A conversation with Jason Miller on the future of recruiting at the intersection of AI and humanity — and how the real opportunity isn't replacing people, but amplifying how they think, create, and connect.
Episode Date: March 16th
Host: Tia Kleckner (CEO at LinkTech), Adam Kleckner (Head of Strategy at LinkTech), Devon Walker (Head of Recruiting at LinkTech)
Summary:
Jason Miller started out wanting to be a sports agent. A Y2K-era panic and an internship at a recruiting firm changed everything. Twenty-five years later he's head of people intelligence and AI at Natara, co-founder of PromptMates, and running Dadvocates — an organisation for fathers of neurodivergent kids. In this conversation he breaks down why AI slop is flooding the recruiting market, why taste and empathy will be the last things automated, and why work trials might be the most underrated hiring tool nobody's using.
Main Topics:
How Jason accidentally became a recruiter instead of a sports agent — and why he never left
Why recruiting is the profession of misfit toys — and why that's a strength
The AI slop problem: why most recruiting tools solve the wrong problem
What human skills become most valuable when AI takes over the analytical work
The OCEAN framework and how personality type will shape future hiring
The Klarna case study — what happens when you replace empathy with efficiency
Work trials as the most underrated hiring tool in the market
Why resumes are content — and content is now basically free
Universal design and why building for the edges benefits everyone
Intriguing Quotes:
"The last thing that's ever going to be automated is taste."
"I became a sports agent for computer geeks and it just sort of stuck."
"More interviews do not automatically lead to better hiring decisions."
"I really genuinely like to leave relationships better than I find them."
"Automated sourcing is not going to save the world."
"The failure was purely — you can't have lesson without now."
Key Moments:
[03:58] Why Jason stays in recruiting: very few jobs give you both human impact and business impact at the same time. Getting the right person into a company can change its trajectory entirely.
[07:05] Jason on neurodiversity — as a parent of neurodivergent kids and founder of Dadvocates, different thinking, done right, is an advantage not a liability.
[12:24] The AI slop problem: most recruiting tools are built by engineers solving their own frustrations, not recruiters solving real problems. The best AI solves your paper cuts — freeing you up for the human work only you can do.
[17:05] The Klarna cautionary tale — CEO replaces customer service with AI, saves $60M, loses a third of customers. Empathy can't be automated. He hired everyone back.
[19:56] Work trials: let people show what they can do instead of talk about what they can do. Jason road-tested it himself — figured out on day three it wasn't the right fit. Saved them both a lot of pain.
[29:47] Rapid fire: overrated trend — automated sourcing. Underrated trend — work trials. One AI tool every recruiter should use — your LLM of choice, as a thought partner, not just an email polisher.
Notable Resources:
PromptMates: https://www.promptmates.ai
Dadvocates — organisation for fathers and male caregivers of neurodivergent kids
OCEAN personality framework (Openness, Conscientiousness, Empathy, Adaptability, Neurology)
Klarna AI case study
DuckDuckGo's paid work trial interview process
Connect with Jason Miller:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason4linked/
PromptMates: https://www.promptmates.ai
Connect with The Human Advantage Podcast:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thelinktech/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
for information about our collection and use of personal data for
advertising.