AI doesn't need to be conscious to transform business. It doesn't even need to become sentient though many dystopian TV shows and movies make it that way and from quotes of major business leaders, they seem to think AI will be sentient too but they’re missing a piece of the puzzle.

AI simply needs to become more human. Not human in biology but human in judgment, in context and in understanding.

Every day AI becomes better at processing information.

But organizations don't succeed because they just process information. They succeed because people make good decisions.

And good decisions require understanding people.

That's where Talent Acquisition comes in.

AI is extraordinary at recognizing patterns. It can analyze millions of resumes, write job descriptions, schedule interviews and help score or recommend candidates.

But AI still doesn't know something experienced recruiters learn every day.

Why two candidates with identical backgrounds produce completely different careers? Why one leader inspires trust while another creates turnover. Why a technically brilliant engineer fails under one manager but thrives under another. Why one person learns rapidly while another resists change.

That knowledge doesn't exist in structured data. It exists in human experience that Recruiters have. Managers & HR need to be involved as this requires collaboration. I would also note that Contingent Workforce needs to be involved. Defining skills for the future requires a collaborative effort.

For years we've talked about Prompt Engineering. Learning how to ask AI better questions.

I believe the next competitive advantage will be something different.

“Talent Context Engineering™.

Talent Context Engineering is the practice of teaching AI what experienced recruiters already know.

Not simply what people have done. But why they succeeded; how they’ve lead and how organizations work; how skills evolve and how potential reveals itself.

Recruiters have been collecting this knowledge for decades. Mostly inside their heads.

The AI era gives us an opportunity to teach it. Yes, I’m being idealistic. TA and even HR don’t always have a seat at the table. That’s reality.

In teaching it, well, it may be a Faustian bargain at some point, but in teaching how AI how to understand people, they teach it be more human. Some may want to do this, others may not. The next evolution of recruiting may not be just finding talent— it' may be teaching AI how people work. TA Leaders with strong TA Ops experience can really drive innovation here.

One issue I find is that AI Recruiting companies go to low-cost regions of the world to learn how Recruiters operate. Now, I’m not knocking those Recruiters but many of them have not worked for big name brands so the strategy is to teach AI using low-cost resources with experience in staff augmentation and then score/recommend candidates from their initial assessment. This model is flawed. How are they going to understand the nuances of Technical Leaders at Amazon or Marketing Execs at AMEX? AI Assessment firms may get there sooner than we think but the interview questions are so AI generated and cold, they lose meaning so learning how to ‘game’ the responses will move candidates further, but not necessarily the most qualified. I’ve seen AI Interviews at Micron. I commend how bold they are in using AI but they’re missing human judgement and they may argue their model the best and the AI Assessment is better than anything on the market, but I disagree. The AI doesn’t prompt smarter or insightful questions, it prompts canned questions which sound smart.

They then sell their products as the AI Savior for TA. Now, some are better solutions than others. For example, I respect the sourcing capabilities of Noon AI. At Solve AI, which is an AI Consultancy, they augment their sourcers with Noon AI and these Sourcers become advanced in their production especially with resume review and screening hundreds of candidates within the day. It still requires review but the speed is definitely an advantage.  

I’ve assessed multiple AI Recruiting firms for different firms and clients like Sprinklr, Trellix, Population Health Partners and I’ve spoken to multiple firms on how they use AI in their TA Strategy. Not one leader is saying any one product is a game changer yet, none of them but do they acknowledge improvements in sourcing and lower cost per hire which are positives overall.  

In Project Hail Mary, humanity survives because Ryland Grace and an alien named Rocky combine strengths neither possesses alone.

That's exactly how AI should be viewed. AI promesses information. Humans provide judgment.

Neither replaces the other.

The future belongs to organizations that redesign work around both.

For decades, Talent Acquisition has been measured by time-to-fill; Cost-per-hire; Offer acceptance and these metrics won't disappear.

But they may no longer define the profession.

The future recruiter won't simply fill jobs. They'll teach organizations how work should be redesigned.

They'll help leaders decide what belongs to people. What belongs to AI.

This creates tangible business value together than either could do alone.

We can’t give machines emotions but we can make AI more human because TA can teach machines what only humans have spent centuries learning:

How people grow, how we trust and how we collaborate and importantly, how we humans lead and succeed. AI can’t learn grit alone.
And perhaps that's the greatest opportunity Talent Acquisition has ever had.

How Talent Acquisition can transfer organizational wisdom into AI. This will be achieved through Talent Content Engineering which I’ll share more about in future articles and a podcast.