minute
Free childcare (details to come)
Light breakfast, lunch and snacks
A Toasty gift & exclusive Toast merch to keep fighting the good fight after you go home
A preview of what’s next in Toast’s world. We've been quietly working on something bigger and we want you to be the first to know.
Community Partner 🤝
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