Artificial intelligence is reshaping recruiting in real time. Some of those shifts are exciting, some are uncomfortable, and some are forcing talent teams to rethink how they operate at a fundamental level. So I caught up with Tony Le, Global Head of Talent at Mission and a two-time Talent 100 honoree, where he offered one of the clearest views into what is actually happening on the ground inside talent teams today.
Tony has led global recruiting functions across multiple continents. He has scaled teams, built AI driven hiring systems, and managed talent programs across complex environments. What makes him valuable in this moment is that he is dealing with the new realities of modern hiring every day. Not the theoretical future. Not the vendor pitch. The actual work that recruiters, sourcers, hiring managers, and candidates are living through right now. He’s legit as they come, and I had a change to meet him for the first time out in San Francisco at a vendor event earlier this year. So this conversation felt like a long time coming.
A major theme of our conversation was the rapid rise of candidate fraud and the issues we’re facing today as recruiters (all things I’ve seen working searches in 2025).
Identity switching on Zoom
Resume duplication
Interview impersonation
Pipelines filled with profiles that look identical
Tony explained how this trend is no longer an occasional oddity or a once a year story. It is becoming a central responsibility for talent teams. Before evaluating skills or culture fit, teams are spending meaningful time determining whether a person is real. That erosion of trust has consequences for genuine applicants who are trying in good faith to navigate the job market. And candidly, this is and should not be within a recruiter’s remit. Even the historical i-9 verification process is antiquated. Recruiters should not have to make a judgement call whether or not a candidate is a real person or not. (For obvious reasons.)
At the same time, we highlighted one of the most promising aspects of AI in recruiting. For the first time, more applicants have a real chance at being considered. When a thousand people apply to a role, the traditional screening process leaves most of them unseen. AI agents can surface candidates who would never appear in the limited bandwidth of a human reviewer. Instead of narrowing a pool too quickly, teams can finally open it up in a meaningful way. That shift alone has the potential to change the experience for thousands of job seekers.
This moment is also revealing something important about where innovation happens inside companies. Tony believes that talent acquisition is emerging as the testing ground for enterprise AI. Recruiters work in high velocity environments. They manage unstructured language. They evaluate complexity. They operate on tight timelines. That combination makes TA the perfect operational space to test tools that will eventually spread across sales, customer service, HR, and other functions. The work happening in recruiting today will influence the broader enterprise tomorrow.
But innovation alone cannot solve every challenge. Tony shared a mistake he has seen across teams. And it’s when companies swing too far toward skills-based hiring, they risk losing the human elements that determine whether someone will succeed in a role. Where we landed is that AI can strengthen top of funnel decision making, but it cannot replace the human judgment required to understand how someone will interact with colleagues, customers, and the pace of the work.
Finally, we talked about how important it is to avoid humanizing AI. Vendors often present AI agents as coworkers, complete with names and faces. And we argued that this approach creates confusion for candidates and raises regulatory risks for companies. AI should not feel like a voting member of the hiring panel. It should feel like a tool that helps with summarization, pattern recognition, and organization. Clear lines between human judgment and automated support build trust and avoid problems later.
All of these themes point to a simple conclusion. Recruiting is changing quickly, but not in a way that removes the human core of the work. AI can expand access, reduce friction, reveal stronger matches, and support hiring managers with better information. It can also introduce noise, create new kinds of risk, and invite shortcuts that undermine outcomes if teams are not thoughtful. Tony’s perspective is a reminder that progress comes from balance. The tools will continue to evolve, but the responsibility to use them well sits with the people who run the systems. That is the work ahead.
Episode 011 of Building the Talent Machine is out now 🔊
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