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Recruiting Future with Matt Alder – What’s Next For Talent Acquisition, HR & Hiring? — Business
Recruiting Future with Matt Alder – What’s Next For Talent Acquisition, HR & Hiring?

Talent acquisition is undergoing unprecedented disruption as AI, economic uncertainty, and the ever-shortening lifespan of skills radically reshape recruiting. On Recruiting Future, Matt Alder explores this evolving landscape, using insightful interviews with transformational TA practitioners and forward-thinking experts to spark your imagination and provide the insights you need to shape the future of talent acquisition in your organization.
Each episode explores topics such as AI, recruiting automation, recruitment marketing, employer branding, skills-based hiring, assessment, candidate experience, DEI, internal mobility, and the transformation of TA teams. Recruiting Future is an essential resource for everyone involved in hiring.
Matt Alder is a globally respected talent acquisition futurist, author, and speaker with over 25 years of experience exploring what’s next in recruiting. Renowned for his expertise in strategic foresight and technology trends, Matt provides a unique perspective that empowers leaders to navigate disruption. His deep industry knowledge and ability to spark meaningful conversations make Recruiting Future a must-listen for talent acquisition and HR professionals everywhere.

Latest Episodes:

Ep 794: Can Automation Make Hiring More Human? May 13, 2026

Show notes

When organizations hire thousands of frontline workers, delivering a personal candidate experience becomes almost impossible. Recruiters spend all of their time answering calls, responding to messages, and running through the same screening questions over and over. There is little time left for the conversations that actually matter. Meanwhile, candidates want speed, flexibility, and a process that respects their time, including outside business hours.

So how can AI solve this?

My guests this week are Jeroen Klerkx, People Operations Leader at Picnic, and Bill Fischer, CTO at VONQ. In our conversation, recorded live at HR Tech Europe, they share what happened when Picnic gave candidates the choice of a human or AI screening call, the surprising feedback they received, and how they built 10 years of recruiting knowledge into an AI agent that frees up time for their recruiters to have more valuable conversations.

In the interview, we discuss:

Picnic’s unique approach to candidate experience
The current market challenges
Building an AI recruiter
Closely monitoring candidate sentiment and responding to their feedback.
Overcoming the considerable technical challenges
How recruiters responded to automation and how their role is developing
Managing candidate expectations around AI
What does the future look like for AI in TA

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Ep 793: Conversations from HR Tech Europe (Part Two): Anna Carlsson and Nazim Ünlü May 08, 2026

Show notes

HR is at a pivotal moment. AI has shifted the conversation in a way nothing else has in years, the demands on the function are growing faster than its capacity to respond, and the questions being asked of it are bigger than they have ever been. The opportunity is significant, but so is the gap between where HR is and where it needs to be.

So what does it actually take for HR to step into this moment?

In this episode, recorded at HR Tech Europe in Amsterdam, I'm joined by two guests with strong views on what's holding the function back and what good looks like. Anna Carlsson, an HR tech analyst based in Stockholm, shares what she's seeing across the Nordic market and why culture and infrastructure matter more than the technology itself. Nazhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/nazim-ünlü-0774b714/im Ünlü, a Global HRD and HR transformation leader, then joins me to talk about why HR is more needed than ever and the strategic shift the function has to make to stay relevant.

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Ep 792: Conversations from HR Tech Europe: Wolfgang Brickwedde and Mervyn Dinnen May 03, 2026

Show notes

Talent acquisition is sitting in a strange place right now. AI is in every conversation, but the work of actually hiring people is getting harder rather than easier. Application volumes are swinging in unpredictable ways, the workforce itself is changing shape, and the reality on the ground is some distance from the hype.

So what is actually going on in talent acquisition right now?

In this episode, recorded at HR Tech Europe in Amsterdam, I'm joined by two guests who have spent decades watching this industry evolve.

Wolfgang Brickwedde from the Institute for Competitive Recruiting shares what his research is telling him about the market employers are navigating and where vendors are still getting it wrong.

