Eventbrite CEO Uses AI to Enhance Hiring Decisions

Eventbrite’s CEO, Julia Hartz, has been leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance her decision-making processes in hiring and promoting employees. By using AI to analyze personality compatibility, Hartz aims to reduce bias and gain deeper insights into team dynamics. This approach complements her emotional judgment, allowing her to make more informed and consistent decisions.

Hartz, who co-founded Eventbrite with her husband Kevin and technical architect Renaud Visage in 2006, took over the CEO role in 2016. The company, known for its events management and ticketing services, has a market cap exceeding $225 million. Hartz’s use of AI is part of a broader strategy to integrate technology into the company’s operations, enhancing efficiency and decision-making.

Hartz utilizes AI through personality tests, specifically the Hogan method, to assess how well her style complements that of her teammates and candidates. This method helps her identify potential areas of friction and compatibility, enabling her to make more informed hiring and promotion decisions. By drawing a through line between her own personality traits and those of her candidates, Hartz can better understand how they will work together.

While the accuracy of AI in personality analysis is a topic of debate, studies have shown that AI can draw fairly accurate conclusions about personality traits. This capability was demonstrated by researchers at the University of Cambridge and Stanford University, who found that AI could accurately assess an individual’s personality based on their digital footprint, such as Facebook ‘likes’. This milestone highlighted the potential of AI in understanding psychological traits through data analysis.

Hartz has found that AI has been beneficial in helping her overcome certain biases and habits. By using AI to assess people for different roles, she can identify development gaps and provide targeted coaching. This approach helps her reverse engineer expectations to the skills and personality of the individual, enabling her to intentionally develop them to meet those expectations.

AI also helps Hartz with more consistent decision-making, providing a different perspective that is not based on her emotions or recent interactions. This has opened up new possibilities for human potential within the company. While Hartz uses AI in various ways to automate tasks, she may not be as reliant on it as some of her peers. A study found that 74% of executives are more confident asking AI for business advice than colleagues or friends, with 38% trusting AI to make business decisions and 44% deferring to its reasoning.

Eventbrite’s experiments with AI have proven so useful that the company no longer needs enterprise licenses for recruiting firms. Hartz believes that AI has the potential to disrupt the recruiting industry, making it more accessible and efficient. By leveraging AI, Eventbrite can see the results of this research firsthand, reducing the need for expensive recruiting services.