July 15, 2025

7 Essential Strategies for Hiring, Developing, and Retaining AI Talent

AI talent is scarce, expensive, and increasingly critical to organizational competitiveness. As demand outpaces supply, University Recruiting teams face growing pressure to identify, attract, and retain top researchers, engineers, and applied scientists.

This guide outlines seven strategies drawn from employer case studies, academic partnerships, and candidate insights to help recruiting teams compete more effectively in today’s high-stakes AI hiring landscape.

The State of the AI Talent Market

PhD-level AI and machine-learning talent remains one of the most constrained segments in technical hiring. Although the number of newly awarded AI PhDs in the U.S. and Canada has roughly doubled since 2020, the pool of new talent still amounts to only a few hundred per year compared to thousands of open roles.

The demand for new AI hires is increasing further. According to Veris Insights Research, AI job postings on LinkedIn have jumped 50%, fueled by C-suite initiatives to acquire “skills of the future” and develop internal AI capabilities. CEOs such as Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin now personally reach out to top candidates, and Wall Street banks routinely offer data scientists and ML engineers six-figure salaries. Despite generous offers, compensation alone doesn’t always secure the best talent.

Broader education trends further illustrate the supply-demand mismatch: Bachelor’s degrees in AI programs have surged over 500% since 2019, and Master’s degrees are up over 880%, yet Doctoral-level AI degree conferrals have declined 26%. These trends make it clear that true research specialists remain exceptionally scarce, and competition for them grows increasingly intense.

Many AI candidates fall into distinct personas. Some prioritize autonomy, others seek real-world impact, and many value collaborative, cross-functional teams and environments. Roles should be tailored to these preferences, not just in messaging but in actual structure and day-to-day work.

Furthermore, timing matters as much as personalization. The ideal window to recruit PhDs opens right after their academic hiring cycle, and visibility at flagship conferences like NeurIPS or ICLR can tip the balance in your favor.

Understanding the Core Profiles for AI Talent

Our interviews with postdoctoral scholars and late-stage PhD students revealed five distinct personas. Each brings unique priorities and decision drivers. Designing your roles and outreach around these can boost engagement and conversion.

Self-Directed Researcher

These candidates are motivated by intellectual freedom and want to chart their own course. They seek roles that allow them to define the problems they pursue, select their tools and methods, and work without constant oversight, much like in academia.

To appeal to this persona, employers should emphasize:

Flexibility in project selection: Freedom to identify and pursue novel problems relevant to your business.
Autonomy in problem-solving: Control over how to approach challenges, including choosing frameworks or building new algorithms rather than tweaking existing ones.
No micromanagement: Minimal supervision of day-to-day tasks, as long as high-level goals are met.

Hiring AI Talent: Trading Pay for Autonomy

Skill Gardener

These are growth-minded researchers who seek out new skills and domains that stretch their capabilities. They look for roles that expand their technical toolkit, expose them to diverse applications, and invest in both formal and informal learning.

To engage this candidate type, highlight:

Access to diverse tools and frameworks: Hands-on experience with cutting-edge platforms alongside industry staples.
Broader scope of work: Cross-disciplinary projects (e.g., ethics, sustainability, robotics) that stretch beyond narrow AI tasks.
Formal and informal learning opportunities: Structured workshops, bootcamps, and peer-to-peer “dev teach-ins.”

Hiring AI Talent: Growth Potential as a Tiebreaker

Real-World Changemaker

Driven by impact, these researchers want their work to solve meaningful, concrete problems that contribute to the greater good. They’re often willing to trade top-of-market pay for roles that have clear, measurable outcomes in areas like healthcare, education, or renewable energy.

To engage this persona, emphasize:

Opportunities to solve real-world problems: Roles focused on tangible solutions rather than abstract challenges.
Alignment with personal passion and values: Projects that advance missions candidates care deeply about.
Ability to make a positive impact: Chances to see research translated into products or policies that benefit society.

Hiring AI Talent: Impact-First Job Search

Balance Seeker

These candidates value a supportive culture, a sustainable pace, and genuine work-life balance. They often rule out roles with high burnout risk and are quick to dismiss employers known for long hours or pressure-driven environments, regardless of compensation. Benefits like generous leave policies and flexible work arrangements

To appeal to this persona, highlight:

Cultural norms respecting work-life balance: Policies discouraging after-hours emails and meetings.
Generous paid time off & leave: Sabbaticals, parental leave, mental-health days, and similar benefits
Flexible work hours and modalities: Ability to set daily schedules and blend remote/in-office days

Hiring AI Talent: Long Hours Deter Top Talent

Synergy Scout

These team-oriented researchers thrive in collaborative, impact-driven environments reminiscent of academic labs. They look for teams where knowledge-sharing is the norm, mutual learning is expected, and shared success is valued as highly as individual contribution. They’re energized by co-authoring papers, building together, and contributing to research communities, not just completing assigned tasks.

To attract this persona, highlight:

Expertise on the team: Working alongside colleagues with deep knowledge across AI subfields.
Opportunities for mutual learning: Regular journal clubs, workshops, or peer-led “teach-ins.”
Synergetic teamwork & shared goals: Cross-functional projects that culminate in co-authored papers or new product launches.
Easygoing, cooperative teammates: A lab-style culture where everyone pitches in and supports one another.

Hiring AI Talent: The Ideal AI/ML Team

Strategies to Attract and Retain Top AI Talent

Building a best-in-class AI recruiting program means going beyond generic job ads that rely on brand power or top-market pay. It calls for deliberate, research-aligned strategies that reach candidates early, build trust over time, and reflect how technical researchers evaluate opportunities.

The following tactics help you meet PhD researchers where they already are, engage them more effectively, and convert top candidates into team members.

Recruiting Talent at Academic Conferences

Academic conferences are a cornerstone of the AI research ecosystem. They’re where PhD candidates present new work, connect with peers, and explore future career paths. For employers, these settings offer a unique opportunity to engage top talent in a way that feels authentic, technical, and relationship-driven.

What sets conferences apart is their ability to build trust early. Candidates observe your researchers presenting, attend your sessions, and engage in low-pressure conversations that reveal what it’s like to work on your team.

To maximize impact:

Have incumbent AI researchers present their latest papers: Visibility on technical stages signals credibility and sparks organic interaction.
Pair recruiters with technical team members: Peer-led outreach increases response rates and allows for deeper conversations.
Sponsor targeted events: Workshops and roundtables align your brand with meaningful work and a sense of collaboration.

For stronger follow-up:

Identify presenters in advance and send personalized outreach.
Capture interest on-site through QR codes or sign-up forms to build your talent community.

Academic conferences create a shared context that can be the difference between an ignored email and a candidate who’s ready to engage.

Reaching PhDs on Campus Through Seminars and Networking

On-campus events offer a powerful way to engage PhD candidates before they formally enter the job market. These touchpoints allow you to showcase your research culture in an academic setting, helping to build familiarity and credibility early.

What makes this approach effective is its ability to lower the stakes. When candidates can meet researchers informally and observe how your team thinks, they’re more likely to picture themselves succeeding in your work environment.

