Investigating the Role of Fluency and Epistemic Justification in the Context of AI-driven Recruitment

The purpose of the study is to understand how message fluency and users’ epistemic justification shift perspectives on AI-driven recruitment. Using the S-O-R as the theoretical foundation, a two-group quasi-experimental design with pretest and posttest measures was carried out among 211 participants to measure their willingness to engage and attitude change. Two major results are gleaned from this study. First, message fluency impacted attitude change. In the fluent condition, participants showed a positive attitude towards the presented information on AI-driven recruitment whereas in the disfluent condition, there was no significant change. Two, users’ epistemic justification determined their willingness to engage with information on AI-driven recruitment and had a positive effect on attitude. This research recommends organizations to maximize message fluency with clear typography, structured layouts, and simplified language for better metacognitive experience. Additionally, organizational leaders can integrate epistemic justification in their processes by including testimony of experts and consensus from multiple sources to ground the information with well-supported evidence.