What Comes After AI Adoption? TA Leaders from eBay, Zillow, and Citi on the Future of Talent Acquisition

Most Talent Acquisition (TA) leaders are in agreement that the function will look different because of AI. What’s less clear is exactly how TA will evolve. But as pressure to demonstrate TA’s business value grows, forward-thinking leaders are increasingly focused on contributing more directly to workforce strategy.

At our recent executive panel, Transforming Talent Acquisition for the AI Era, we were joined by three global talent leaders at the forefront of TA transformation. Danielle Clark, VP of Global Talent at eBay; Roz Harris, VP of Talent at Zillow; Larry Brignati, MD, Head of Americas Workforce Intelligence & TA at Citi; and Dr. Andrew Monroe, VP of Research at Veris Insights sat down with Veris Insights Managing Partner Allison Latham Bradley for a candid conversation on how TA teams can connect AI decisions to the work their organizations need done.

Here’s a recap of the biggest takeaways.

How to Build an AI Talent Acquisition Strategy Around Business Needs

With more AI tools entering the recruiting market, TA leaders face no shortage of opportunities to automate work. But more technology doesn’t necessarily translate into greater business value. The challenge is knowing which problems are worth solving in the first place.

Danielle Clark, VP of Global Talent at eBay, cautioned against getting swept up in the excitement surrounding new HR technology. Instead, she encouraged leaders to start by identifying the business problem, examining the work required to solve it, and only then evaluating where AI can help. Not every challenge needs a technology solution, and the availability of a new tool shouldn’t dictate how TA teams evolve.

Danielle expanded on this approach in the clip below.

How AI Is Changing the Recruiter Role and the Skills Recruiters Need

For years, recruiters differentiated themselves through their ability to find talent and access information that hiring managers couldn’t easily obtain themselves. But what happens to that value proposition when AI makes those capabilities more widely accessible?

Roz Harris, VP of Talent at Zillow, argued that the recruiter’s value isn’t disappearing, but where that value lies is changing. As AI takes on sourcing tasks that once required sophisticated Boolean search techniques, and hiring managers gain greater access to talent data, recruiters can no longer rely on being the gatekeepers of information. Instead, Roz emphasized the need to become “narrators of this information,” bringing the business context and judgment needed to turn talent intelligence into better workforce decisions.

In the clip below, Roz expands on how this shift is redefining the recruiter’s role.

Danielle Clark agreed with Roz’s vision for a more advisory-oriented TA function while recognizing that not every recruiter will want to move into a strategic advisory role. For some, an operational career path may be a better fit. For those who do embrace the advisory role, however, the opportunity extends well beyond filling open positions.

Danielle emphasized that hiring is not always the right answer to a business’s talent needs. Developing existing employees, moving talent internally, or outsourcing work may be more effective solutions. That broader remit is already taking shape at eBay, where Danielle shared that her senior director of TA spearheaded the company’s India expansion.

Teaching recruiters to use AI is only one part of the shift. TA leaders also need to rethink where recruiters add value and how different types of expertise and career paths fit within the future of the function.

How AI Is Reshaping the Talent Acquisition Operating Model

AI is changing how recruiting work gets done while prompting TA leaders to reconsider where that work should sit within the organization.

Larry Brignati, MD, Head of Americas Workforce Intelligence & TA at Citi, highlighted a notable reversal in how organizations approach their operating models. Historically, companies often moved transactional recruiting work to lower-cost locations before automating it. Now, AI is increasingly automating that work first, forcing leaders to rethink how they distribute the responsibilities that remain.

At the same time, Larry sees opportunities for TA teams to move beyond local and regional models toward more globally integrated operations. A sourcing hub in the Philippines or a recruiting team in Costa Rica or Budapest, for example, may be able to support a broader range of markets rather than serving only its immediate geography. But that expanded remit brings new demands, including greater familiarity with employment laws and business environments across regions.

For Larry, the larger challenge is preparing people to work differently as technology changes. That means equipping recruiters with new skills, helping hiring managers understand how AI will influence recruiting processes, and setting clear expectations for candidates.

In other words, redesigning the TA operating model is only half the challenge. Organizations also need to prepare their people to work effectively in this new environment, which may prove more difficult than implementing the technology itself.

AI in Hiring Decisions: Where Human Judgment Must Remain

Just because AI can perform a recruiting task doesn’t necessarily mean it should. That distinction becomes especially important when technology moves beyond organizing information and begins influencing who advances through the hiring process.

For TA leaders, the question isn’t simply how much of recruiting can be automated, but where human judgment and accountability must remain.

Roz Harris emphasized that distinction in describing Zillow’s approach. AI can support sourcing, scheduling, interview preparation, and early assessments. But when it comes to deciding which candidates move forward, Roz wants people reviewing the information and making those decisions. She also highlighted the importance of involving legal teams early, particularly as organizations navigate questions about AI bias and the safeguards needed for consequential hiring decisions.

Danielle Clark described a similar commitment to human oversight at eBay while highlighting how AI-powered interview tools can capture richer, more detailed information than interviewers might otherwise retain from memory. That information can strengthen the evidence available to decision-makers without transferring hiring authority to the technology.

Larry Brignati reinforced the importance of human accountability with a slightly different framing: “human in the lead.” As Citi explores AI-supported screening and assessment tools, Larry emphasized that people must remain active decision-makers, rather than simply reviewing outcomes produced by technology.

Across the panel, there was broad agreement that AI should support hiring decisions while people retain responsibility for the final outcome. The opportunity is to use technology to strengthen the information and evidence behind those decisions without handing over the decisions themselves.

The Future of Talent Acquisition: TA’s Role in Workforce Transformation

As AI changes not just how work gets done, but what work organizations need people to do, Talent Acquisition has an opportunity to influence decisions that extend well beyond recruiting. The challenge? Many businesses are still figuring out what their future workforce should look like.

For Danielle Clark, that uncertainty makes it especially important for TA leaders to claim a seat at the table. She encouraged leaders to get involved in conversations about workforce transformation now, while there’s still an opportunity to shape the direction their organizations take. Larry Brignati echoed that perspective, acknowledging that businesses don’t yet have all the answers about which roles, responsibilities, and skills AI will change.

Roz Harris urged leaders to rethink the playbooks that shaped past success as Talent Acquisition adapts to a different operating environment. She encouraged TA teams to approach unfamiliar problems more like scientists, asking better questions, experimenting with new approaches, learning from peers, and being willing to pivot when something isn’t working.

Taken together, their perspectives point to a different mandate for TA. The function’s future value won’t be defined solely by how efficiently it fills roles, but by how effectively it helps organizations navigate changing workforce needs, even when the answers aren’t yet clear.