To execute this strategy well:

Host research seminars: Invite your PhD-level scientists, ideally alumni or former postdocs at the host institution, to present recent work and field questions about how they apply academic training in industry, and what it’s like to collaborate in a cross-functional environment. This line of questioning helps candidates understand both the nature of the work and the culture behind it.
Organize approachable networking events: Keep these events optional and clearly structured to lower barriers. Offer multiple participation paths, such as informal Q&A or small-group breakouts, and avoid requiring resumes or advance registration. The goal is to make early engagement feel accessible, not evaluative.
Follow up with intent: After the event, send tailored follow-ups, like session recordings, opportunities to apply for internships, or check-ins, to continue the relationships and lay the groundwork for future engagement.

With these practices, the goal isn’t to drive immediate applications; it’s to give candidates a reason to remember you when they make their final decision.

Invite AI PhD Talent to Journal Clubs

Journal clubs function as low-cost, low-pressure “talent testers” for AI PhD candidates while signaling that you value deep academic training. By inviting researchers to engage in discussion, not just evaluation, you create space for mutual learning, early relationship-building, and subtle talent assessment.

To run journal clubs effectively:

Invite local PhD students or postdocs: Focus on individuals who’ve published work relevant to your team’s domain, methodology, or mission. Frame the event as community-building, not recruiting, to build goodwill and trust.
Have your researchers host the session: Rather than leading it top-down, let the guest researcher walk through their work, then facilitate discussion with your internal team. This creates space for both sides to engage as equals.
Close with casual connection: Follow the session with a team-sponsored dinner or coffee meetup. These informal moments often reveal more about fit—on both sides—than any formal interview.

This will help you build credibility by showing, not just saying, what your organization values. They create opportunities to engage with candidates in ways that reflect your research culture, making it easier to connect with those who share similar priorities.

Source AI PhD Researchers Beyond Computer Science

Many of the most innovative applications of AI are emerging outside of computer science (CS) departments. As AI becomes more embedded in domains like healthcare, climate science, and neuroscience, the researchers driving meaningful breakthroughs are often trained in adjacent fields, bringing with them deep subject-matter expertise and highly transferable technical skills.

Broadening your sourcing strategy beyond CS programs helps find researchers who’ve already applied AI to real-world problems—and can thrive in industry settings where context matters as much as code.

Key fields to explore include:

Bioinformatics & Computational Biology: Machine learning applied to genomics and protein folding.
Neuroscience & Cognitive Science: Expertise in neural data modeling, behavioral prediction, and decision-making simulations.
Climate Science & Robotics: Focus on environmental modeling and autonomous systems.
Statistics, Mathematics & Electrical Engineering: Strong foundations in algorithm design, signal processing, and data theory.
Medical Informatics & Data Science: Research experience in EHR analytics, diagnostic models, and predictive health tools.

Researchers from these domains often bring a hybrid mindset: fluent in both technical implementation and problem framing. That combination can be especially powerful for organizations looking to deploy AI in highly specialized or regulated environments.

Build Relationships Between Researchers

PhD candidates want to know their expertise will be respected, their growth supported, and their colleagues equipped to engage at a high technical level. That’s why peer-to-peer interactions, with researchers who’ve made the same transition, are so effective.

These conversations help candidates visualize daily life on your team. They build trust, surface real insights, and reduce uncertainty in ways formal interviews can’t. When candidates hear directly from someone who shares their academic background, the connection feels more credible and more convincing.

To make these connections meaningful:

Involve PhD-level scientists in interviews: Ensure they share similar or complementary research backgrounds.
Host informal dinners: Small-group meals with incumbent researchers let candidates assess cultural and technical fit.
Offer post-offer connections: Give new hires the chance to chat with future teammates before their start date.

In an environment where every offer counts, peer relationships offer an edge. They show that your company doesn’t just hire researchers—you understand them.

Use Fellowships to Build Prestige and Pipelines

Competitive, research-oriented fellowships signal that your company is more than a hiring destination. They show that you support original thinking, trust early-stage researchers, and create space for meaningful, independent work.

Fellowships also build early access. By funding and mentoring promising talent before they enter the full-time job market, you gain insight into their research, develop personal rapport, and shape their view of your organization well before a formal offer is on the table.

To build an effective program:

Offer high-reward fellowships: Support all-but-dissertation (ABD) PhDs with funding, mentorship, and freedom to pursue novel research.
Promote the prestige: Highlight fellowship winners on your website and at academic events to build recognition.
Convert fellows into full-time employees: Many fellows already have context, relationships, and aligned priorities, allowing them to transition seamlessly into research scientist roles after graduation.

Fellowships help position your organization as a place where serious researchers can thrive. At the same time, they strengthen your long-term pipeline with candidates who already know and trust your team.

Create Partnerships with University Labs

Long-term collaborations with university research labs help organizations maintain a respected, consistent presence in the academic ecosystem. These partnerships offer more than access to talent. They reinforce your credibility, support co-innovation, and build familiarity with emerging AI researchers over time.

What sets lab partnerships apart is their continuity. Rather than relying on one-time recruiting touchpoints, you build ongoing relationships through shared research agendas, co-authored work, and repeat engagement with both faculty and students.

To structure these partnerships effectively:

Sponsor research or fellowships tied to lab priorities: Identify programs where your research goals align and offer targeted funding, mentorship, or project support.
Enable co-publication and shared IP ownership: Joint research strengthens your reputation as a peer, not just an employer, and brings visibility to your team’s technical contributions..
Keep your researchers engaged: Encourage your PhD-level employees to remain involved with academic networks through talks, collaborative projects, and mentorship.

Strong lab partnerships generate a virtuous cycle. As your researchers stay connected to academic peers, your organization earns referrals, early access to talent, and long-term credibility within top research communities.

Case Studies: Building AI Talent Pipelines in Practice

Leading tech employers are increasingly investing in long-term academic partnerships to engage PhD candidates well before the traditional recruiting cycle begins. The two examples below illustrate how companies can create structured, mutually beneficial programs that both support research and build lasting talent pipelines.

Amazon & Columbia University

Amazon teamed up with Columbia’s School of Engineering to launch the Columbia Center for Artificial Intelligence Technology (CAIT). The program blends academic research with hands-on industry immersion to engage PhD candidates early and build long-term alignment between research interests and business needs.

Through CAIT:

Amazon and Columbia research scientists co-host workshops, seminars, and dedicated recruiting events.
PhD students receive funding for independent projects, developing new AI algorithms tailored to Amazon’s needs
Participants simultaneously join as paid interns, gaining practical experience while building familiarity with Amazon’s tools, culture, and technical priorities.

This dual structure delivers immediate business impact through applied research while creating a rich pipeline of candidates already familiar with Amazon’s tools, culture, and research priorities.

Meta’s Visiting Researcher Program

Meta partners with four top U.S. PhD programs—Washington, CMU, Berkeley, and NYU’s CIMS/CDS—to offer a Visiting Researcher AI Mentorship Program. Participants work part-time during the academic year and full-time over the summer at a nearby Meta office, engaging in industry-specific projects and networking with Meta researchers.

By targeting students before they enter the full-time job market, Meta gains a first-mover advantage, builds brand affinity, and shapes its future talent pool with candidates already versed in Meta’s research challenges.

