HR in the age of AI: What we heard at HR Tech 2024

AI is inevitable. That was the undeniable current across the HR Tech Conference 2024. From the exhibit hall to the sessions to the pitchfest, AI permeated every conversation. 

As leaders begin to develop their AI strategy and prepare for the next hiring wave, they are questioning not just what the HR tech stack of the future will look like, but what will the work of recruiting and people management look like. Talent acquisition and talent management are beginning to merge as the work of talent professionals shifts upstream to bringing the right skills and experience to the company at the right time.  

This is a transformational opportunity to redefine what people do vs where AI should do the heavy lifting. But turning over responsibilities to AI requires confidence in the data at its foundation. These were sothe currents and themes swirling at HR Tech and our takeaways.

To automate or not to automate?

On the way to the convention center, my Lyft driver had many questions when he learned that I worked for Findem. His goal is a career in IT and cybersecurity, but he senses that the candidate matching process is fundamentally broken. 

How do hiring teams know he has the skills he claims to have? How does he know a job post is a real job from a real company? Should he focus on tailoring his resume to specific jobs? Or publishing code and pursuing certifications? Publish, I recommended. Every digital activity is a data point beyond the resume that smart companies should be using to find talent. AI has disrupted the application process, making resumes just a small part of the matching process. 

Inside the hotel, I noticed a lack of hospitality professionals. Guest onboarding had become a self-service operation, so I downloaded the app, generated my own room key, and found my way to a room where a digital fish tank greeted me. This was a perfect experience for a weary traveler–no lines, easy access, immediate gratification. But what if my key hadn’t worked? Or my reservation had been missing?

Considering the candidate and employee experience, automation has the potential to provide a consistent, high quality experience, but when do we need the personal connection? Particularly with hybrid and remote workforces. Throughout the conference, we grappled with the question of how much COULD be automated vs how much SHOULD be. 

How do we use technology to create more capacity for human connection, learning, and potential while leaning into AI to improve our understanding and decision making at scale?

Will expert bots replace experts?

Both Alexandra Levit and Charlene Li spoke about this fundamental tension between the “expert at scale” and the human experience of learning. Both had built representations of themselves and their work using AI. Could these expert speakers reproduce their thinking at scale?  

In a session on the attributes of high performing women, futurist Alexandra Levit, shared what happened when she went head-to-head answering questions with “Lex,” a chatbot created from her own content. While Lex got the ideas right, she could not respond to the audience with emotion or anecdotes. Lex couldn’t move ideas forward with the audience vs simply replicating them.

In her keynote on Unlocking the Future, Charlene Li, Quantum Networks Group, shared the stage with her human avatar created with SimulusAI. While the avatar could respond with controlled content, she couldn’t “read the room”. Charlene’s advice? Use AI to help you make really good decisions over and over, but be present when it counts.

As we think about skills and scale in this increasingly dynamic workforce, what should the AI do vs what are the moments where connection, emotion, and storytelling make a difference. 

AI companies are data companies

In his session on HR Technology 2025, Josh Bersin had shifted from an emphasis on skills-based hiring to a vision of the future of agents and how they will fundamentally change the way we interact with HR technology. The promise of avatars and bots has been around for years, but we’ve finally reached the point where these are the bots you’ve been looking for.

Instead of logging in and out of applications to accomplish work, purpose-built agents layered on top of workflows and intelligent automations will transform the work of HR professionals. What underlies the success of the AI and copilots? As Bersin put it, “AI companies are data companies.” 

While the promise of AI drew people to the Findem booth, it was our 3D data that stood out from other talent acquisition platforms. The Findem Copilot for Sourcing makes multichannel sourcing better, recruiting workflows faster, and enables stronger data-based decisions. We go beyond resume data with a unique combination of people and company data over time that provides a more holistic view of every candidate and their impact. 

While Findem shows up as an AI company, at our core we are a talent data cloud, making data a talent advantage for our customers and partners.

The HR ecosystem on dynamic display

From the pitchfest to the tech talks to the demo sessions and all the exhibits in between, the exhibit hall was buzzing with AI and innovation. The big players in the HR stack showed up in full force with sessions and speakers dedicated to AI. But there were many new entrants and innovators staking a disruptive claim to the HR future.

At the Paychex booth, Gene Marks, the Paychex THRIVE podcast host, met with industry leaders and newsmakers to discuss the innovations that matter to their customers. Findem’s John Phillips joined him for a conversation about the challenges of hiring today and how the new Paychex Recruiting Copilot in partnership with Findem can help. 

Across the floor at the startup pitchfest, Master Burnett and David Nason earned top honors for HireBrain with their science-based AI solution to improve hiring manager-recruiter collaboration, using Findem to source matching candidates and HireBrain AI to define job descriptions. 

Lessons from leaders on navigating change

Before the exhibit hall opened and the conference kicked off, a group of powerhouse women brought their expertise to the pre-conference program: Women in HR Tech. Barb Ruess, CareerXroads, moderated a panel on how to succeed as a TA leader in these challenging times with Jennifer Tracy (Spectrum), Joanna Clark (Wells Fargo), and Yvette Stortz (CVS Health). Their advice?

• Strive for balance: AI and automation will require a balance between automation and personalization. Between transparency and oversight.
• Know before you go: Dig in early to what the technology does, how data is used, and what the risks are to make the buying process and implementation go faster.
• “Close the windows before you turn on the AC": Overlaying new technology over old processes without optimization wastes resources with limited success. 
• This is a partner dance: Procurement, implementation, and change management involve cross-department cooperation and meaningful engagement. Metrics, communications, and a shared vision are essential. 

Where do we go from here? 

The future looks bright, it looks inclusive, it will be dynamic, if we choose to make it so. Jeanne Achille, the Devon Group, kicked off the conference with 3 top technologists speaking to what happens next. The takeaways? 

Chris Havrilla, Oracle, began her career journey as a technologist, studying AI. She noted that we finally have the data, the processing power, and the capacity to realize the promise of AI. However, AI is just a tool. People bring wisdom to the way we work, and the ability to see what can change. AI will make it easy and organic to become better, faster, and different from what we see today. 

An electrical engineer turned HR tech leader, Opal Wagnac, iSolved, emphasized how AI will become a utility like the Internet in the way we work and live.We will have to be nimble and agile in our expectations and development. It is up to us to build environments where everyone is welcome. 

As we assume the inevitability of AI, Meg Bear, founder of SAP SuccessFactors, encouraged everyone in the room to consider what AI means for us. “How are we going to make the future of work one we want to be part of?” Where are the essential human connection points in the processes we create?”

The human advantage in an AI, data-driven world

HR belongs in the conversation about what happens next with AI in business. In her presentation on the voice of the customer, Stacey Harris of Sapient Insights, warned that  the signs are there. IT wants to pull HR technology and budgets back into their control, leaving HR to enforce the rules. But human resources leaders are the people who are best positioned to define where the human touch belongs in the corporate experience. 

At Findem, we’re working with customers and partners leading this transformation. Together, we’re building the platform for data-driven decision making about people by people at scale.