Personality Assessment Using AI – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 1046

Personality Assessment Using AI – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 1046

Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 1046 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com for publishing our contributions here.

Credit: Andy Barbour

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This post is inspired on an article written by Eliot Gattegno and Nadav Klein, and published in Knowledge by INSEAD. Link at the end.

Preamble

This post may be considered as an extension of the previous post with particular focus on AI.

One opportunity for deploying technology is to assess personality, an individual’s characteristics that remain consistent across different social situations. People with similar personalities will act similarly in important ways. This means that personality information can be used to predict likely matches and mismatches between colleagues who work together in teams, or between a client and a salesperson or service provider.

AI’s ability to analyze vast amounts of data with speed and precision may transform how we understand and evaluate human personality. Traditional personality assessments, while effective in their time, often suffered from biases, inefficiencies, and limited scalability. AI-based solutions, by contrast, can push the boundaries of what is possible in understanding human behavior.

Self-reported vs AI-based Assessments

Personality assessment has long been a cornerstone of psychology. Instruments like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the Big Five Personality Traits (OCEAN model), and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) have shaped our understanding of personality. These tools rely heavily on self-reported questionnaires and structured tests.

While these methods are insightful, they come with limitations:

- Subjectivity: Self-reports can be influenced by social desirability and individual biases.

- Time-Consuming: Administering, scoring, and interpreting tests can be resource intensive.

- Scalability Issues: Reaching large populations requires considerable effort.

With the advent of AI, these limitations can be addressed, paving the way for more accurate, scalable, and nuanced assessments.

AI in Personality Assessment

Artificial intelligence leverages machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), and data analytics to revolutionize personality assessment. Here’s how AI contributes to this transformation.

AI algorithms can analyze massive datasets, including text, voice, social media activity, and physiological responses, to derive insights into personality traits. By analyzing patterns, AI can provide data-backed interpretations that are difficult to achieve manually.

AI models will improve over time through continuous learning, making them increasingly accurate as more data is ingested. Unlike static questionnaires, AI adapts to new information and contextual nuances. AI enables real-time personality evaluation during interactions, such as job interviews or customer service calls, reducing reliance on pre-filled questionnaires.

Applications of AI-Driven Personality Assessment

Recruitment and Talent Management: Organizations may adopt AI to assess candidates’ personality traits, cultural fit, and potential for success in specific roles. Automated systems analyze resumes, communication styles, and interview responses, saving recruiters time while enhancing objectivity.

Personalized Marketing: AI-powered personality insights can revolutionize marketing. By understanding consumers’ preferences and behaviors, businesses can tailor campaigns, recommend products, and craft personalized messages, significantly improving engagement.

Training: AI-based tools assess staff’s personality traits and learning styles, helping tariners design personalized learning experiences. For instance, understanding introverted vs. extroverted tendencies can influence classroom activities and teaching methodologies.

Team Building: Personality insights from AI can be invaluable for team formation. By analyzing team members' traits, strengths, and communication styles, organizations can build harmonious and high-performing teams.

Personal Development: AI-powered apps can provide individuals with personalized insights into their personality, helping them understand their strengths, weaknesses, and areas for growth.

Benefits of AI-Driven Personality Assessment

Improved Accuracy: AI can reduce human biases by relying on objective data analysis, improving the reliability and consistency of results.

Scalability: AI systems can process data from millions of individuals simultaneously, making personality assessment accessible to large populations without compromising quality.

Speed and Efficiency: Personality evaluations that once took days or weeks can now be completed in minutes, significantly increasing efficiency for businesses and researchers.

Greater Objectivity: By focusing on measurable data points, AI can mitigate the risk of subjective judgments influencing outcomes.

Holistic Understanding: AI will integrate diverse data sources—text, voice, facial expressions—to provide a more comprehensive understanding of personality traits.

Challenges and Ethical Considerations

Despite its potential, AI-driven personality assessment raises several concerns.

Data Privacy: Personality assessments often involve sensitive data, including personal communications and behavioral patterns. Ensuring data privacy and compliance with regulations like GDPR is critical.

Bias in AI Models: AI systems can inherit biases from the data they are trained on. For instance, datasets that underrepresent certain groups may lead to skewed personality assessments.

Lack of Transparency: AI-driven assessments often function as “black boxes,” where the decision-making process is opaque. This lack of transparency can undermine trust in the results.

Over-Reliance on Technology: There is a risk of over-relying on AI assessments, sidelining human judgment and qualitative insights.

Ethical Implications: AI-driven personality profiling can be misused for discrimination or manipulative practices, such as targeting vulnerable individuals with predatory marketing strategies.

Real Life Example

One firm that’s already doing this is Athena, a 2,500-employee company specializing in training and matching executive assistants with entrepreneurs and executives. It uses AI-based personality assessments to rapidly deduce Big Five personality profiles based on recordings of meetings between clients and their executive assistants, which it then uses to help predict churn and inform matching. The company’s findings were at times predictable (highly conscientious clients do well with highly conscientious executive assistants) and at times surprising (clients who are open to novel experiences do well with executive assistants high in neuroticism).

However, AI-based personality assessments aren’t currently widely implemented, and it’s important to understand the caveats and organizational requirements before deploying the technology for yourself.

Factors Indicating Readiness to Adopt AI

First, the organization must have expertise in quantitative analysis, data science capabilities, and accessible data sources that the algorithm can use to perform its analysis. 

Second, it is critical to standardize the data produced by AI to the company’s specific target segment, as this can affect the quality of personality matches the model comes up with.

Third, this method will require access to video, audio, or text from the individual being assessed. This makes it more appropriate for tasks such as hiring, where an organization often collects data on applicants through interviews that can be recorded and analyzed. In other situation, where minimal data is available, the AI-based personality assessment will be not function well.

Sum Up

AI is poised to revolutionize the field of personality assessment, offering more objective, accurate, and personalized insights. As AI technology continues to evolve, we can expect even more sophisticated and innovative assessment tools. However, it is crucial to address the ethical concerns and challenges associated with AI to ensure that these tools are used responsibly and beneficially. By balancing the power of AI with human expertise and ethical considerations, we may be able to unlock the full potential of AI in personality assessment and gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and others.

Concluded.

Disclaimers: Pictures in these blogs are taken from free resources at Pexels, Pixabay, Unsplash, and Google. Credit is given where available. If a copyright claim is lodged, we shall remove the picture with appropriate regrets.

For most blogs, I research from several sources which are open to public. Their links are mentioned under references. There is no intent to infringe upon anyone’s copyrights. If, however, it happens unintentionally, I offer my sincere regrets.

Reference:

https://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-organisations/how-assess-personality-using-ai