Positioning Your Company as an AI Talent Magnet

Becoming a destination for top AI PhD talent means demonstrating that your organization understands how researchers work, what they value, and how they grow. That’s where personalized outreach, thoughtful role design, and peer-to-peer engagement make the difference.

By aligning your strategy to the five core personas—Self-Directed Researchers, Skill Gardeners, Real-World Changemakers, Balance Seekers, and Synergy Scouts—you can build a talent experience that resonates well beyond the offer stage.

For additional impact, involve your current PhD-level researchers in every step, from initial outreach to informal dinners. Their presence reinforces your organization’s credibility, signals respect for academic training, and gives candidates a clear picture of what it looks like to grow and succeed on your team.

In a market where compensation alone rarely wins, it’s personalization and authentic connection that set employers apart. These strategies not only improve conversion, they position your organization as a center of innovation and a long-term home for research-minded talent.

Ultimately, building credibility, alignment, and trust at every stage of the candidate journey is what separates good recruiting from lasting impact.

June 06, 2025

How Visa Restrictions Impact International Early-Talent Pipelines

Dr. Andrew Monroe

U.S. universities and their international students form a critical pipeline of Early Career talent for American companies, especially in STEM fields. Changes in immigration policy directly affect this pipeline. Under the Trump administration’s second-term policies, universities are caught in the midst of tighter visa rules and geopolitical tensions, and this is likely to impact the availability of young international talent for U.S. employers.

Recent Enrollment Trends

After a pandemic slump, international student enrollment in the U.S. has rebounded to record levels. In the 2023–2024 academic year, American colleges hosted about 1.1 million international students, a record high and a 7% increase from the prior year. However, the new policy positions from the Trump administration may slow this growth. University administrators are concerned that stricter visa vetting, reduced work opportunities post-graduation, and perceptions of an unwelcoming atmosphere could discourage prospective students.

Student Visa and OPT Restrictions

There is a clear shift toward tightening student visa rules and training programs. The Optional Practical Training (OPT) program–which allows international graduates to work in the U.S. for 1–3 years–is under scrutiny. Some early signals from the administration suggest possible reductions in OPT duration or stricter eligibility, which would particularly hit STEM graduates using the 24-month extension (though no policy shift has been announced as of publication). University leaders and industry groups are pushing back, arguing this would remove a key Early Career talent pipeline for U.S. companies. Nonetheless, uncertainty around OPT, coupled with more rigorous vetting to F-1 student visa applicants, may already be influencing enrollment decisions by international students.

Impact on Universities

U.S. universities, particularly graduate programs in STEM, are heavily comprised of international students. In many engineering and computer science departments, international students comprise the majority of graduate enrollments. University leaders are warning that immigration crackdowns jeopardize America’s research enterprise. Moreover, since domestic enrollment in certain STEM fields isn’t enough to meet demand, a drop in foreign students would create talent voids – affecting everything from who staffs AI research labs to who designs new chips in the future. Forbes reported that almost 70% of graduate students in these fields are international.

>> Learn more about Winning the AI Talent War

Early Career Hiring Challenges

From the employer side, the shrinking or uncertainty of the international student pipeline raises alarms about Early Career talent availability. These hires come with the advantage of U.S. education and often some work experience via internships/OPT. If international enrollment falls or if fewer grads can stay after graduation, companies will face a tighter talent pool.

This is especially true in sectors like tech and high-tech manufacturing, where the domestic output of PhDs and engineers cannot keep up with industry needs.
Companies may respond by increasing offshore hiring, with some employers opening R&D centers overseas

Some impacts and changes to watch:

Optional Practical Training (OPT) Uncertainty

OPT has become a vital bridge to employment for international graduates – in 2023, a record 242,000 students were participating in OPT internships or jobs after graduation. If OPT were scaled back from the current 3 years for STEM graduates to1 year, or eliminated entirely for certain degree levels, the impact on Early Career hiring would be severe.

U.S. companies, especially in tech and research, rely on OPT as a pipeline to H-1B: it allows them to employ foreign students immediately and then sponsor them for H-1Bs in the lottery. A reduction in OPT would force companies to either sponsor even more H-1Bs (against the capped odds) or lose these graduates to opportunities abroad.
Already, the possibility of OPT cuts is making some international students reconsider U.S. programs versus, for example, Canadian universities (Canada offers easier post-study work visas and transition to residency). University stakeholders are lobbying hard to preserve OPT, citing it as essential for attracting global talent to U.S. campuses.

Visas and Red Tape for Students

There are reports of longer wait times and tougher questioning in student visa (F-1) interviews at U.S. consulates since early 2025. Some STEM students from certain countries (notably China and other nations flagged in security reviews) have faced visa delays or additional checks.

Chinese student enrollment, which had already dipped, could fall further if more restrictive policies take hold. The U.S. has tightened scrutiny of Chinese applicants in sensitive fields like semiconductors and AI.
Similarly, the administration’s hardline stance on students from Middle East regions (e.g., revoking visas of some individuals accused of extremism) can have a chilling effect on students from those countries.
If visa approvals for students become more restrictive or if uncertainty grows, universities may see a downturn in international applications in 2025–2026, reversing the recent recovery.

In sum, Trump’s student and visa policies risk shrinking the supply of Early Career talent.

The current state of recruiting international talent—especially Early Career talent—is one of high demand but growing friction. U.S. businesses – from Tech giants to Wall Street banks to semiconductor manufacturers – need global talent more than ever to fill specialized roles. But, the Trump administration’s second-term policies are imposing new hurdles on these flows. Visa availability is tightening, though statutory quotas remain the same for now. Meanwhile, the willingness of talent to relocate to the U.S. is increasingly shaky as global talent watches U.S. rhetoric and policy. The coming months will reveal whether the U.S. can strike a balance between security, fairness, and openness. The early signs in 2025 point to a more restrictive environment. If that persists, we may see a tangible impact: slower influx of global talent or potential skill shortages in high-tech fields or advanced degrees.

June 06, 2025

AI Agents Have Arrived. Is Your TA Strategy Ready?

Sophie Jablansky, PhD

How Digital Workers Are Forcing TA Leaders to Rethink Workforce Planning, Talent Operating Models, and Recruiting Processes

If your CEO hasn’t already asked about AI agents, they will–if not this week, then this month. What felt hypothetical in early 2025 has quickly become a reality. Perhaps they’ll frame it as a cost-cutting mandate: “We need to reduce operating expenses by 30%—what roles can we automate?” Or maybe they’ll be more direct: “I keep hearing about these AI agents. We need a strategy for integrating them into our workforce.”

Early this year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman predicted that 2025 would be the year AI agents “join the workforce” and materially change company outputs. The numbers tell a compelling story: the AI agents market is projected to grow from $5.1B in 2024 to $47.1B by 2030. Unlike traditional productivity tools, these are autonomous digital workers that can handle entire workflows independently. They’re already transforming industries—conducting patient outreach in healthcare, qualifying sales leads in marketing, and managing complex regulatory compliance in banking. And they’re doing it all with minimal human oversight.

For TA leaders, the stakes are clear: wait until your CEO comes calling, and you risk becoming a tactical executor of someone else’s strategy. Prepare now, and you have an opportunity to shape your organization’s approach and position yourself as a strategic advisor in what could be the biggest workforce shift in decades.