Mervyn Dinnen then joins me to talk about the reality behind the AI hype and how the multigenerational workforce is reshaping the world of work.

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Ep 791: Making Agentic AI Work For HR & Talent May 03, 2026

Show notes

The real value of AI agents in HR comes from connecting them to work across the employee lifecycle, not from deploying them on individual tasks. That's where most large organisations are getting stuck. Working in a fully agentic way means dealing with different systems and different data sources that often have no shared foundation.

The result is fragmented experiences for employees and managers, with the end-to-end potential remaining out of reach. Getting there requires some serious work in data governance, process design, and integration, the kind of foundational work that rarely gets mentioned at industry conferences.

So what needs to be in place before AI agents can work at enterprise scale?

My guest this week is Melissa Shelley Höjwall, Global HR Technology Lead at H&M Group. In our conversation, which we recorded live at HR Tech Europe, she explains what it takes to build a connected AI architecture across HR and why many companies are undermining their own progress.

In the interview, we discuss:

The approach to Agentic AI in HR at H&M
From niche agents to connected architecture
Process automation design and date integration
The role of data governance
Adoption in the enterprise
Shadow AI and over-governance
Why cutting jobs isn’t the way to get true value from AI
New roles for HR professionals
Breaking the silos in the Talent function
What to focus on for the future

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Ep 790: Rethinking Work In The Age Of AI May 01, 2026

Show notes

We're living through one of the most consequential shifts in how work gets done. AI is everywhere in headlines and vendor pitches, but the reality inside organisations is far more nuanced than the noise suggests. Personal adoption is running well ahead of how companies are embedding the technology into actual workflows. Demographic changes continue to tighten labour supply, and the HR tech vendor landscape is consolidating and expanding all at once, leaving buyers uncertain about where to invest.

So how should HR leaders be thinking about technology, workforce design, and the role they need to play in shaping what work actually becomes?

Recorded live at HR Tech Europe, my guest this week is Stacey Harris, Chief Research Officer at Sapient Insights Group. Stacey runs the longest-running HR systems survey in the market, and we discuss what her data shows about where things are heading.

In the interview, we discuss:

How AI differs from past tech shifts
Layoffs and the cost of AI investment
The gap between personal and corporate AI use
Why bring your own AI matters
Making sense of the vendor landscape
The Platform Cluster Model
Demographics and labour supply pressures
From workforce planning to workforce architecting
How HR's role needs to change
What does the future look like

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Ep 789: Leading TA Through AI Acceleration Apr 27, 2026

Show notes

Something has shifted in AI over the last few months. The pace of AI model updates keeps increasing, and strategies that made sense a few months ago are already out of date. New tools can take on long, complex pieces of work largely on their own, changing what's possible across hiring. For TA leaders, long-term planning has become almost impossible, while the recruiter's role itself is being rethought as candidates use AI just as actively as employers do.

So what does effective TA leadership actually look like right now?

My guest this week is Bryan Ackermann, Head of AI Strategy and Transformation at Korn Ferry. In our conversation, Bryan shares the changes he is seeing across the recruiting funnel and how organizations can build the resilience they need to keep pace.

In the interview, we discuss:

The accelerating pace of AI change
Why AI literacy now matters everywhere
Is candidate AI use cheating or demonstrating capability?
The superpowered employee
The evolving role of the recruiter
Agents talking to agents
Where human moments still matter
Resilience and shorter planning horizons
Advice to TA Leaders
What does the future look like?

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Ep 788: Technology, Trust, and Human Connection Apr 24, 2026

Show notes

We live in a world where recruiters can connect with thousands of people with a single click. LinkedIn, CRMs, and AI tools all promise to manage relationships at a scale unimaginable a generation ago.

The challenge is that genuine trust doesn't scale automatically. When interactions become automated and transactional, the very thing that makes recruiting work starts to break down. People still hire people they trust, and the best referrals still come through relationships, not algorithms.

