Most people assume AI is coming to wipe out the recruiter. The reality is stranger. It won't replace the job, but it will quietly delete around 70% of what recruiters actually do, and the people who refuse to adapt won't be hireable in a few years' time.

In this episode of Talent Unplugged Across the Pond, Marcus Pask and Megan Conlon sit down with Neil Davies, a man who has built and led talent acquisition at Enron, Microsoft, Visa, PayPal, Roku and Activision Blizzard, and who now runs IC2 Talent Acquisition Solutions.

After 25 years in the game, and a refreshingly honest admission that it took him 20 of them to get good at it, Neil pulls back the curtain on what is really changing in hiring and what most people get wrong about it.

You'll discover:

• Why AI won't replace the TA function but will completely change it, and the one task every leader should automate first because nobody gets sued for it
• Why Neil wouldn't tell his own kids to go into traditional recruiting, and what that means for anyone building a career in hiring today
• The two skill sets every great recruiter needs, a chief revenue officer's operating brain and a chief people officer's relationship skills, and why the average head of TA lasts under two years
• The real reason TA teams are under-resourced, with companies burning millions on agencies but unable to get one extra coordinator, and how to fix the operating model
• Why no ATS is ever perfect, and the strategic question you must answer before you buy any new AI tool
• When to say no and hit pause on shiny new tech, even after months of looking
• The smarter way to run an internal talent market, and why "internal candidates should always get first refusal" misses the point

This episode is essential listening for job seekers who want to understand how AI is reshaping the people sitting on the other side of the table, hiring leaders rethinking their tech stack and operating model, and TA professionals trying to future-proof their careers before the ground shifts under them.

Don't let outdated thinking about recruiting catch you off guard. The job is being rewritten in real time, and the leaders who get it are already moving.

Join us as we bust the myth that AI is simply here to replace recruiters. It isn't. It's quietly changing what the job even is, and Neil explains exactly what to do about it before everyone else catches up.

Perfect for anyone in HR, recruitment, job searching, or talent leadership, hit play to hear one of the industry's most experienced TA leaders break down the biggest shift recruiting has ever seen.