So what exactly are AI agents, and what do TA leaders need to understand to lead their organization through this shift?

What are AI Agents?

Unlike the general-purpose AI chatbots most of us are familiar with—ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, LLaMa—AI agents are digital workers designed for specific jobs. They are systems or programs capable of autonomously planning and executing tasks on behalf of users. And this descriptor—autonomously—is key.

While tools like ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot are becoming increasingly capable, they still primarily function as assistants, requiring user prompts and interactions, rather than fully autonomous digital workers. AI agents, by contrast, can operate independently of user input and interact with the outside world. They may call patients flagged as high-risk for cancer to schedule a doctor’s appointment, set up LinkedIn campaigns to target a company’s ideal customer persona, or plan and book a vacation for a family of five—all without constant user intervention.

Key Differences Between Chatbots, Copilots, and AI Agents

How AI Agents Are Gaining Ground Across Industries

If you’ve ever had frustrating experiences with automated phone systems or chatbots, you might be skeptical of AI agents. But today’s AI agents represent a fundamental shift in capability, and they’re already transforming work across a wide range of industries:

Healthcare: Hippocratic AI offers virtual nurses for hire who can help patients manage chronic diseases, prepare patients for upcoming appointments, and provide post-discharge instructions for complex conditions like congestive heart failure or kidney disease.
Finance: Norm Ai provides Regulatory AI Agents that automate compliance analyses, ensuring financial institutions adhere to tens of thousands of federal banking rules and regulations.
Sales: 11x developed AI Sales Development Reps Alice and Mike to track and qualify leads, do account-based marketing at scale, and automate inbound and outbound calls in 28 different languages.
Hospitality: HotelPlanner’s AI hotel booking assistant takes calls, books rooms according to customer specifications, and finds the best deals in countries around the world.
Logistics: HappyRobot’s AI voice agents act as freight brokers by autonomously managing communication tasks like load updates, capacity requests, check calls, and appointment scheduling.

Importantly, unlike previous AI advances that promised transformation but delivered only incremental improvements, these AI agents are already demonstrating measurable impact across industries—from digital nurses rated 36% higher on bedside manner than human counterparts, to digital freight brokers that reduce call times in half while reducing operational costs by one-third.

Why AI Agents are Rising in Popularity Now

These examples aren’t just isolated success stories—they represent a broader trend in how organizations are approaching their workforce needs. Specifically, AI agents are gaining traction for two key reasons:

Addressing Staffing Shortages: Several industries face workforce challenges currently or will within the next few years. Consider healthcare, where the U.S. is projected to face a shortfall of 120,000 physicians by 2027, or accounting, where the number of accounting graduates steadily declined from 2016 to 2022. AI agents can bridge these gaps by helping companies maintain operations while they work to fill open positions.
Streamlining Workflows: AI agents can also simply improve efficiency. By automating repetitive or deterministic processes, exhibiting judgment, and making decisions, they enable businesses to operate faster and at lower cost, while allowing human workers to focus on emerging priorities.

What AI Agents Mean for TA: 6 Key Areas of Impact

With AI agents already proving their value across industries as workforce shortages become increasingly acute, their adoption will fundamentally impact how organizations approach Talent Acquisition. There are 6 key areas TA leaders should start considering now:

1. Ownership of AI Agent Acquisition

A foundational question is whether AI agent acquisition belongs in TA. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang recently predicted that “IT will become the HR of AI agents,” responsible for deploying and supporting digital workers across the enterprise. That prediction is gaining traction—64% of IT leaders expect HR and IT to merge within five years. If this convergence plays out, then AI agent acquisition won’t be a side task—it’ll be core to how companies build their workforce. TA leaders who step up now can shape this evolution, forging partnerships with AI agent providers and positioning themselves as stewards of a new kind of talent ecosystem.

2. Workforce Planning

With some business units now able to augment or outsource workstreams to AI agents, workforce planning—a process few TA leaders view as “optimized” to begin with—may become even more complex. When a department needs five additional employees, will that mean five humans? Three humans plus AI agent augmentation? Two humans plus multiple AI agents? The traditional calculus of headcount planning may need a complete reimagining.

AI agents also introduce ripple effects for internal mobility and succession planning. While they excel at specific tasks or workflows, AI agents—unlike humans—cannot be retrained or redeployed to other roles should the need arise. Further, AI agents that backfill positions cannot grow into new positions, making traditional succession planning strategies less applicable. This shift will require TA leaders—in partnership with others in Workforce Planning—to rethink how they balance human talent with AI-driven support.

3. Global Talent Strategy

Organizations have spent decades building global talent networks, often capitalizing on labor arbitrage through offshoring. AI agents may disrupt this entirely. With AI agents able to handle tasks traditionally sent to low-cost locations outside the U.S.—call center operations being the quintessential example—without time zone constraints, extensive training, or onboarding, TA leaders will need to reassess their global talent strategies and workforce distribution. The geographic arbitrage that has shaped talent strategy for decades may become less relevant, and within TA, the way global talent networks are built.

4. TA Operating Model

The fluidity with which TA flexes up and down as hiring volume changes often dictates how effective the function can be. The option to leverage AI agents makes that flex much more tractable, but simultaneously introduces a paradox of choice. TA leaders will soon have to weigh the costs and benefits of AI agents against traditional options like RPOs, contingent workers, and FTEs.

For instance, AI recruiter Holly can autonomously source, screen, and engage candidates. While Holly is easily deployable and needs no onboarding, can it adapt to regional nuances and cultural contexts as well as an on-the-ground local recruiter? Alternatively, could a hybrid approach combining AI agents, copilots, and regional recruiters provide a more balanced solution?

The introduction of AI recruiting agents will inevitably create countless new variations in how global TA teams are structured, offering increased flexibility, albeit with no precedent to guide these decisions.

5. TA Metrics and KPIs

Metrics and KPIs are a top priority for TA leaders in 2025, but the potential integration of AI agents—both as recruiters and as hires—raises questions about how recruiter performance should be measured.

For example, how will recruiters be evaluated on quality of hire when the “hire” is an AI agent rather than a human? Conversely, how will AI recruiter agents themselves be assessed, and will their metrics count toward KPIs reported to leadership? Further, how will human recruiters be judged in contrast to these AI agents?

TA leaders will need to carefully assess which traditional metrics remain relevant in this context (e.g., time-to-fill, cost-per-hire), while developing new frameworks for measuring both human and AI contributions. Equally important, they must find ways of effectively communicating this impact to stakeholders to ensure their continued investment in TA.

6. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The rise of AI agents in the workforce could have significant implications for organizational diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Notably, AI-driven automation is expected to disproportionately affect roles predominantly held by underrepresented groups. For example, Black and Hispanic workers are overrepresented in the 30 occupations with the highest exposure to automation, and underrepresented in the 30 occupations with the lowest exposure. Similarly, women are more than twice as likely to be affected by automation as men, across both middle and high income countries.

This raises questions about how organizations maintain access to opportunities for traditionally underrepresented groups. For example, could companies implement policies requiring roles to be offered to human workers first—not unlike the common practice of posting jobs internally before posting externally?

