Recruiting Future with Matt Alder - What's Next For Talent Acquisition, HR & Hiring?

Job boards have been connecting candidates with employers for over thirty years, but the relationship that made them work is fundamentally breaking down. Candidates are getting frustrated by applying for roles that may already be filled or have been taken off the market, while employers are receiving hundreds of identical, AI-generated applications they can't meaningfully evaluate. The Job Boards sitting between them are trapped in business models that reward volume over quality, which only makes the problem worse.

The result is a trust crisis that threatens the entire ecosystem. When neither side believes the process is fair, the whole system starts to unravel. So what would it actually take for job boards to rebuild that trust and stay relevant?

My guest this week is Lou Goodman, a job board strategy expert who recently partnered with Jobiqo to produce a major new report on the future of job boards. In our conversation, she explains why the industry is stuck repeating the same patterns, what job boards can learn from other platform businesses, and whether evolution or extinction is the more likely outcome.

In the interview, we discuss:

Why job boards still matter in today's market

The trust crisis threatening the ecosystem.

How AI is amplifying weaknesses rather than fixing them

Procedural justice and why fairness matters more than outcomes

The shift from quantity to quality

Where job boards can add value in the process

Why short-term fixes become long-term patterns

Lessons from other two-sided platform businesses

What is the future for job boards?

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Round Up December 2025

If you’ve not listened to Roundup before, it’s a short review of the episodes that I’ve published in the last month to make sure you don’t miss out on the valuable insights that my guests are sharing.

This month Round Up returns to its live format, and this is a recording of my live conversation with Mervyn Dinnen about six of the episodes published in January 2026

Episodes featured in this Round Up:

EP 758: Extracting Real Value From AI In TA

Ep 759: Career Sites and the Growing AI Gap

Ep 760 Co-Creating The Future Of TA

Ep 761: What Happens When Recruiters Embrace AI?

Ep 762: Moving From AI Hype To AI Value

Ep 764: Rewiring Organizations For AI

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There's a significant disconnect playing out in organizations right now. Leaders understand AI is probably the most transformative technology of their lifetimes. They're making bold announcements and setting ambitious targets. Yet they're not providing the structures, ownership, or vision needed to drive real change. The result? Small pilots, incremental efficiency gains, and nowhere near the transformation everyone keeps talking about.

The issue isn't the technology. Organizations simply aren't wired for transformative change, particularly when it cuts across departments and functions. Nobody owns it, and there's no clear model for what the future should look like. The implications for talent, skills, and how we think about work are enormous.

What does it actually take to rewire an organization for the AI era?

My guest this week is Stephen Wunker, co-author of "AI and the Octopus Organization". In our conversation, he shares what's really happening, what's holding companies back, and what this means for talent professionals.

In the interview, we discuss:

The gap between what CEOs are saying and what is actually happening

What is holding AI transformation back

Distributed innovation

What is an “Octopus Organization”?

The role of human judgement and the need for more critical thinking

Examples of companies that are succeeding

Talent and culture

What will happen to the adoption rate? Where will we be in two years' time?

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A full transcript will appear here shortly.

Bias in hiring has been a topic of discussion for decades, yet our understanding of what actually happens within recruiting processes remains surprisingly limited. Most research focuses on single types of bias in isolation, making it impossible to build a complete picture. Meanwhile, the arrival of AI tools is intensifying the scrutiny of hiring decisions, demanding a level of accountability that many organizations simply aren't prepared for.

TA leaders often assume they know where bias exists in their processes. But what if those assumptions are wrong? What if the patterns are more complex and counterintuitive than anyone expected?

My guest this week is Bas van de Haterd, Co-founder of the TA Audit Institute. In our conversation, he shares findings from new research that challenges conventional thinking about where bias actually occurs and reveals how much we still don't know.

In the interview, we discuss:

Research methodology and sample size

How this research compares to previous academic research

What was measured and what was not measured

What do the results tell us about bias in the hiring process?

Is bias universal, institutional, or personal?

Are employers doing better at removing bias than they think?

Using data to drive targeted change

Lessons learned and advice to TA Leaders.

What’s the future direction of the research?

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The constant noise around AI has created a strange situation in talent acquisition. On one side, relentless hype has made many TA leaders deeply skeptical, reluctant to invest in technology that feels oversold. On the other side, some employers have pushed through the fog and are getting genuine, measurable results from AI agents in their hiring processes. The gap between these two groups is widening fast.

So how do you separate what actually works from what's just marketing? What does effective AI agent implementation really look like in practice, and what value is it driving for the employers embracing it

My guest this week is Max Legardez Coquin, Founder and CEO at Maki. I saw Maki’s technology in action at UNLEASH last year and was genuinely impressed by what they're delivering for a variety of enterprise employers. In our conversation, Max explains how using AI to develop a scientific approach to hiring is driving tangible value in terms of quality, speed, efficiency, and a vastly improved candidate experience.

In the interview, we discuss:

Making recruiting a science

Capturing signals to make better hiring decisions

AI agents, the case studies that show they are working

What do candidates think about this level of automation?

Using compound intelligence to drive predictive hiring

Advice to TA Leaders on recruiting transformation

Will adoption rates increase this year?

What does the future look like?

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