AI now analyzes performance, screens applicants and recommends people for promotion. Written by four authors from academia, a multinational company, a public institution and a large corporation, Youngho Song, Natalie Yun, Changil Kim and Taegsu Shin, Designing Fairness in the Age of AI (AI 시대 공정성을 설계하다, published in Korean by 리브레토) sets out four questions every organization pursuing AI transformation must answer, and shows how to design standards people can accept before problems arise.
One sentence from an exit interview
"I can accept the outcome. What I can't understand is how it was decided."
An employee five years into the job said this after handing in a resignation. What he could not accept was neither his pay nor his workload. It was that no one had ever explained why he was passed over in the last promotion round.
More organizations now let AI make the first call on evaluation, hiring and promotion. As the weight of decisions shifts to systems, it is still people who must explain and answer for those decisions, and that weight is only growing.
Four questions for organizations pursuing AI transformation
People do not judge fairness by the size of their reward alone. They also look at how a decision was made, how they were treated along the way, and whether it was explained. The book examines an organization's use of AI through the four dimensions of organizational justice.
1. Distributive justice: Is my share fair?
AI grows results while blurring whose results they are. Who should benefit from the added output and the time saved?
2. Procedural justice: Are the process and criteria fair?
A decision you cannot explain is a decision you cannot own. The book sets out the procedural conditions to keep when AI enters hiring, evaluation and promotion.
3. Interpersonal justice: Am I treated with respect?
The sense of fairness comes less from accuracy than from feeling understood. The book asks what respect means when systems deal with people.
4. Informational justice: Am I given the reasons?
In the age of AI, an information gap is a power gap. From hidden variables to AI governance, the book shows how to keep channels open for explanation and appeal.
From diagnosis to design
The book does not stop at asking whether AI is fair. It moves on to how we should design fairness: deciding in advance what data will be used to evaluate people, sharing those criteria in language people understand, and keeping a door open for anyone who wants to ask again. Put these safeguards in place after a problem and they look like excuses; put them in place beforehand and they build trust.
Who should read it
- Executives and leaders driving AI adoption
- HR professionals designing hiring, evaluation, pay and promotion systems
- Practitioners in organizational culture, employee relations and labour relations
- Public sector and non-profit teams embedding AI in their work
Four authors, four vantage points
- Youngho Song: Professor at the Odette School of Business, University of Windsor, researching organizational justice and how AI changes employee performance and work behaviour.
- Natalie Yun: CEO and Principal Consultant of OptiMax Partners Inc., with more than 25 years leading HR at Fortune 500 companies, now helping Korean companies establish themselves in North America from Canada.
- Changil Kim: A public sector AI transformation practitioner with 15 years of HR practice at the Academy of Korean Studies.
- Taegsu Shin: An HR practitioner with experience at Hyundai Motor Group, SK Group and KT Group, connecting research and practice on talent strategy in the age of AI.
A note from the author
Working in HR across Korea, Asia and North America, I learned one thing. Cultures and systems differ, yet the reasons people trust an organization are remarkably the same. When people understand why they were evaluated the way they were, they get back up even when the outcome disappoints them. Now that AI sits at the centre of those decisions, I hope this book helps leaders and HR answer that question first. (Natalie Yun)
Book talk with the authors
A launch book talk will be held on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. at FASTFIVE Seolleung Central (B3), Seoul. Seats are limited to 50, first come, first served. Register on the Offpiste event page.
Fairness starts with design, not with outcomes. Find Designing Fairness in the Age of AI (in Korean) at your bookstore.
Kyobo Book Centre YES24 AladinBy Youngho Song, Natalie Yun, Changil Kim and Taegsu Shin | Published by 리브레토