AI software could help - as people prefer to hire people who are like them, and that can lead to sexist cultures in the workplace.

Ava in Ex Machina. Pic: Everett/REX
Image: Alicia Vikander plays a humanoid AI in Ex Machina. Pic: Everett/Rex

Tom Cheshire

Technology Correspondent

Tom Cheshire

The technology industry has a problem with diversity.

True to form, it thinks the solution is technological. Specifically: artificial intelligence.

Founders of the Future is a new venture that hopes to uncover the Mark Zuckerbergs of the future, using algorithms.

"An AI doesn't know anything about your background - which school or university you went to," Tom Bowles told me.

Mr Bowles, a machine learning expert, developed the software, which models the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs like Niklas Zennstrom, who set up Skype, and Natalie Massenet, who started Net-a-Porter.

Hopefully, the software spots the "early signals" of people who might make good entrepreneurs, even if they haven't founded a company, scouring Google, LinkedIn and Crunchbase for candidates.

Traits like rising fast through a company, or swapping industries, are good predictors, according to Mr Bowles.

Those candidates were then cross-checked with good old-fashioned human experts from Founders Forum, the network set up by Brent Hoberman, who co-founded with Martha Lane-Fox, giving an initial list of 100.

Image: Software is better at hiring employees than humans, a study suggests

Algorithmic HR is on the rise, with young companies like Gild and Entelo.

Google has automated some of its hiring processes.

Saberr, a London start-up, can model how well that new hire will fit with existing employees.

It seems to work, too: one study in the Harvard Business Review suggests that software is 25% better at hiring employees than humans.

There is the danger with big data and machine learning that an algorithm trained on current data will simply replicate existing prejudices.

But according to one algorithmic hiring company, Infor Talent Science (so take with a pinch of salt), among the 50,000 people hired by its software, there was an increase of 26% in minority hires.

As for Founders of the Future, out of the 100 people selected, 41 are women. (In the UK generally, women make up 14.4% of the tech workforce, according to the Office for National Statistics).

And this program is especially important, because founders determine the culture of their companies.

People prefer to hire people like them. That can lead to sexist cultures: pretty much every complaint I've heard of sexism in London start-ups can be traced back to the CEO.

Beyond solving sexism, Founders of the Future also offers a glimpse of another happy future.

We'll do away with the risk and uncertainty in finding an idea and turning it into a company.

Instead, software will pick you out of the blue to tell you you'd be a great entrepreneur.

You'll join a program like Entrepreneur First which comes up with the perfect business idea on your behalf. And, hey presto, you're the next Zuckerberg without lifting a finger.