Recruiting Future with Matt Alder - What's Next For Talent Acquisition, HR & Hiring?

I recently returned from my annual pilgrimage to the HR Technology Conference in Las Vegas. There are a ton of conferences in our industry, but HR Tech still remains the event to come to for the most comprehensive view of innovation in talent acquisition.

It is clear that things are moving fast with technology; AI is already moving from narrow, single-use tools to orchestration layers and multiple agents that promise to revolutionise talent acquisition. Unfortunately, it is making the tech landscape very difficult to understand from a buyer's perspective, as traditional software categories are collapsing.

At the same time, the legacy cornerstones of the recruiting process, resumes, interviews, and job descriptions, are looking increasingly inadequate, with candidates and employers caught in an AI arms race that is currently making the experience worse rather than better.

So how can TA leaders cut through the noise, balance efficiency with fairness, and bring humanity back into recruiting while taking advantage of the enormous potential AI offers? What new skills will be needed to lead in this environment, and how do organisations avoid just using AI to do the wrong things faster?

While I was at the show, I caught up with two of my regular podcast guests, Allyn Bailey, Senior Director of Brand and Communications at SmatRecruiters, and Daniel Chait, CEO of Greenhouse, both of whom offered some sensible guiding insights into what is becoming a very complex space.

In the interviews, we discuss:

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The job interview has been a part of the recruiting process for over 100 years, with Thomas Edison widely credited as the original architect of this central tenet of the recruiting process. But with so much change happening since then, are interviews still fit for purpose in their current format, and if they aren't, what should they be replaced with?

My guest this week is Sarah Lamontagne, founder of Montagne Motion Consulting. Sarah has worked in all aspects of recruiting and talent acquisition and, based on her experience, strongly believes that employees should be moving away from interviews and looking at other methods of assessment to bring the recruiting process up to date.

In the interview, we discuss:

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The ongoing slump in tech hiring is well-documented. However, the demand for talented AI professionals, particularly at the leadership level, is absolutely off the scale. With unprecedented salaries being promised by the leading AI players, how can other employers compete, and what do the TA team need to know to secure the talent their organisation needs?

My guest this week is Rebecca Hastings, founder of Lucent Search. Rebecca has been hiring AI leaders for her clients for over a decade and a half, and Lucent Search recently published a research report investigating what top AI Leaders want from their jobs and careers. In our conversation, we explore some of the findings, and Rebecca offers some very valuable advice to TA teams looking for top AI talent.

In the interview, we discuss:

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Jobseeker behavior is changing with Gen AI and social media becoming ever stronger forces of influencers in career choices. However, a lot of recruitment marketing activity is failing to keep up with employers stuck in a rut and not casting the net wide enough or in the right way.

Shockingly, many TA teams still lack basic visibility into their recruitment marketing metrics and can't prove ROI to their CFOs. While candidates increasingly use ChatGPT for job searches, few employers have optimized their content for AI discovery, and many career sites still remain conversion killers.

So what should employers be doing, and how can they prepare for 2026?

My guest this week is Neil Costa, Founder and CEO of HireClix. In our conversation, Neil reveals the stark reality of where most organizations actually are with their recruitment marketing efforts and offers some valuable advice on how they should be moving forward.

In the interview, we discuss:

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The AI landscape in recruiting is evolving rapidly, with vendors racing to add AI features and many employers eager to embrace transformation. But navigating this shift successfully requires understanding what questions to ask and which foundations to build. From vendor transparency to compliance, from bias auditing to data governance, the path to effective AI implementation is not a simple one.

What do TA teams need to consider to adopt a responsible approach to AI?  

My guest this week is Martyn Redstone, a highly experienced advisor on AI governance for HR and Recruitment. Martyn has spent the last 9 years working with AI in recruiting and has some incredibly valuable advice to share.

In the interview, we discuss:

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Bias in recruiting isn't just unfair, it's also bad for business. Bias in the recruiting process means many employers miss out on top talent simply because they're not seeing the full picture. Most organizations focus their anti-bias efforts on the interview stage, but the real damage happens much earlier in the process. With AI as a new complicating factor, how can we properly address bias and make recruiting fairer for everyone?

My guest this week is Bas van de Haterd, recruiting polymath and also now co-founder of TA Audit Institute. As usual, Bas brings a vast amount of data and research to the conversation. In our discussion, we explore where bias really lives in the process, why current solutions miss the mark, and what the future of recruiting could look like.

In the interview, we discuss:

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The modern workplace has created an epidemic of burnout that's quietly destroying careers and companies alike. Many professionals are quietly battling anxiety, sleep disruption, and physical exhaustion while maintaining a facade of having everything under control. TA leaders are currently navigating AI adoption, defending budgets, managing anxious teams, and are still expected to fill critical roles faster than ever. 

So what kinds of systems can you put in place to prioritise your own wellbeing, while still making a lasting impact in your business?

My guest this week is Chris Ducker, a serial entrepreneur and bestselling author. Chris suffered a severe burnout in 2021 and has used the lessons it taught him to develop a Life Operating System that sits at the centre of his new book "The Long-Haul Leader." I've known Chris for a while now, and the advice and insights he offers are very much grounded in the reality of modern working life

In the interview, we discuss:

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Recruiting Future Round Up is back in a brand-new live format.

Round Up has always been a quick way to catch up on the most important insights from the month’s Recruiting Future interviews. Now we’re taking it further, streaming live on LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube so you can join the conversation in real time.

In this recording (previously live) Matt is joined by special guest, Rhona Pierce from the Workfluencer Podcast, as they look back at August’s six interviews. 

Episodes featured in this Round Up:

Ep 721: Inside Zapier’s AI Transformation

Ep 722: Soft Skills, Hard Data – Making Predictive Hiring Work

Ep 723: The Impact Of Career Gap Bias

Ep 724: Search, Social, And Strategic Recruitment Marketing

Ep 725: Making Neurodiversity Work

Ep 726: How AI Is Finally Killing The Resume

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Recruiting Future is currently on summer break, and the regular show will resume next week. I didn't want to leave you with nothing to listen to over Labor Day weekend, though…

The Alder Hour is my show with Purple Acorn, which live streams on LinkedIn every Monday afternoon. Every show features an interview segment, and I wanted to share here three of the best interviews we've had so far, showcasing three of the smartest people in the industry.

Keep listening to hear:

Master Burnett from HireBrain discussing the ways AI can augment hiring

Madeline Laurano, the founder of Aptitude Research, talking about the impact of AI on the vendor 

landscape

Laurie Ruettimann from Punk Rock HR warning us about the end of work as we know it.

Recruiting Future is taking a couple of weeks off and will return the first week in September. In the meantime, I've got some summer specials for you.

As I don't need to tell you, AI is a massive topic at the moment and isn't going to change any time soon; it's only going to get bigger and more critical. With that in mind, I wanted to share my thoughts on where we are with AI at the moment, its future direction, and also share the outline of a framework I've developed for strategic AI implementation in TA.

Earlier in the summer, I was a guest on the Saville Assessment Deep Dive podcast, talking about AI. The host, Hannah Mullaney, asked such great questions that I thought I would drop the whole episode into the Recruiting Future podcast feed for you to take a listen to. So, with thanks to Hannah and the team at Saville, here is a deep dive into my take on AI and the future of talent acquisition.