Richard Yan has spent his time at Airwallex scaling a global talent team through hypergrowth, from about 1,100 people to 2,800.
His conclusion: hire for judgment over polish, decentralize AI adoption instead of dictating it from the top, and always dig past the confident-sounding answer.
In this episode of 10x Recruiting, Richard, Head of People and Talent at Airwallex and a former private equity and M&A consultant, breaks down why his team is hiring more than ever, how they get AI tools built and adopted across the company, and what still separates a great hire from AI slop.
You'll learn:
- Why Richard thinks most "AI layoffs" are really about over hiring
- How a single follow up question exposes "AI slop" in seconds
- Why back channel references still beat any AI assessment for senior hires
[00:00] Intro
[01:02] Operators moving into people roles
[02:12] Why AI layoffs are a cop out
[03:11] Decentralized AI transformation wins
[04:15] From private equity to people leadership
[07:49] The unplanned pivot into HR
[10:07] Scaling a global talent team
[11:24] Building your own AI tools
[13:35] Getting past the AI intimidation barrier
[15:56] Optimism versus AI doom
[18:45] Finding AI's real limitations
[22:01] Assessing candidates in the AI era
[24:30] Probing follow up questions
[28:38] Back channel references still matter
[33:47] Work Heaven versus work slop
[35:25] The athlete mindset at work
[37:10] There are no shortcuts
To learn more about Metaview, the AI platform for 10x recruiting teams, head to www.metaview.ai/10x