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

Matt Alder
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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.

  1. Round Up June 2026

    7h ago

    Round Up June 2026

    If you've not listened to Round Up before, it's a short review of the episodes that I've published in the last month to make sure you don't miss out on the valuable insights that my guests are sharing. This month Round Up returns to its live format, and this is a recording of my live conversation with Ben Chino, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Maki People, about five of the episodes published in May and June 2026 Episodes featured in this Round Up: Ep 790: Rethinking Work In The Age Of AI Ep 791: Making Agentic AI Work For HR & Talent Ep 797: Hiring The Humans Behind The Robots Ep 799: Growing the Talent You Can't Hire Ep 800: Will AI Break Recruiting? Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts. Follow this podcast on Spotify.

    30 min

  2. 1d ago

    Trust, Transparency And The AI Interview

    Application volumes are climbing fast, and AI has made it far easier for candidates to produce a strong-looking resume. For talent teams trying to give every candidate a fair hearing, the traditional model of recruiting is starting to break down. Some employers are now handing the first conversation to an AI voice agent, and that raises some obvious concerns. Does automating the first step strip out the human connection that recruiting depends on? The teams doing this well are finding the answer isn't what a lot of recruiters expect, and that getting it right depends as much on how openly it's done as on the technology itself. So what does it look like in practice? My guests this week are Jean-Baptiste Anne, Global Director of Talent Acquisition at Mirakl, and Anneliese Muscari, their Head of AMER and Global Go To Market talent acquisition. In our conversation, they share why they made the change, how candidates have responded, and what it means for the future of the recruiter role In the interview, we discuss: Managing unprecedented application volume The growing limitations of resumes How do you give every applicant a fair chance and a great candidate experience? Handing the first conversation to an AI voice agent Moving from skepticism to trust Publishing AI guidelines for candidates How candidates have responded Keeping humans in charge of every decision What does the future look like? Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts. Follow this podcast on Spotify.

    31 min

  3. 2d ago

    The Real Trends In Talent Acquisition

    Over the last year, I have been using AI to develop a searchable archive of the content in every episode of Recruiting Future, 3 million words from over a decade of unscripted conversations with practitioners and thought leaders across talent acquisition. James Whitelock, host of The Marketing Rules Podcast, has been doing the same thing with his own archive of more than 200 episodes over seven years.  Between us, we now have over a thousand real conversations we can interrogate for trends, and the picture that emerges is an industry caught in familiar tensions: fighting to prove its strategic value, grappling with AI that moves faster than it can be adopted, and trying to figure out which parts of hiring should stay fundamentally human.  So what do years of real conversations reveal about where talent acquisition actually stands?   In my conversation with James, we compare what our respective archives reveal about TA's shifting identity, the real pace of AI's change, and the tensions the industry keeps returning to. In the interview, we discuss: Using AI to turn podcast archives into industry intelligence TA's journey from growth engine to cost center and back again How the AI conversation has shifted over time Adaptability as the critical skill for TA Is TA becoming a marketing function? Standing out when AI content all sounds the same Ring-fencing the parts of hiring that should stay human Bias in humans and bias in AI What does the future look like? Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts. Follow this podcast on Spotify.

    35 min
  4. Hiring's Signal Problem

    5d ago

    Hiring's Signal Problem

    The talent market is sending mixed signals. Employers insist they can't find the people they need, while experienced, capable candidates say they are applying into a void and hearing nothing back. Both are describing the same market, so something in the middle is failing. A lot of recruiting technology was built to handle volume, to move large numbers of applicants through a process quickly. What it struggles to do is read signal, to interpret whether someone actually has the judgment and context to solve the problem a business has. So how do we fix this problem, and will AI give us the solution? My guest this week is James Gardner, a talent acquisition and transformation leader who has spent over twenty years building and scaling talent functions. In our conversation, he shares what his own data-driven job search revealed about the market, why volume systems and signal systems pull in opposite directions, and how AI could either fix the problem or make it considerably worse. In the interview, we discuss: What's really happening on both sides of the talent market Why the market isn't short of talent; it's short of signal. Running a job search as a data funnel Why silence, not rejection, is the real problem Why volume systems and signal systems contradict each other Where AI screening still can't read potential Applying AI to a broken process just makes it fail faster. Moving TA from a service function to a commercial lever Owning the outcome, not just the shortlist. What does the future look like? Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts. Follow this podcast on Spotify

