A difficult market...
Liam Smees from Workday identifed the enormous skills gaps currently facing the industry, with 75% of organisations struggling to find candidates with the new skills they need, and a 45% drop in engagement across industries.
Sebastian Eidem of Akkodis noted that there is far less margin for TA leaders to make a mistake - echoed in a recent study by McKinsey
...being utterly reshaped by AI
AI dominated conversations throughout the event.
Smees stressed the importance of agentic AI to freeing up 8x as much time for TA professionals to focus on high-impact, strategic growth initaitves. Duyen Jin Nguyen of Lovable reiterated this - use of AI at Lovable led to:
* 75% cut in screening time
* 3x response rates
* 5x more qualified candidates sourced.
Charles Sinclair of Oddwork noted that 70% of candidates prefer an AI-guided conversation to reading static text - and AI offers the chance for an entirely new, conversational approach to employer brand.
But humans remain important.
Across talks, there was consensus that talent attraction cannot be fully automated. Whilst AI excels at screening, it lacks the nuance for cultural fit, candidate experience, final hiring decisions, edge cases - all of which require interactions with real people. (More here.)
In summary
The hiring market is tighter, noisier, and less forgiving. Skills gaps persist, candidates apply widely, and mistakes are costly. AI is already driving faster hiring, better engagement, and major efficiency gains for TA teams. But culture, judgment, and experience still demand humans. The winners will blend AI scale with human discernment.
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