What's Going On?!-Autism, Employment, and AI

This episode explores the workplace through a neurodivergent lens, focusing on the realities many autistic individuals face when navigating employment. From the often confusing and inaccessible hiring process to workplace environments built around unspoken rules, social expectations, and sensory challenges, we unpack experiences that many neurodivergent people deeply relate to.

The conversation also examines the growing influence of artificial intelligence in the workplace. Can AI make hiring and day-to-day work more accessible for neurodivergent employees—or does it risk reinforcing existing barriers? We look at tools like automated résumé screening, AI-driven interviews, workplace productivity software, and where they may help or hinder inclusion.

By highlighting common struggles, shared patterns, and systemic gaps, this episode invites listeners to think critically about how work culture and technology can better support neurodivergent talent. Whether you’re neurodivergent, an employer, or someone interested in accessibility and the future of work, this episode offers insight into challenges, possibilities, and the need for meaningful change.

Transcript

Audio Only - All Participants 0:03

Hello everyone and welcome to the Women Who Are Autistic. The podcast where, being different isn't just accepted. It's celebrated. I am Annelise your life, career, and financial coach, and I help autistic women build lives that feel aligned, meaningful, and unapologetically authentic. Each week we'll explore neurodiversity identity, work money, and the messy magic of being human. Last episode, I shared my personal story-- my journey of discovering I'm autistic. While it's important for you to know who I am and how I came to my diagnosis, this podcast isn't just about me. Women Who are Autistic was created for you-- autistic women and neurodivergent people, for anyone who has ever felt they didn't fit into society's narrow rules of how a person is"supposed to be", and for the loved ones who want to listen, learn and support with compassion. This is a space for understanding, validation, and empowerment. Now that we've talked about who the space is for and why it exists, it's time to look at how neurodivergence shows up in the real world, especially in areas that impact our daily lives. In this episode, we're diving into neurodivergence, employment,and how AI might be part of the problem, part of the solution, or maybe both. So grab your favorite sensory friendly beverage and get comfy. Let's dive in and rethink what's possible together. I wanna start today off with the reality the neurodivergent people are facing in the workplace as of the year 2024- 2025 in the United States. The broad population of neurodivergent workers has an unemployment rate of about 35%. Now, if we were to narrow it down to the top two most common neurodivergent workers who either seek out work accommodations and or tell their employers of their diagnosis, it is even higher. According to my research, the two most common are Autism and ADHD. Autistics specifically have an unemployment rate of 85%, and ADHD has an unemployment rate of 33%. Now, I don't know about you, but my response was definitely WTF?! This would mean that nine out of 10 autistics are unemployed. One in three with ADHD are unemployed and about one out of four of the broad neurodivergent population is unemployed. It begs to question, why is this? What can be done about this? These are the answers to these questions that we will further discuss. Before we move on, I want to add a little bit of disclaimer: the information I'm about to discuss is based off of my research of several interviews of individuals in my life who are neurodivergent in some form, and I wanted to share their responses because it could relate to you, it could be different from you, but either way, it's important to know. I have found two common reasons of difficulty of unemployment for neurodivergence in the workforce. The first one is the hiring process. The hiring process itself is not designed for neurodivergent brains. I'm gonna talk about what I mean by this, but then I'm going to go give my perspective of what needs to change here. Neurodivergence, more so autism and ADHD than others, struggle with social communication, reading nonverbal cues, and or performing under pressure. And we are known to be fidgety and not be able to sustain eye contact for an hour or more. This would mean a sit down interview is our worst nightmare! Just think about it. Think about the concept of a sit down interview. In an interview there is small talk, questions that have to be answered right- then- and-there. Talk about being under pressure! Let us not forget the struggle of selling our skills into conventional language instead of having the ability of showing our skills. Next, there's a big thing of not being able to find work, especially in this economy-- for anyone on the spectrum, neurodivergent, or not. Employers do have the right to question our gap of employment, but I don't think it should weigh so heavily that it's the main reason not to hire someone. I mean, do you remember COVID? I thought it was so great that when I had in a gap in employment during shutdown and they asked about it and I told them, they agreed, they nodded, they smiled, they understood. I think that should still be the same attitude. My final comment about the hiring process and then we are gonna move on. Let's talk about the interview environment. It is such a weird concept to have in this day and age to me because it's