    28 min

  5. Jul 2

    The Talent Pool Employers Need

    As AI reshapes how work gets done, the most valuable thing a person can bring to their job isn’t recent task experience; it is the depth of judgment, sector knowledge, and decision-making that takes years to build. That is precisely what AI augments rather than replaces. However, in a cautious hiring market, recency is being given overinflated importance, and a large pool of deeply experienced professionals is being filtered out because they have a gap on their resume. These are people with the experience and maturity, and strong appetite for engaging with new technology that the AI era needs. So why are employers overlooking this talent, and how should TA leaders rethink their hiring strategies to fix this My guest this week is Hazel Little, CEO of Career Returners. In our conversation, Hazel explains what the data reveals about the returner experience in 2026, why deep experience and judgment matter more than recency in an AI-augmented workplace, and shares some practical advice on making hiring more effective. In the interview, we discuss: How the landscape for career returners has worsened in the last year The unique benefits returners can bring to organizations. Why there is still so much stigma around career breaks and resume gaps How the hiring process amplifies the confidence gap The importance of potential over experience in a fast-changing world of work Why the human judgment needed to work with AI comes from experience The skills shortage hiding in plain sight Building potential rather than buying experience Screening and the hiring manager mindset What TA needs to do differently to harness this valuable talent pool. Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts. Follow this podcast on Spotify.

    29 min
  6. AI Native Recruiting

    Jun 28

    AI Native Recruiting

    AI offers a genuine opportunity to reinvent talent acquisition, but not many employers have gone beyond targeting incremental improvements in speed and efficiency. The ones who are truly using AI to be transformational are doing something fundamentally different. It takes a real commitment to experimentation, a clear definition of what AI fluency means, and a willingness to redesign hiring from scratch.  So what does that shift actually look like in practice? My guest this week is Tracy St. Dic, Global Head of Talent at Zapier, where going AI-native is a company-wide mission. In our conversation, Tracy shares how Zapier is redefining AI fluency, redesigning the hiring process from the ground up, and rethinking what the recruiter role looks like in an AI native world. In the interview, we discuss: What is an AI Native company? The difference between AI adoption and AI transformation What is AI fluency? A mindset of experimentation, curiosity, and discernment Upskilling the TA Team Psychological safety and protected time The impact of implementing an AI interviewer and the diminishing importance of the resume Fraud versus cheating versus just using the available tools What is true transformation in recruiting, and what does the future look like Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts. Follow this podcast on Spotify

    35 min

  7. Jun 25

    How LLMs Are Redefining Job Search

    The way people look for work is changing fast. A growing number of job seekers now begin by using tools like ChatGPT, asking questions in plain language about roles, salaries, and what it's actually like to work for a company. It is a very different starting point from typing a job title into a search box and scrolling through pages of aggregator links. At a time when employers are drowning in low-intent applications, something interesting is happening at the other end. Candidates who find roles through AI search arrive with real context about the company, the role, and why it fits their life. So how can employers make the most of this new world of job search? My guest this week is Ben Russell, Co-founder at SonicJobs. In our conversation, Ben explains how AI-driven job search is developing, what it means for candidate intent, and why he thinks this moment could rebuild trust between employers and job seekers. In the interview, we discuss: The role LLMs are now playing in the job search. Changes in job seeker behaviour Lessons from the rise of Google Building apps in ChatGPT Implicit and explicit discovery The implications of conversational search Delivering well-informed, high-intent applicants How employers can own their own brand What does the future of the job search look like? Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts. Follow this podcast on Spotify. A full transcript will appear here shortly.

    33 min
  8. What Does AI-First Really Mean?

    Jun 18

    What Does AI-First Really Mean?

    A growing number of organizations are rushing to put AI to work, often announcing themselves as AI-first before working out what that actually means. What many are finding is that AI tends to surface whatever was already underneath. Where the data is patchy, the content conflicting, and no one quite owns the end-to-end process, the technology exposes all of it rather than fixing any of it. At the same time, AI is starting to reshape work itself, raising hard questions about which tasks remain genuinely human and what HR and TA roles will look like on the other side.  So what does it take to build foundations solid enough to make these tools deliver? My guest this week is Mark Stelzner, founder and managing principal at IA. In our conversation, Mark explains what it really takes to make AI work in the people function. In the interview, we discuss: What are the driving forces and catalysts for transformation? How AI amplifies rather than fixes existing problems What does AI first actually mean? Re-inventing processes in large complex organizations AI’s impact on work Displaced skills, amplified skills, and uniquely human skills Turning capacity into new value The impact of transformation on people and culture The new role of the CHRO Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts. Follow this podcast on Spotify. A full transcript will appear here shortly.

    24 min
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About

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.

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