Resident workshop report

People follow best practice. But we’re at a crossroads, and for anyone brave enough there’s an opportunity to set it instead.

We opened with three TedTalk-style provocations – Undeniable Value from Chris Pidgeon (IHG Hotels), Future Op Model from Ben Rutter (Bond Global), and Talent Clouds from Cheryl White (Tide), then opened the room up and mapped the future across three horizons. For each one we asked two questions: what will be true, and what will we do about it?

1–2 years: smarter, faster, leaner – if we can outrun our candidates
AI is becoming embedded in everyday TA work, particularly high-volume and top-of-funnel activity. But adoption is patchier than expected, especially in larger organisations wrestling with governance. Meanwhile candidates are moving faster than vendors and TA teams can react to. Watch for the rise of the “Talent Engineer”.

2–5 years: smaller teams, bigger levers
TA functions shrink but output grows. Coordinators phase out, engineers and sourcers come in. As automation scales the hiring, the human inputs are what keep it quality – so scorecards, governance and digital exclusion audits become the work that matters.

5+ years: TA as we know it disappears
Not as a loss, but as a promotion. Talent becomes a full lifecycle discipline rather than a standalone function, and TA morphs into a strategic orchestration layer. Bots talking to bots in some segments. Elite candidates choosing their own adventure. TA acting as guardian of trust, fairness and inclusion.

There’s no single fixed future here. But there’s enormous change, and we’re the ones behind the wheel.

The report covers:

• What will be true – the shifts the room expects at each horizon, from AI use policies to bot-to-bot hiring
• What we’ll do about it – the practical moves, from upskilling programmes and prompt engineering to AI ethics panels and digital exclusion audits
• The big picture – where the function lands, and what it means for the people in it