From an equity perspective, the integration of AI agents also highlights issues around pay transparency. Will organizations disclose what AI agents “earn” for their work, particularly in comparison to human workers? If AI agents can deliver equivalent work at significantly lower costs, what does this mean for wage equity, and what are the implications for human workers’ perceived value and job security? Addressing these challenges proactively will be essential to ensuring that DEI initiatives evolve alongside advancements in AI integration.

3 Steps for TA Leaders to Take Today

These six areas of impact aren’t theoretical considerations—they represent real challenges that TA leaders are already facing as AI agents enter the workforce. Perhaps most critically, TA leaders need to consider how they prepare their functions, partners, and leaders for this transition. Hiring managers will need guidance on when to consider AI agents over human talent. Recruiters will need new skills to evaluate and “hire” AI agents effectively. And leadership will need frameworks for thinking about workforce composition in entirely new ways.

If Lattice’s foray into hiring AI agents—and the subsequent backlash against it—revealed anything, it was that organizations need to approach this shift with heightened sensitivity and thoughtful planning.

TA leaders looking to get ahead of this shift can take three immediate steps:

First, start mapping which roles in your organization could be augmented or replaced by AI agents. This isn’t about immediately implementing changes, but about understanding your exposure and opportunities.
Second, begin discussions with key stakeholders about AI agent ownership and governance. Whether AI agent acquisition ultimately sits with TA or elsewhere, your function needs a voice in how these decisions are made.
Finally, use the six areas outlined above to create your own AI agent readiness assessment. Understanding where your organization stands on each dimension will help you identify priorities and guide strategic planning.

The organizations that thrive in this transition won’t necessarily be the ones that adopt AI agents first, but rather those whose TA functions recognized early that AI agents represent more than just another technology trend—they’re a fundamental shift in how work gets done and how talent needs are met.

May 12, 2025

Visa Availability & Policy Changes Under Trump’s Second Term

Dr. Andrew Monroe

In the increasingly competitive battle for global talent, securing U.S. work visas has become tougher than ever, especially as the Trump administration signals tighter restrictions on international talent and students. This pincer between already strained supply-and-demand and continually shifting and increasingly restrictive policy has many recruiting teams feeling overwhelmed, uncertain, and struggling to navigate the rapidly changing landscape of visa policies. If you’re among the many talent professionals seeking clarity on recent policy shifts and practical strategies to adapt, this blog is your guide to understanding these new challenges.

Trump Administration Policy Shifts

President Trump’s second term has brought a return to the more restrictive immigration stance seen in his first term, with some new intensifications. Early 2025 has already seen a flurry of directives aiming to tighten immigration controls. Employers and immigration attorneys are bracing for higher denial rates on visa petitions, mirroring the spike during Trump’s first term. In the tech sector, companies are advising international employees to avoid international travel for fear of trouble re-entering the U.S., as law firms warn that H-1B and other high-skilled visa denials are likely to rise again. Trump’s administration has also signaled plans to revisit the definition of “specialty occupation” and other regulatory criteria, which could make qualifying for H-1B status more difficult, similar to 2018-19 when extra scrutiny caused H-1B denial rates to quadruple before courts intervened.

Several specific policy changes are in discussion or already underway in 2025:

H-1B Reforms and Restrictions

The administration has hinted at overhauling the H-1B lottery system to favor higher-paid or higher-skilled applicants (what they refer to as a“merit-based” emphasis). This could benefit big tech firms willing to pay top dollar, while squeezing IT outsourcing firms that historically file bulk applications. There is also renewed rhetoric about curbing alleged misuse of H-1Bs for cheaper labor. Although no change to the congressionally mandated H-1B cap has been made (it remains 85,000 new visas per year), stricter adjudications are expected, echoing the first Trump term when denial rates climbed sharply. Already, the effect is visible: some Silicon Valley giants have paused non-essential international travel and are focusing on retaining existing visa workers due to the climate of uncertainty.

Travel Bans and Country-Specific Measures

President Trump has reinstated and expanded certain travel restrictions. While the infamous 2017 travel ban primarily targeted a few Muslim-majority countries (mostly affecting tourism/refugees), new measures in 2025 potentially cast a wider net. For instance, there is increased screening of researchers and students from China on security grounds, continuing a policy from 2020 that barred entry of Chinese graduate students with ties to military-linked institutions. Additionally, the administration’s efforts to end birthright citizenship for U.S.-born children of foreigners (through an executive order) are causing anxiety among high-skilled workers—many fear their U.S.-born children could be denied citizenship, leaving their families in limbo. This proposal, unprecedented in modern times, could directly affect the calculus of prospective immigrants weighing a move to the U.S.

Student Visa and OPT Restrictions

There is a clear shift toward tightening student visa rules and training programs. The Optional Practical Training (OPT) program–which allows international graduates to work in the U.S. for 1–3 years–is under scrutiny. Some early signals from the administration suggest possible reductions in OPT duration or stricter eligibility, which would particularly hit STEM graduates using the 24-month extension (though no policy shift has been announced as of publication). University leaders and industry groups are pushing back, arguing this would remove a key early career talent pipeline for U.S. companies. Nonetheless, uncertainty around OPT, coupled with more rigorous vetting to F-1 student visa applicants, may already be influencing enrollment decision by international students.

Other Work Visas

Other visa categories are also seeing changes. The administration is revisiting the H-4 EAD (work authorization for spouses of H-1B holders), with an eye to rescind the Obama-era rule that lets these spouses (a majority of whom are women) work in the U.S. Ending H-4 work permits – a proposal first floated in 2019 – would particularly affect Indian professional families and could make the U.S. a less attractive destination for them.

In addition, intracompany transferee visas (L-1) face tougher compliance checks, and companies in consulting and IT have noted a rise in L-1 site audits and Requests for Evidence. High-tech manufacturing firms relying on L-1 to bring in specialized engineers (for example, chipmakers transferring staff from overseas plants) are likewise encountering stricter rules. Even O-1 “extraordinary ability” visas, often used to hire top researchers or artists, have not been exempt from the climate – while criteria remain unchanged, immigration attorneys are reporting anecdotes of longer processing times and more detailed scrutiny of credentials under the current administration.

Overall, early signs point to visa availability for skilled international talent becoming more constrained by policy choices tightening the talent spigot for students, early career professionals and experienced hires. While exact implications are still unknow the Trump administration’s “America First” approach appears to be de-emphasizing or restricting some avenues of legal skilled immigration. This is a reversal from the prior administration’s stance, and may place U.S. companies in a challenging position as they try to fill specialized roles.

5 Strategies for Adapting to Visa Restrictions

1. Outsourcing Projects – Send the work to the talent.

Many companies are bypassing U.S. visas by employing international talent in their home countries via remote work arrangements (e.g., RSM and CohnReznick standing up operations in India). This can be done either by contracting individuals overseas or using an employer-of-record service to put them on a local payroll. Or, rather some employers are engaging foreign consulting companies or their own foreign subsidiaries to do the same work abroad.

This strategy appears to be gaining traction as visa denials and delays increase.

During the first Trump administration companies responded to H-1B visa restrictions by hiring more workers overseas  mercatus.org.

2. Opening Nearshore Offices in Canada or Mexico – “Parking” foreign hires in friendly locales.

To retain international talent that can’t get into the U.S., some companies have opened or expanded offices just across the border. By placing engineers or other professionals in places like Toronto or Vancouver, companies can still leverage their skills and later transfer them to the U.S. if rules allow.

