Emotion Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace: Legal Considerations

Employees’ emotions, moods, and affects have been found to influence organizational outcomes in a variety of areas. Organizations seek to effectively utilize this resource to enhance their operations and achieve significant outcomes. As a result, emotion artificial intelligence (Emotion AI) is increasingly being used in the workplace to assess and support employee wellbeing, promote workplace safety, assist in decision-making, and increase productivity, among other uses. Emotion AI refers to affective computing tools that analyze facial expressions and other physiological signals of emotion as well as those that create emotional responses. The pandemic accelerated the use of affect-recognition tools in the workplace, due to concerns of worker stress, burnout, depression, and productivity in a remote work environment. However well-intentioned, its use raises concerns such as invasion of employee privacy and the potential for inaccuracies and biases in its results. This paper examines legal considerations of using Emotion AI in the workplace.