like my ability to do the job is not important. But what is important is whether or not I can socially pass in an interview. It's like our world has it backwards. Because I know that neurodivergent people are amazingly capable of handling a job. They just need to be given the chance to show it. So let's make it normal or have a trial period. Have a trial period where I can show you I can do the job. I don't know what that would look like, but I think that should be the new normal. Okay, moving on. The second one workplaces are often inflexible. They have sensory unfriendly environments, and they're full of stigma and misunderstanding. Sensory overload, for sure. They have open plan offices, bright lights, loud noises, strong smells can be overwhelming for many autistic people, which can lead to burnout and our inability to focus. There's also rigid expectations around routine and social norms. There's unclear expectations, frequent changes, mandatory team building or culturally fit assessments, which can exclude people who thrive with structure and predictability. Hello autism! Or who need movement and variety. Hello. ADHD! I think there's also two rigid of expectations of a basically nine to five job. I coach AuDHD mostly. Their jobs are mostly eight hour time period slots, but I have quite a few clients who get frustrated or even bored at work, because the work that it would take an eight hour time slot takes them like two to three hours. And they're often the ones that I see that are let go the most. It got me curious about why those kind of two things correlate-- being able to do immense amount of work in such a short time period and often being let go. So I asked some people that I know in the workplace that are neurotypicals and managers. And a lot of their initial responses was that they'd probably feel threatened that their jobs could be in jeopardy. A lot of states nowadays have the no need to say firing system. So I can't really say for sure whether my clients were exactly fired because they were too efficient at their job. But I would think that would be a bonus to employers. I mean, it would be a bonus that you could do more work in way less time. Now, my clients have, most of them have found a sweet spot and they have become entrepreneurs and that they are thriving and doing great at. Next thing, stereotypes and biases. Employers may assume autistic people lack empathy or social skills or view ADHD as laziness or lack of discipline. This does result in a discriminatory hiring process even when candidates are highly qualified. Again, assumptions, and they're highly qualified in not getting jobs. There's also the disclosure dilemma. Many do avoid disclosing their diagnosis due to fear or discrimination, but without the disclosure, they can't really access accommodations, which makes a catch 22. This does beg the question on whether it's even worth disclosing your diagnosis. I would say that is totally up to you. But when I go into the workforce or I'm looking for a job, I would ask myself these two questions. Would I say my employer offers a safe environment to disclose? Or do I feel unsafe in that? Does your employer work with third party organizations to help accommodate neurodivergence? That you would probably have to look for in HR specifically. I personally don't go up to an employer and say, I need accommodation for such and such. I have found it very effective to instead still ask for help. That's important. But I would just work around the wording of my specific wording of accommodation'cause that can be triggering for employers. Instead, for example, if my job entailed answering phone calls or answering emails all day, that sounds like a drag, but that was an example I can think of. I would probably ask my employer for specific scripts with phone calls and different scenarios for these scripts as well as scripts for answering emails. Doesn't have to be specific in any occasion, just like a template that you can reword so you don't have to have decision fatigue and know exactly what you have to do all the time. But as a guideline, and I would say I, I would want these because I wanna do my job accurately and efficient as much as possible. Not because I need accommodations, that is true. It gives the employer the impression that you wanna do such a good job that you need help. Now let's dive in and talk about companies and organizations that actually invest, hire, and accommodate neurodivergence, as well as platforms that are helpful in job seeking neurodivergence. I came up with a few, and a lot of these, I'm gonna say, are technology companies or data analysis companies, but I think they're worth mentioning. First off, Microsoft. I did not know this, but they have launched in 2015 a neurodiversity hiring program, and Microsoft focuses on alternative hiring processes, like multi-day skills assessments, and they also provide strong support like job coaching and accommodations. This kind of gives the people who are neurodivergence the ability to feel safe, to disclose their diagnosis. Microsoft has hired hundreds across tech, engineering, data science, and other roles. This emphasizes retention and innovation. The next one is SAP. SAP hired or pioneered autism at Work, which is a program that they developed in 2013. Now, they have also expanded to that, to the neurodiversity. It operates in multiple countries with a 90% retention rate, and it offers jobs that are tailored to training supportive environments, roles and software, hr, finance, and more. The next one is JP Morgan Chase. This is more of a banking one, but