Immigration attorneys note this is happening “all the time” – companies open entities in Canada or Mexico and bring skilled workers there, where they can later naturalize or transfer internally using uncapped visa programs (like TN status under USMCA) americanbazaaronline.com.
The recipe: set up a small satellite office (or use an existing one) in a country with more lenient visa laws, relocate new foreign hires there, and integrate them into teams remotely. These employees can often obtain Canadian or Mexican work permits within weeks, allowing projects to proceed.

Example: In 2025, a U.S. fintech firm unable to get an AI specialist from India through the H-1B lottery instead relocated him to its Toronto office. The employee works with the U.S. team from Canada, and the company plans to sponsor a TN visa for him as a Canadian permanent resident down the line. This strategy not only bypasses U.S. visa hurdles but also takes advantage of Canada’s fast Global Talent Stream work visa processing.

3. Leveraging Alternative Visa Categories (L-1, O-1, TN, etc.) – Find a visa “workaround.”

Companies are becoming more resourceful in petitioning for visa types that are less restricted than the H-1B.

One common tactic is using intracompany transfers (L-1 visas): the company first hires or places the talent in an overseas branch for at least one year, then transfers them to the U.S. office in a managerial or specialist role. This avoids the H-1B lottery entirely.
Another approach is pursuing O-1 “extraordinary ability” visas for highly accomplished candidates (e.g., researchers with patents or internationally recognized awards | e.g., some AI talent).
- Crafting a strong O-1 petition (with documentation of the candidate’s accolades and expert recommendation letters) can bring in top talent that would otherwise be subject to H-1B caps.
Companies are also targeting nationals of countries with special visa treaties – for instance, hiring Canadians or Mexicans (who qualify for unlimited TN visas under NAFTA/USMCA) or Australians (who have a dedicated E-3 visa category). By prioritizing these nationalities for certain roles, firms eliminate the lottery and cap concerns.

4. Tapping Talent Already in the U.S. (e.g., early career hires with OPT or laid off talent with H-1Bs).

Focus on early career recruiting on foreign nationals who already have U.S. work authorization, such as students on F-1 visas with OPT (Optional Practical Training),

International students with a STEM degree from a U.S. university can work for up to 3 years under the STEM OPT program, which is cap-exempt. During that period, the employer can try the H-1B lottery multiple times.
If a talented worker with anH-1B and get laid off you can hire then and file a H-1B transfer petition (must be within 60 days), which isn’t subject to the annual cap. Monitor layoff trends in your industry – when big tech firms announced layoffs in 2023–2025, many smaller companies swooped in to recruit laid-off H-1B holders within their 60-day grace period.

5. Posting restrictions on visa sponsorship in job ads and vetting for visa requirements in initial screening.

Clearly stating “no visa sponsorship available” or “must be authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship” in job ads. Some organizations have reported reductions in time-to-fill of 1–2 weeks for high-volume roles.

Example language from job ads:

“Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employer sponsorship now or in the future.”
“We are currently not offering visa sponsorship for this role.”

Many applicant tracking systems (e.g., Greenhouse, Lever, Workday Recruiting, and iCIMS) now include configurable fields/questions that flag visa requirements. Candidates indicating the need for sponsorship can be auto-screened out or routed for specific recruiter review. This can be especially beneficial in technical and engineering roles and can reduce recruiter time spent per candidate by up to 20–30%, particularly for early-stage outreach and scheduling.

In an era of tightening immigration policies and rising uncertainty, U.S. employers face mounting challenges in securing international talent. The Trump administration’s renewed emphasis on restrictive visa measures—spanning H-1B overhauls, OPT scrutiny, and increased denial risks across multiple visa categories—has created a high-stakes environment for recruiting teams. But amid these constraints, opportunity still exists for agile and creative companies. Whether by leveraging remote international talent, opening nearshore offices, or utilizing alternative visa pathways, forward-thinking employers can adapt their strategies to stay competitive. The landscape may be shifting, but those who understand the changes and proactively respond will be best positioned to access global talent and drive business success in 2025 and beyond.

April 14, 2025

A Frozen Talent Market Means This Could Be the Most Important Year for Internships Yet

Dr. Andrew Monroe

If you’re in Talent Acquisition, you already know the hiring market is freezing. Over the last two years, job openings fell by 27%, new hires dropped 14%, and voluntary departures–typically a sign of a healthy labor market–are down 18%. Early optimism about a surging U.S. economy in 2025 has darkened as economic forecasts predict shrinking GDP, and consumer confidence has fallen to a 2-year low.

All of this uncertainty is driving companies to slow their pace of hiring. Still, technological advances, particularly in AI and automation, have CEOs focused on recruiting the skills of the future as an existential mandate. This leaves recruiting leaders at the crux of a paradox: How do you recruit new, high-demand talent as your organization’s appetite for new hiring is at an all-time-low?

The answer is looking to early career talent, and this is possibly the most important internship season in the last 5 years.

Macro Labor Trends Show a Frozen Hiring Market. Slowing Hiring and Quits are Freezing the Influx of New Skills.

Internships: The Best (and Cheapest) Way to Future-Proof Your Organization

In a year where recruiting budgets are tight and full-time hiring is slow, Early Career Recruiting–both full-time and particularly internships–offers a lower-cost, high-reward strategy to win the new skills organizations need. One analysis found that hiring early talent can save up to 50% in costs compared to hiring someone with 3-5 years of experience, a huge cost advantage that allows organizations to develop talent and new benches of skill at a fraction of the cost.

And it’s not just about cost—it’s about impact. Early career talent is uniquely positioned to fill critical skill gaps. They’re digital natives, often more proficient in emerging tech and integrating AI into workstreams than more senior hires. Some companies are already shifting to win this group. In a moment where lateral hiring is slowing, Early Career recruiting is projected to accelerate, particularly for tech or tech-enabled industries. So, the race for early career (tech) talent is already on, but how do you win it?

Early Career Hiring is Projected as Steady for 2025 with Tech Companies Planning for Growth

Intern-to-FT Conversion: The Smartest Bet in a Slow Hiring Market

In a frozen hiring market, one of the smartest ways to highlight the value of Early Career Recruiting to the organization? Prioritize intern conversion. Interns represent a ready-made pipeline of skilled, pre-vetted talent who understand your organization.

For Heads of University Recruiting, this is the year to double down on internships. For Heads of University Recruiting, this is the year to double down on internships and boost conversions by designing an intern experience that’s as enriching as it is practical.

Make the work matter: Assign projects that are tied to real business outcomes, not just “intern busywork.” When interns see how their contributions fit into the bigger picture, they’re more engaged and invested.
Build real-world skills: Make sure interns walk away with tangible growth—whether it’s sharpening technical skills, leveling up communication, or learning how to navigate a professional environment. The more prepared they feel, the more likely they are to say yes to a return offer.
Foster belonging: Create a sense of community through intentional culture-building. From mentorship and team inclusion to executive roundtables and social events, ensure interns feel like they belong and can see themselves at your company long-term.

