People Like Us rejects AI bias in recruitment

In partnership with agency Worth Your While, non-profit People Like Us has launched this impactful and poetic short film, Dear [Name], as part of its new Reject the Rejections initiative, exploring the ethics and human impact of recruiters using AI and automated tools in the hiring process.  

The campaign is built around new research from PLU and Censuswide, which reveals how automated hiring software is affecting UK jobseekers, rejecting candidates within minutes – sometimes before applications have even closed, with the impact falling disproportionately harder on people of ethnic minority.

The compelling four-minute short film, starring British actor Ebenezer Gyau and directed by Amara Abbas through new–land productions, transforms the language of real rejection emails sent to real ethnic minority candidates into a powerful spoken-word performance about hope, exclusion and the invisible barriers facing talented candidates. 

Amara Abbas, director, new—land added: "This is a film that is interested in uncomfortable truths and in saying the quiet part out loud. In a world that feels more and more divided with each passing day, I hope this film can function as a way to break down the barriers and to create opportunities for important conversation and connection with one another."