Hiring in 2026: Guardrails, Trust, and the New TA Role (Hung Lee) Artwork

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Do you find hiring frustrating?? Are you disappointed with recruiting?? My name is Konstanty Sliwowski and I am a veteran of nearly 20 years in the business of recruitment, strategic talent acquisition and employment consultancy. I now focus my time on advising organisations and managers on how to be more, strategic, efficient, and effective at engaging and hiring top talent.In this podcast series, I speak with business leaders about how they attract and hire top performers. The high's and low's. And of course some funny stories and recruitment mishaps.If you are tired of recruitment processes that suck up your time and seem to never end and are looking for a more predictable way to attract, engage and hire top talent but also reduce the number of candidates you need to interview, come listen to our guest hiring managers including CEO's, CTO's, and CPO's open up about hiring experiences and how they approach talent acquisition.

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Hiring in 2026: Guardrails, Trust, and the New TA Role (Hung Lee)

January 16, 2026 • School of Hiring

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Hung Lee is the founder and editor of Recruiting Brainfood, and one of the sharpest observers of how hiring actually works.

Two years ago, Hung joined me to talk about the future of recruitment and what AI might do to talent acquisition. This time, we are past predictions. AI is in the workflow, shaping sourcing, screening, and candidate experience. The focus now is what is working, what is quietly breaking, and what leaders should do next.

We start with a thought that used to sound far fetched: a company’s AI speaking to a candidate’s AI. Now it is starting to look normal. From there, we unpack where AI genuinely creates value across the hiring funnel, how to maintain trust when automation becomes the first touchpoint, and what leadership needs to own when AI influences selection decisions.

If you lead Talent Acquisition, hire as a manager, or sit on a leadership team making choices about AI adoption, this is an essential listen.

What we cover

What has changed most in day to day recruiting since the early AI predictions, and what surprised Hung
Where AI is genuinely creating value across the hiring funnel, and where teams are buying hope
AI agents as the first touchpoint for candidates, and how to keep trust high when experience is automated
Selection and high stakes decisions: decision quality, fairness, accountability, and practical guardrails
What capabilities leadership teams should build for 2026
How the recruiter role changes: what shrinks, what expands, and what becomes more important
How Talent Acquisition evolves in the age of AI

Recruiting Brainfood: https://www.recruitingbrainfood.com/

Hung Lee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hunglee/

Follow Konstanty Sliwowski on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sliwowskik/

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