A winning internship program doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Intern conversion works best when it’s aligned with headcount planning. Without coordination across business units, even the strongest intern won’t have a seat to return to. That’s why workforce planning has to go hand-in-hand with experience design. We know workforce planning is one of the toughest pieces of the puzzle—which is why our research team is digging into it more deeply in the weeks ahead.

March 14, 2025

Impact of DEI Shifts on Early Career Recruiting

Carter Bradley

The landscape of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives has undergone significant transformations in recent months, prompting employers to reassess their strategies. A few months into the new administration, employers are conducting close audits and rolling out new policies.

We have tracked changes in the DEI landscape and its impact on the early career space from the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013, to the impact of the Supreme Court’s affirmative action case, SFFA vs. Harvard, and then more recently, the impact of the Trump administration’s executive orders.

After studying these trends, a few themes emerge.

Reaffirming Commitment to Inclusivity and Hiring Top Talent

First, we studied public statements and policy shifts in response to the new executive orders. Five common themes emerged across statements from employers that reaffirmed their commitments to DEI.

Merit: Stating that DEI helps them hire the best talent possible
Business Outcomes: Connecting diversity efforts to performance and long-term success
Longstanding Values: Positioning DEI as a core part of their organizational identity
Commitment to Inclusivity: Emphasizing a strong commitment to building an inclusive workplace
Legal Alignment: Making it clear that their efforts follow all legal guidelines, avoiding quotas, while still prioritizing inclusive hiring and workplace policies

One example is from McKinsey. As quoted in a recent Bloomberg article, “Some have asked whether we will continue to prioritize diversity in our meritocracy. The answer is yes. We will continue to boldly pursue both, because these two things together–our diverse meritocracy–is what makes us distinctive and has defined who we are over or nearly 100 years.”

And from BlackRock, “Last year, we welcomed more than 3,000 new colleagues and we are adding many more in 2025. Our connected and inclusive culture is imperative to achieving our commercial objectives and delivering performance for our clients.”

Retooling Approach to DEI Practices

The most prominent theme we’ve seen is a retooling of DEI practices and policies, which takes multiple forms.

A common trend is the renaming and repositioning of DEI roles. DEI leadership roles are being rebranded—for example, the ‘Head of DEI’ might now be referred to as ‘Head of Employee Engagement and Accessibility,’ ‘Belonging and Inclusion,’ and ‘Culture.’

Similarly, we’re seeing structural changes within recruiting organizations. Some companies are embedding DEI-specific recruiters into broader talent acquisition teams rather than keeping them as separate units. In other cases, organizations are reducing or even eliminating standalone DEI recruiting roles altogether.

Employers are also retooling early engagement and programming. With a focus on how programs are described and eligibility requirements, some companies are replacing “diversity” with other terms like “leadership” development in Early ID programs. Employers are also adjusting or removing eligibility criteria based on identity. When identity is mentioned, language like “encouraged to apply” or “including” is being used instead of previously rigid requirements.

Lifting vs. Leveling: A Nuanced Distinction

Kenji Yoshino, a distinguished constitutional law professor at New York University, has articulated a framework distinguishing between two approaches to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): “lifting” and “leveling.” This distinction is particularly relevant in the context of Early Career Recruiting.

Lifting DEI:

This approach involves providing specific advantages or support to underrepresented groups to address historical inequities. Examples include:

Targeted Fellowships or Scholarships: Programs exclusively available to certain demographic groups, such as women, people of color, or LGBTQ+ individuals
Hiring Quotas: Setting specific numeric goals for hiring candidates from underrepresented groups.

While these initiatives aim to uplift marginalized communities, they have come under legal scrutiny for potentially conferring preferences based on protected characteristics. Yoshino notes that such “lifting” DEI practices are now considered “very legally risky.”

Leveling DEI:

Conversely, “leveling” focuses on creating a fair and unbiased selection process without giving explicit advantages to any group. This approach aims to “de-bias” systems, ensuring equal opportunity for all applicants. Examples include:

Blind Recruitment Processes: Removing identifying information from applications to prevent bias.
Structured Interviews: Using standardized questions and evaluation criteria for all candidates.
Inclusive Job Descriptions: Ensuring job postings are free from biased language that might deter certain groups from applying.

Yoshino emphasizes that such “leveling” DEI strategies are less legally contentious and align with merit-based principles.

Next Steps for Employers

Employers and institutions are reevaluating their programs to ensure compliance while upholding their commitment to inclusion. See our 8 next steps for building your DEI strategy. Action items include working with legal counsel to assess risk tolerance, conducting internal audits, and ensuring compliance at every level.

Ultimately, organizations must remain agile, regularly monitoring their DEI initiatives to refine and adjust them as the legal and regulatory environment continues to shift.

At Veris Insights, we are committed to providing timely updates and resources on the evolving landscape impacting Talent Acquisition and Early Career teams. Due to the legal complexities of these developments, we strongly encourage teams to consult with their legal and compliance professionals.

February 18, 2025

Early Actions from the Trump Administration & Their Impact on Talent Acquisition

Carter Bradley

President Trump’s early tenure marked a rapid and deliberate shift in federal policy, including actions that could significantly impact talent acquisition (TA) strategies for years to come. This spate of executive orders targeted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, return-to-office (RTO) mandates, and artificial intelligence (AI) investment, among other areas. Here’s a closer look at these changes and what TA teams need to know.

DEI Dismantling: A Departure from Longstanding Policy

The Executive Orders:

- “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs”: This order mandates the termination of DEI initiatives within federal agencies, including the elimination of all DEI-related roles and offices.
- “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity”: This order revokes Executive Order 11246, which previously required federal contractors to implement affirmative action programs to promote equal employment opportunities.

Why It Matters: These orders signal a departure from decades of federal DEI investment and reflect a broader ideological shift. Because private companies and universities often look to federal policies as a bellwether, this rollback could pressure them to curtail their own DEI efforts, potentially reversing years of progress made toward workplace diversity and representation.

What to Expect:

- Reduced DEI Investment: Many private organizations may scale back DEI programs, limiting pathways for historically marginalized talent and potentially reducing workforce diversity.
- Increased Legal Risk: Rebranding DEI programs or reframing them under different terminology will not necessarily shield companies from liability, so organizations will need to carefully inventory their hiring and promotion policies to ensure compliance.

Federal RTO Mandate: The Death of Remote Work?

The Executive Order: “Return to In-Person Work”: Executive branch departments and agencies are required to end remote work and return employees to the office.

Why It Matters: This mandate mirrors trends seen in the private sector, where companies like Amazon and JPMorgan have already made high-profile moves to end remote work. With federal endorsement, the return-to-office movement could gain momentum, potentially normalizing in-person work as the default for organizations across industries.

What to Expect:

Challenges in Hiring and Retention: Companies mandating in-office work may struggle to attract top talent, especially as senior and tenured employees are more likely to leave for competitors offering remote flexibility.This could lead to higher attrition rates and increased competition for remote-friendly roles.
Shifts in Employee Value Proposition (EVP): To remain competitive, organizations affected by this policy may need to emphasize the benefits of in-person collaboration and workplace amenities. Conversely, those still offering remote work flexibility may opt to position it as a key differentiator in their branding and messaging.

AI Investment: A New Chapter in the AI Arms Race

The Executive Order: “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence”: This order reduces regulatory oversight on AI development and promotes domestic investment in the sector.

