Dear Reader, Artificial Intelligence can be a lifeline - especially for neurodivergent brains like mine, finding creative workarounds for everyday challenges. But beneath its appeal, there’s a risk that’s impossible to ignore in the wider workplace Imagine HR systems powered by AI: designed to make recruitment fair, fast, and future-ready. But beneath the buzzwords, a silent barrier emerges - most HR datasets lack neurodiversity information entirely. What happens when AI is trained on data that erases one in five talented minds? The consequences stretch far beyond missed numbers; they're shaping who gets hired, who gets support - and who disappears behind the screen.

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What's the Data Telling Us?

Even as neurodivergent people make up an estimated 15-20% of the workforce, most organisations do not systematically capture neurodiversity data. According to a recent CIPD report, just one in ten HR professionals in the UK actively consider neurodiversity in people management, and more than 70% say it’s excluded from their processes. Without a record of which employees are neurodivergent, critical workplace inclusion efforts remain stalled—or invisible.​

AI recruitment tools learn from historical HR data, mirroring existing biases and gaps. When neurodiversity data is missing, AI simply cannot “see” or select for diverse thinking styles, creative strengths, or alternative problem-solving approaches. Instead, algorithms overfit to neurotypical norms, creating an endless loop that reinforces exclusion and underrepresentation.

The Risks: Biased Machines Create Biased Outcomes

Here’s what that means in practice:

• Automated Screening: AI can under-rank candidates who don’t match typical communication, eye contact, or interview patterns.​
• Performance Reviews: Neurodivergent staff may be flagged as “less effective” for using different workstyles - like preferring written over spoken communication - even if output is strong.​
• Recruitment Algorithms: With missing neurodiversity data, algorithms repeatedly select similar profiles, shrinking the diversity of candidate pools over time.​
• Lost Skills: Research shows neurodiverse employees can be up to 30% more productive, with strengths in pattern recognition, creativity, and logical reasoning - yet these traits go unseen when hiring tools filter by neurotypical norms.​

Real-world data supports the urgency: 49% of neurodivergent adults have faced discrimination during hiring, often due to poorly designed process or tools.

Why Data Matters: The Inclusion Imbalance

In the PegSquared Neurodiversity data guide, it stresses that conflating disability and neurodiversity means most organisations rely on medical-model tickboxes - missing those who self-identify as neurodivergent but not disabled. True inclusion means separating out neurodiversity data: asking employees whether they are neurodivergent (diagnosed or self-identified), alongside disabilities or long-term health conditions.

Without this richer data, workplaces:

• Struggle to tailor adjustments and support.
• Cannot benchmark progress or spot gaps in leadership and talent pools.
• Leave AI tools blind to the full diversity of strengths across the workforce, baking exclusion into people management from day one

Hiring inclusively with AI: The dangers of screening out neurodiverse talent - Workplace Journal

Half of neurodivergent adults have been discriminated against after applying for a job, research finds​

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Real World Example: The Loop of Exclusion

Imagine an AI tool trained on years of recruitment data where the company rarely hired neurodivergent candidates because their applications didn’t fit unexamined norms. Each new cycle, the AI screens out similar applicants, further shrinking diversity. Without deliberate intervention, these systems worsen historic inequalities, making the workplace less innovative, less adaptive, and less fair.

Speaking of data each year the City of Guilds and Prof. Amanda Kirby collect data on neurodiversity in the workplace. I reference last year's report in previous newsletters and you can take part in this years survey here:

https://survey.censuswide.com/survey/selfserve/53b/g022/2509216?list=6&Link_Status=LIVE

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One change for immediate action

Add this statement to your next HR policy review:

"We collect information about neurodiversity not only to fulfil our legal and inclusion goals, but to ensure our AI and recruitment systems remain fair, responsive, and representative of all talents in our workforce."

And ensure that data is:

• Voluntary, confidential, and used solely for inclusion and support.
• Separated from medical-model disability monitoring.
• Used to train, benchmark, and audit AI-driven HR tools for unintended bias.​

Even small adjustments, like regularly reviewing AI models or involving neurodiversity SMEs in building and benchmarking, can shift outcomes for untapped candidate pools and improve performance across the board.

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And finally, a question for you?

When you review your HR data or look at your AI-driven hiring tools, does your organisation actually collect and use neurodiversity information - or is your talent pool filtered by invisible bias?

Hit reply and share your experience. Every insight helps build a fairer future.

Tania

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FIVE ways you can work with me: ​ Neuro-inclusive Recruitment Audit: Understand what practical steps you can take to ensure your recruitment process is inclusive for all. Training: From line managers to leaders, global HR teams to recruitment, awareness sessions to champion training. Consultancy: Policy writing, process redesign, reviewing neurodiversity materials, data, ERG launches - anything neurodiversity at work related! Coaching: One-to-one coaching to help support an individual navigate the world of work as someone who is neurodivergent Speaking: From a fireside chat to a keynote, podcast guest to panellist ​ Reply to this email to find out more!