it also launched Autism at Work in 2015. And it has grown significantly and includes customized onboarding, mentoring, accommodation, and it targets roles in operations, data analysis, tech reporting, higher productivity. The next one is Dell Technologies. Dell runs the neurodiversity at Dell program, which includes internships. And jobs designed for neurodiverse individuals. They focus on adapting their hiring practices to remove barriers and provide supportive opportunities. Now, I did a little more digging and I actually called some of these places try and emailed their corporate offices because I told them I was interested in looking for a job, and I wanted to see if this is jobs that are only for the higher levels, like the actual people who work in the corporate offices, or for example, like JP Morgan Chase, would this be at their branches? And I did find that this is for all levels of employment. I also found an interesting fact that Goldman and Sachs, Citizens Bank, IBM and Ultranauts. These programs have expanded from autism specific and also include A DHD and other conditions. These programs are mostly driven by evidence of productivity gains. They usually see about 140% higher in targeted roles in innovation. Now let's move on to organizations that could be helpful in finding autistic friendly jobs. There is higher autism, which connects autistic jobs seekers with over 267 employer partners and offers resources to help with resumes, interviews, and job searches. You can also explore employment support programs like those offered by Eden Autism, which provide job coaching and work to match individuals with suitable employers across various industries. Now, we have gone over Neurodivergence and employment, and I give you a lot of information about it, but I wanna touch on a subject that can be daunting, which is ai. Now, whether you agree or not about how AI has come into our everyday lives as humans and what it's doing to us, it does come to question on the impact it will have in the workforce. There are some top jobs that AI is taking over that's pretty obvious. It's data analysis, data entry, administrative work. Quality testing, software testing. Like I said, these may be more of the obvious ones, but I think we'll even see it taking over like warehouse jobs, which can be sought out by those who struggle with hypersensitivity, for example, to noise or to light, or even A DHD, not being able to sit in a desk all day, what have you. It is sad that these are jobs that are being taken over, but there could be some positive things that AI is hitting in the mainstream workforce AI is significantly transforming job opportunities for people with neurodivergence by both creating new pathways for employment and enhancing workplace accessibility and productivity. AI is becoming an integral part of many workplaces by automating repetitive tasks and enabling neurodivergent employees to focus on their unique strengths, such as pattern recognition, creativity and problem solving from unconventional angles. Don't believe me. Let's look at a 2025 study by Ernst and Young, which found that neurodivergent employers or employees adopt AI faster and often have higher specialist proficiency in AI and related fields than neurotypical employees. This highlights a growing demand for neurodivergent talent and technology driven roles and inclusion boosts their skill proficiency by 10%. Now, you might be thinking, that is great, but I am not into technology. Here's another way that AI can help you. AI offers tools that are personalized to supporting you, and it can help neurodivergent workers manage executive function challenges like planning, prioritizing, and time management. For example, AI powered scheduling tools help protect focus time and organized tasks while communication aids like chat, GBT assist in crafting clear and appropriate toned messages reducing social fatigue and perfectionism stress. Now, in that last one, I'm not advocating that ar I replace human interaction, but you can't ignore the fact that there is opportunity that AI gives in the neurodivergent world. I mean, the amount of times that I have inaccurately translated interaction at work. It would've been helpful to be able to ask someone, I guess, AI as well nowadays what actually happened so I don't take things the wrong way. I personally don't use AI a lot. I mean, I do use it for organization and timekeeping and stuff like that, I actually am curious to give it a try a little bit more. What about you? Now I'm gonna wrap up this episode as it has brought you a lot of information all at once, but maybe it is brand new information or maybe it's. Things you already knew. Either way. I'm so grateful you spent this time with me today and I hope something here gave you support, clarity, or even a little bit of peace. If you'd like more conversations like this, I'd love for you to subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. Your support helps this podcast reach other autistic women and neurodivergent people who might be looking for a space like this too. If this episode resonated with you. Leaving a review is one of the most meaningful ways to support the show. And if there are topics you need help with, questions you want explored, or even if what I'm talking about isn't quite what you're looking for, I truly want to hear from you. You can connect with me on Instagram. My profile is linked in the show notes. And if you know someone who might benefit from today's episode, please feel free to share it with them. Sending you calm and compassion. Until next time.