Why It Matters: The federal government’s commitment to AI, alongside recent announcements—such as the launch of Stargate Project (a $500B initiative), Meta’s $65B investment in AI, and the unveiling of DeepSeek R1—could signal a significant acceleration in AI development.

What to Expect:

- New Skill Demands: The growing focus on AI may drive demand for expertise in machine learning, automation, and data analytics. To prepare, organizations will need to weigh the tradeoffs of upskilling existing teams versus competing for external talent.
- Access to AI-Powered Technology: Reduced regulatory hurdles may fast-track the creation and usage of AI-driven employment decision tools, which would be a boon to TA teams whose adoption efforts have been stalled by legal and compliance teams.

Navigating the Road Ahead

For many TA teams, these policy changes may feel jarring, as they directly affect areas where they’ve spent significant time and effort in the last few years. Further, the full impact of the executive orders remains uncertain, as they’ve only just begun to take effect.

With so much in flux, now is the time for TA teams to take stock of:

Legal Exposure: Which policies, if any, need to be adjusted to comply with the new executive orders?*
Internal Operations: How might the orders impact hiring infrastructure, including internal policies, training programs, and even tech stack?
External Positioning: How should these changes reshape the organization’s EVP, and what, if anything, needs to shift in candidate messaging?

With uncertainty comes the pressure to act quickly, but the best approach is both ensuring compliance and making decisions that align with the organization’s values and long-term hiring strategy. Doing both will require collaboration with internal and external stakeholders, thoughtful reflection, and a clear-eyed assessment of what truly matters to the business.

*Executive orders don’t directly impact private company action; the laws are still the laws BUT the executive orders signal significant scrutiny on DEI efforts. This is more complicated for government contractors and we strongly recommend you consult your legal team.

January 17, 2025

The Impact of Quit Rates on Early Careers Workforce Planning

Carter Bradley

Workforce planning in early careers is notoriously difficult. Among our 200+ members, not one has felt they have a perfect system. Even the most advanced organizations with the most sophisticated, developed programs cite demand planning as a key challenge.

The reasons are many: Timelines in campus recruiting means hiring is happening for, often, years from now. Hiring managers struggle to predict precisely what they will need far enough out. Finance departments vary as to where they attribute early careers costs. And, there is the perennial problem: Changes. A workforce plan is agreed to. Then, it changes.

None of this is new. And, in fact, we plan to run a deep study this year of the best demand and workforce planning ideas in the market.

But, a new dynamic is impacting the already challenging situation: Employees are quitting at much lower rates than normal.

Quit rates fell to historic lows this fall, prompting executives and news outlets to wonder if there is such a thing as “too low” voluntary attrition.

The challenges that emerge from this are many; as are the pro’s for companies, of course. But, a semi-hidden collateral impact is the wrench these changes throw into the fragile WFP system companies have built.

Simply put, companies hire entry level talent based on planned need. Planned need includes projections of attrition. When those go down, companies are left with more employees than they needed. And, those employees are less likely to leave.

Organizations are responding in various ways: Decreasing early careers demand. Delaying start dates. Giving employees incentives to leave. The jury is still out as to how effectively these right the imbalance.

We’ll be tracking this dynamic in the coming months, studying how organizations are responding and the impacts of those interventions. And, as always, we’d love to hear from you if you have an idea or observation.

December 13, 2024

A New Era of University Recruiting?

Carter Bradley

Contextualizing 2024’s Focus on “Returns”

As you may have read last month, I spent the second half of 2024 studying cost-cutting and efficiency efforts in University Recruiting.

Across our 260 members, we found hundreds of cases of major structural change. At this point, it is safe to say that we are seeing the largest reset to University Recruiting efforts of the last decade.

This focus on returns falls in stark contrast with the rapid investment and expansion of the 2000s and 2010s–a period marked by sprawling early careers programs, heavy investment in campus events, and fierce competition for students.

At first glance, the pull-back feels natural; most agree that companies over-hired in 2020-2022. But, I’ve become convinced there is something larger going on as well. There seems to be staying power to the questions members are getting about efficiency. About ROI.

Neither of these was ever absent from UR strategy conversations. But, the consistency with which they are the headline is new.

It is rare and difficult to identify a macro shift while you’re in the middle of it. And, perhaps we are seeing nothing more than a momentary blip in the expansion mindset of the UR industry.

But the alternate reality, where we are in the early stages of a new phase of early career engagement defined by efficiency practices and scientific management, is a large enough possibility to take center stage.

Our work through the end of this year, culminating in our Annual Members Meeting, has focused on this shift.

How are companies finding cost savings?
How are they restructuring their teams?
How are they reprioritizing resources towards short-term returns?

As we look towards 2025, I would expect this work to continue and expand. If it is true that we’re settling into a new recruiting environment, it will be our mission to study how to do that well.

December 13, 2024

The Unexpected Truths AI Revealed About Talent Acquisition in 2024

Carter Bradley

As I reflect on 2024, one thing has become abundantly clear: this was the year that forced every Talent Acquisition leader to make fundamental choices about the future of our profession.

While you won’t be surprised to hear that generative AI was a headline topic–and you may well be exhausted by the discourse around it–what fascinates me isn’t the technology itself, but how it catalyzed a deeper examination of Talent Acquisition’s identity.

Throughout the year, we witnessed a proliferation of AI-powered solutions. Budget-holders found themselves navigating an explosion of new tools, each promising to transform some aspect of the recruiting process. Yet simultaneously, these advances brought new challenges–from managing overwhelming application volumes to protecting against increasingly sophisticated fraudulent candidates.

What resulted was a year defined not just by new technological realities, but by how we chose to respond to them. Some teams went on the offensive, eagerly integrating new capabilities into their stack. Others took a more defensive posture, focusing their energy on preserving the integrity of their existing processes.

Regardless of one’s approach, what is evident is that AI has become a philosophical flash point in Talent Acquisition. Where leaders once debated very nuanced differences in recruiting strategy, the ubiquity of AI is now forcing a more foundational conversation about what Talent Acquisition ought to be.

Some see AI as a lever to push the boundaries of traditional recruiting practices–envisioning, for example, a future where the entire front-end process, from candidate screening to selection, is powered by AI and managed primarily by hiring teams. Others view this moment as a call to protect and preserve the human foundations that have always defined our profession–advocating a ‘return to the recruiting religion,’ and championing proven approaches like behavioral interviews and validated assessments over newer AI-driven solutions that, while innovative, lack demonstrated predictive validity.

If 2024 was about confronting new technological possibilities and their implications, I expect 2025 will bring a commitment to more defined visions of Talent Acquisition’s role within each organization. These decisions won’t just influence our tech stacks – they’ll reshape our team structures, candidate experiences, employer brand, and, ultimately, the very nature of our profession.

What gives me optimism in this moment of flux is that while AI continues to expand its capabilities, it has yet to replicate–and, arguably, never will–the nuanced judgment that can only come from years of experience in Talent Acquisition.

So, as we transition into 2025, perhaps we can all take solace in the fact that whether we are AI evangelists or AI skeptics, the human wisdom we’ve cultivated, and our power as a collective of Talent Acquisition professionals, remains irreplaceable.