Recruitment Technology Conference, London 2026

When hiring goes wrong, talent teams are often told the answer is better collaboration with hiring managers. But what if the problem isn't willingness - it's capacity?

Gallup reports that managers now have an average of 12.1 direct reports and spend around 40% of their week on work that isn't managing. So how do we build effective hiring partnerships when managers have less time and attention to give?

This session explores how TA can redesign the hiring process around the manager we actually have - not the one our workflows assume.

What to expect:

• How to reduce friction by identifying where technology can make hiring easier for managers, not just TA.

• Practical ways to protect manager capacity by designing processes around the time and attention they realistically have available.

• Frameworks for creating accountability through clear decision rights and expectations before interviews begin.

• Techniques for using talent market data to challenge assumptions and increase credibility in hiring conversations.

• Methods for running evidence-led debriefs that improve consistency, objectivity, and hiring outcomes

The tools that have served recruiting teams well for years are suddenly struggling to keep up, and most teams already feel it, even if they can't explain exactly how and why. Neil Armstrong, CEO of Tribepad, unpacks what's really behind that frustration, drawing on real feedback from teams on the ground, and paints a clear picture of what hiring tech actually needs to look like in 2027.

What to expect:

• Why many recruitment technology stacks are becoming more complex rather than more effective.

• How AI, point solutions and integrated HR platforms are changing the role of the ATS.

• Whether the ATS should still sit at the centre of your hiring strategy, or become one part of a wider ecosystem.

• The capabilities TA leaders should prioritise when evaluating future recruitment technology.

• Practical questions to ask suppliers to ensure today's technology decisions remain fit for tomorrow.

Recruiters spend too much of their week on work that keeps hiring moving but leaves less time for the people who matter. Mike Bishop and his team at Infor are changing that by putting AI to work across the recruitment workflow, turning each new requisition into an AI-powered playbook.

This session explores how they are using AI to manage applicant volume, surface talent, assess role difficulty and generate hiring insights, and where automation can free recruiters from repetitive tasks without taking human judgement out of the process.

What you'll learn:

• How Infor is turning each new requisition into an AI-powered recruitment playbook.
• How AI can help manage growing applicant volumes, surface relevant talent and assess role difficulty.
• Which repetitive recruitment tasks are best suited to AI, and where human judgement matters most.
• Practical ideas for giving recruiters more time back to spend with candidates and hiring teams.

Hiring, particularly high-volume hiring, is struggling under an overwhelming number of applications that no team can process fairly. So, where does AI truly make a difference, and where does it miss the mark? Drawing on real-world examples, this session cuts through the noise to reveal AI’s true role in scaling screening.

What to expect:

• Where AI screening works – and where it struggles.
• What actually enhances the candidate experience.
• How to navigate AI compliance with confidence.
• Where AI makes recruiters and hiring managers’ lives genuinely easier.
• What AI can – and can’t – solve in scaling the screening process.

Technology can now do more of recruitment than ever before. But just because TA can automate something, does that mean it should? As tech reshapes candidate journeys, recruiter roles and hiring decisions, TA leaders face a bigger challenge: knowing where to accelerate automation, where human capability becomes more valuable, and how to take ownership of the technology strategy shaping both.

What to expect:

• Where tech should take over (and fast), and what must never lose the human touch.

• What tech is now non-negotiable? The capabilities every modern TA function needs.

• What becomes more human as tech gets smarter? The recruiter skills rising in value.

• Start shaping tech. How TA can influence investment, vendors and technology strategy.

• What’s next, and what’s actually worth it? Cutting through hype to find technology that improves hiring.

AI can make people more productive while quietly making them less capable, connected and motivated. Drawing on two studies involving more than 7,000 workers across the US and UK and a review of more than 500 academic papers, Dr King reveals how AI is quietly eroding the three psychological needs all humans have (autonomy, competence and connection) that drive motivation and performance. It doesn't feel like a decline while it's happening, but that's what makes AI Positive Drift so dangerous.

What to expect:

•    Spot the early signs of AI Positive Drift before it shows up in your performance

•    Tell managed AI use (it extends your judgment) apart from unmanaged AI use (it quietly replaces it)

•    Use AI in ways that build real skill, not mask its loss

•    Collaborate with AI without losing the human relationships that build trust and opportunity

•    Apply Need Nudges to protect autonomy, competence, and connection while keeping AI's upside

•    Turn protected motivation into the actions that keep a career growing: learning, reskilling, networking

Candidates are no longer beginning their job search on your careers site. Increasingly, they're discovering employers through AI assistants and search engines first, transforming how employer brands are found, evaluated and engaged with. In this session, Chris shares the lessons from leading a major talent attraction technology transformation and what every TA leader should be preparing for.

What to expect:

• How AI and search are fundamentally reshaping candidate discovery and attraction

• Why employer brand content now needs to be built for AI and search visibility

• Lessons from consolidating 18 careers sites into one connected talent attraction platform

• The technology, data and integration challenges behind large-scale transformation

• Practical steps to future-proof your talent attraction strategy for an AI-first world