Should companies be banned from using AI to screen job applications?

I do hiring for a living, so let me describe what "ban AI screening" actually means in practice. Last month we posted one analyst role. We received 412 applications in nine days. There are two of us on the talent team and we also have to, you know, do the rest of our jobs. Without screening software, here's what happens: we read the first fifty, get exhausted, hire someone's referral, and ignore the other 362 completely. That's the real alternative, not some fantasy where every resume gets a careful read. Studies have found recruiters spend about six seconds on an initial resume scan (The Ladders). That's a human doing the "careful" review you're romanticizing. The software at least looks at all 412. It doesn't get tired, it doesn't play favorites with employee referrals, and it doesn't quietly skip the resumes with foreign names at 4pm on a Friday. Is it perfect? No. But banning it means fewer applicants get any consideration at all, and the ones who lose are the outsiders without connections. That's the opposite of fair.