Is the candidate you’re interviewing a deepfake or a real person? Do you have an AI governance policy in your organisation? Will AI make your skills and ultimately your career obsolete? Will AI replace recruiters? Do you still think AI is just like any other revolution?
These and many other thought provoking questions were discussed at this year’s ATC Impact. Yes, that is correct, these questions were discussed, not answered. As we are going through yet another technological revolution, we’re yet to experience an enormous impact AI is going to have in every aspect of our lives.
Talent as an industry will undergo a significant change and we’re already seeing it. What ATC covered this year was many aspects of that change in recruitment and talent. Here I’m sharing some of the highlights that struck me the most.
We kicked off the conference with a Workforce Rewired presentation on AI Myths from Prof. Toby Walsh, one of the world’s leading researchers in AI. Things that stayed with me were:
– AI won’t be like any other revolution. We will have to adapt and change accordingly
– AI will become localised as opposed to globalised. Every business or every person will have their own AI ecosystem
– AI agents won’t be all end all solution. Whilst they will work and make things run faster and more efficient, we still need people to manage it all and have a strategy to work on projects and move things forward
– AI still has a long way to go in recruitment in particular. When using AI to recruit, the bias is still quite prevalent.
– The number of graduate jobs is decreasing – we need to figure out a way to bring graduating in to the workforce
– We do need to regulate AI and some policies on how to do that (across all sectors)
Marrin-Boyd Andrews from ProPromt covered what AI Agents are, how to use them and how they will change work.
– AI Agents can either perform repetitive tasks or talk, listen and collaborate with you
– From smaller businesses to large organisations, AI agents are here to stay and take off the admin load from us
– In the future, you might be able to build your own digital twin and even contract them out to the clients
Olga Barrett from EPAM Systems covered Candidate fraud: deepfakes, dupes and digital lies. There are now many ways AI can be used to deceive hiring companies.
– Gartner predicts that by 2028 1 in 4 candidate profiles will be fake
– Identity theft, real-time face swap, voice manipulation and many other crimes are on the rise
– We have to remain vigilant, pay attention to the quality if image, voice etc.
– We also need to create a strong internal framework aiming at verifying the candidate and checking them prior to hiring
Envisioning the future, the futurist Kevin Wheeler shared his insights and thoughts on The great realignment. He makes us looking into the future with our eyes wide open. He shared his strategic imperative for TA and HR Leaders that covered;
– This is the decade of reinvention, integration of AI into everything
– Development of new skills and attitudes, changing paradigms about how we work
– The traditional full-time job is giving way to flexible, project-based opportunities becoming a Talent-as-a-Service model (fractional roles, contract-to-hire, freelance platforms)
– Scarcity doesn’t exist anymore, in today’s world we are navigating through abundance
– Out of all tasks, TA professionals will remain on influencing, closing and advising roles, whereas for everything else there will be an AI agent
– Major valuable skills shift to soft skills like advising, strategy planning etc
– We have legal constraints and yet to see the governments in the world taking action to build some strong governance around AI
Facing this complexity, TA is making a shift to advisory and that Rewiring Work conversation was discussed by Nadine O’Reagan (TQ Solutions) and Mel Gretgrix (Bupa).
– Use of AI will boost productivity
– In return, it will free up some time for being that trusted advisor
– AI will also boost the enjoyment of work
Speaking of enjoyment for work, it was fantastic to hear about well-being related initiatives companies run for their people. Andrew Retshko and Katelyn Reddin (Medibank) shared their findings from their 4 day week experiment following their ambition of becoming the Happiest Workplace. What a remarkable, forward looking experiment aiming to increase their employees wellbeing (hint, it’s already receiving some great feedback!).
Rachel Townsley and Lauren Anderson (Indeed) ran a fun trial to show how using AI tools can reduce peoples fatigue and generally improve their wellbeing.
Edan Haddock (Movember) shared their initiatives they’ve been working on following their inspiring motto to improve men’s health and wellbeing. There are many ways for Mo sisters and brothers to support this movement that no doubt will carry on coming up some fantastic initiatives.
It was another fantastic ATC Conference that had some inspiring and truly remarkable people in one room. Lots to think about and work on as we look into the future. Thanks to the ATC team for hosting another fantastic event – ‘til next time!
