Everyone wants AI to fix recruiting.
Very few teams are willing to fix the data underneath it.
So I sat down with Ike Bennion, VP of Product Management, Data Platform at Visier to get nerdy about it. And he broke down one of the most misunderstood parts of AI in talent and people systems: data readiness.
Not vendor demos, prompts, or “trust me bro” automation “that just works”.
The unglamorous, foundational work that actually determines whether AI helps or quietly makes things worse.
Ike explained why organizations keep skipping the hard parts, how unstructured data creates false confidence and false positives, and why layering more data on top of broken systems doesn’t lead to better outcomes. It just creates louder noise.
If you’ve ever wondered why AI tools promise clarity but deliver confusion, this is the conversation that connects the dots. I certainly learned a lot.
In this episode, we get into:
Why AI can’t fix fragmented, unstructured recruiting data
The myth of “AI will just clean it up for us”
How bad data creates false positives at scale
Why centralization is still the hardest and most important step
What talent teams need to solve before AI actually works
AI isn’t about hype any longer. It’s about building systems that can support intelligence instead of pretending it already exists. And frankly, I’m here for it. Because we’ve been talking about AI vaporware for too long at this point and time to show recruiters some dang respect that we deserve to know how the tools work, not just sign on the dotted line for wrapper running an API call to one of the AI labs.
Thanks for coming on the show, Ike. You’re a legend and I appreciate you breaking down some of these complex principles so recruiters can grow with the technology itself. We’re on a mission to uplift and upskill the industry, and it’s because of people like you willing to bring us along for the ride.
Visier delivers workforce insights that drive better decisions so you can go from instinct to impact. Visier delivers the AI-powered workforce insights leaders need to plan, decide, and act with confidence. Learn more: https://www.visier.com/
And shout out to WRKdefined for amazing mobile studio and running production on this one. Listen to more podcasts dedicated to advancing work at: https://wrkdefined.com/ 🎧
