Artificial intelligence is everywhere in recruiting right now. Every week it’s conversations about new tools, “agents”, and false promises. The reality is that AI in it’s current state won’t fix what’s been broken in talent. Any recruiter knows why it feels broken. Psst, it’s not on us. Recruiters don’t hire. *wink*
Right now with recruiting tech we’re mostly just getting AI slapped onto existing workflows. And who’s to say the existing process is the best way to hire people? It’s just the system we’re operating in. AI in a mature state will likely change the entire recruiting funnel and candidate experience. That’s a good thing. And that’s why imho it’s never been a better time to be a recruiter.
That’s the core of my conversation with Ike Bennion, VP of Product Management, Data Platform at Visier. Ike lives deep in the infrastructure layer of people analytics, and he brings a perspective that cuts through a lot of the noise. If you want AI to work, you have to confront the state of your data. There is no shortcut around that work. Ike was kind enough to break down some complex data theories for me, I’m literally just a recruiter.
A pattern Ike sees constantly is organizations assuming AI will magically solve data centralization. His thinking is that we have too many systems, too much unstructured information, and not enough time to clean it up, so we’ll just layer AI on top and let it figure things out. In practice, that rarely works. Data is the fuel for AI, and bad fuel leads to bad outcomes. Pretty obvious. You’d be surprised by the number of “it just works” messaging and “trust me bro” pitches from some vendor GTM motions in market right now. (I’ve seen basically all of them after working at a pre-ChatGPT ethical AI HR tech vendor that got acquired early in this hype cycle.)
But when it comes to rethinking the process with AI bolted on top, talent acquisition makes this data problem even harder. Recruiting is a platform practice by nature. Most teams in tech are running 5-10 or more tools across different hiring processes for EPD, GTM, and G&A roles. Campus hiring looks nothing like executive search. Volume roles behave differently than specialized technical hires. Each system captures data slightly differently, often without a clear long-term strategy for how that data will be used later. And here’s the kicker. All of this AI in recruiting really stops at the people management layer. It’s all managing opex at the end of the day to reduce cost to process hires for IC roles. Name a company using AI in a Director+ search, I’ll wait. If you have one recruiting leader implementing this into exec search, intro me please, I’d love to have them on the show. Doubtful.
When Ike and I spoke about data, he shared that the most valuable data often looks trivial at the moment it’s collected. Fields that feel optional today can become critical six months or a year later when you start asking better questions. Once that time passes, you can’t rewind. Data strategy is always a problem of starting earlier than feels necessary. And data integrity in recruiting is an actual sh*tshow.
Ever read an vendor report that anchors an insight from a field that can be manipulated on the backend, by wait for it….the vendor themself? On top of that, it’s almost irresponsible to rely on data integrity from recruiters inputing things like source of hire, or time-stamped placement windows to publish content that mirrors an industry report from an analyst firm. Anyone who’s worked a req knows roles get filled without a req being raised. All the time. Or if they do it’s raising them to submit a candidate and close immediately. Think a recruiter who’s working 2x req load is going back to ensure the proper source per hire tag? Lol.
That’s enough for now. I’ll save my source of hire attribution rant for another day.
Ike and I spent time in our conversation talking about AI hype, particularly around agentic workflows. There’s real potential there, but we’re clearly at a point where expectations are running ahead of reality. Large language models are very good at pattern recognition, especially in language. That doesn’t mean they inherently understand conflicting data sources, context, or the nuances of human behavior. Assuming they do introduces real risk, especially in hiring and workforce decisions. And what’s crazy to me is that I see reputable recruiting leaders voice on LinkedIn that they believe agentic end to end recruiting workflows are kept as a trade secret for competitive advantage. That’s a nope of a trope, friends. We’re simply not there yet. Bonus points if you know why and can tell me on the podcast. You probably know it if you’ve worked a req for a tech startup since the pandemic. The problem I have is that there are too many voices in recruiting and on LinkedIn mouthing off about hiring who just haven’t. That’s why it’s important to talk to people like Ike.
Where the conversation got more interesting for me is around what AI can do well today. Ike frames AI as a powerful accelerator for research, contextualization, and decision support when it’s fed the right inputs. This validates how I’ve been using it for the last three years. Used properly, it gives recruiters more at-bats, better questions, and faster movement toward meaningful conversations. Used poorly, it becomes expensive theater. Hence that MIT report on AI adoption failure everyone likes to site right now.
The bigger opportunity Ike points to isn’t just optimizing existing workflows. It’s rethinking how work itself should change now that AI exists. Simply automating outdated processes limits the upside. Teams that step back and redesign their systems with data integrity, context, and judgment in mind are the ones that will actually see value. And I’ve got some great AI use case studies from my own searches. But it’s not the end all be all for what it takes to hire in these trying times.
This conversation was awesome. And it’s not about resisting AI. It’s about earning the right to use it. If you care about building durable talent systems instead of chasing the next demo, this conversation will challenge how you think about readiness, strategy, and what progress really looks like. That’s why I’m stoked on Visier. Shout out to the homie Dinah Alobeid for intro’ing me to Ike on the floor at HR Tech to make this happen.
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/
You can connect with Dinah: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dinahalobeid/ and Ike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ikebennion/
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/ 🎧