So how do you build and maintain trust at scale?

My guest this week is Denise Chaffin, Founder of Top Source Talent and host of the Talking TA podcast. In our conversation, she shares how nearly four decades in recruiting have shaped her thinking on building trust at scale and ensuring technology strengthens relationships rather than undermines them.

In the interview, we discuss:

The risk of transactional relationships
Building and maintaining trust over time
The limits of managing large networks
How AI tools can support relationships
Finding talent through unexpected connections
Network Mapping
Key skills to build trust and connection
What the future looks like

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Ep 787: How Belonging Transforms Talent Acquisition Apr 21, 2026

Show notes

Many organizations are struggling with attrition, disengagement, and costly mis-hires that quietly destroy value. The real problem isn't finding talent, it's creating conditions where people can perform.

Research suggests that when people feel they belong, organizations see significant gains in productivity, retention, and innovation. Belonging can be measured, built into how work gets done, and connected directly to business outcomes.

So how can talent acquisition use belonging to change how it hires and the strategic value it delivers?

My guest this week is Eric Knauf, Founder and CEO of BelongHQ and author of The 56% Solution. In our conversation, he shares a practical framework for measuring belonging and explains how it could reshape TA's role in an AI-driven world.

In the interview, we discuss:

The five pillars of belonging
Measuring belonging against business outcomes
Why workforce planning comes before EVP
Breaking roles down to the task level
Belonging as a talent differentiator
Shifting TA from seats to strategy
The hidden cost of untapped potential
Building trust during the recruiting process
What does the future look like

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Ep 785: What Is AI Fluency? Apr 19, 2026

Show notes

AI skills are quickly becoming a baseline expectation in hiring, with more employers adding AI fluency to their job descriptions every month. Yet when you ask those same employers what AI fluency actually looks like for the vast majority of roles that aren't deeply technical, most struggle to answer.

Universities still treat AI primarily as a cheating problem, restricting how students use it rather than helping them become fluent. So there's a growing gap between what the workplace demands and what education delivers.

How do we define AI fluency in practical terms, and who should be leading that conversation?

My guest this week is Kathleen deLaski, Founder of the Education Design Lab and author of Who Needs College Anymore?. In our conversation, she shares what employers and students are revealing about AI readiness, and why the current approach risks failing a generation of new talent.

In the interview, we discuss:

What is an AI-fluent workforce?
Preparing learners for a new world of work
Current student attitudes to AI
Is the education system able to evolve quickly enough?
Moving beyond prompts
What replaces degrees in early-career hiring?
Assessing human skills at scale
Articulating what AI skills look like in your organization
What does the future look like?

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Ep 785: What's Really Changing In Tech Hiring Apr 19, 2026

Show notes

AI is reshaping how work gets done, but the hiring process hasn't caught up. Employers are asking for AI skills they can't clearly define, while application volumes hit record levels. Resumes mean less than ever because candidates can now use AI to tailor them to any job in seconds, and traditional screening methods are struggling to keep pace.

At the same time, something more interesting is happening underneath all the noise. Candidates are often further ahead on AI than the companies hiring them. Forward-thinking employers are turning to work sampling, and rather than treating AI use as cheating, they're integrating it into the assessment as a necessary part of the process. Despite predictions that coding would be the first job to disappear, engineering hiring is actually up in some areas.

So how should employers rethink assessment, upskilling, and what they look for in technical talent?

My guest this week is Amanda Richardson, CEO of CoderPad. In our conversation, Amanda shares what's really happening in technical hiring and where it's heading next.

In the interview, we discuss:

What are AI skills?
How is recruiting evolving?
Previewing the actual work in the recruiting process
AI-assisted assessment
Upskilling, adaptability, and curiosity
How is AI coding changing tech jobs?
Candidates are ahead of employers on AI adoption.
What does the future of jobs and hiring look like?

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