Recruiting Future with Matt Alder - What's Next For Talent Acquisition, HR & Hiring? Ep 756: TA Trends That Matter For 2026
Dec 19, 2025
Susan De La Vega, SVP at Korn Ferry who leads global tech-based RPO solutions, shares trends from a 1,600-leader study. She discusses why TA struggles with uncertainty. She explores how AI and automation are splitting recruiter tasks. She warns about entry-level cuts harming pipelines. She outlines how talent teams can earn more strategic influence and prepare for 2026.
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Episode notes
AI Augments Recruiters Not Replaces Them
- AI's role in TA is shifting from fear of job loss to augmenting people for higher-value work.
- Susan De La Vega observed over three years that organisations now split tasks so AI/automation handles monotony and recruiters focus on high-payoff activities.
RPO Team Experiment Split Recruiter Tasks
- Corn Ferry tested role redesign in their RPO team by mapping recruiter tasks to automation versus people.
- They split day-to-day recruiter work so automation does boring tasks and recruiters deliver higher quality candidate and hiring manager experiences.
Keep Graduate Programs To Protect Future Pipeline
- Preserve and invest in internships and graduate programs to avoid a future hiring pipeline crisis.
- Susan recommends keeping or reshaping grad schemes (eg leadership content) because cutting entry-level roles creates long-term shortages.