Our team recently had the opportunity to visit the IHR London Live 2024 event – one of the top live events of the talent acquisition industry that brings together a community of in-house recruiters for networking, connecting, learning and seeing the latest innovations in recruitment technology and strategies.
Our UK Country Manager Steve Smith ready to demonstrate Teamdash and help reduce stress levels for talent teams everywhere!
We had the good luck to attend a talk given by recruitment expert Hung Lee, where he shared his insights on the trends for talent acquisition in 2025 (PS! We recommend following him if you don’t already on Linkedin and of course suggest you sign up to his newsletter) As the talk was exceptionally great in creating a wider context and combining micro and macro trends into actionable insights, we’ve gathered them into this blogpost for you.
The overview combines Hung Lee’s presentation and the notes we took during the presentation. We hope you find these useful!
Hung Lee giving his presentation at IHR London Live.
Key takeaways and talent acquisition trends for 2025:
1. Teams will need to continue focusing on efficiency
In the face of economic headwinds—rising corporate taxes, higher interest rates, and looming budget cuts—efficiency will remain a top priority for businesses, taking precedence over rapid growth. This trend will significantly shape recruitment strategies and budgets, with talent acquisition teams expected to continue delivering results despite potentially shrinking resources.
The focus will shift further to cutting costs where possible, optimising processes, and maximising productivity without sacrificing the quality of hire. This means taking a hard look at your existing talent, tools, strategies, and workflows to identify areas where automation, technology, or process improvements can bring big wins for the companies.
2. Applicant surge becomes overwhelming
AI is continuing to revolutionise the way candidates apply for jobs, and by 2025, the volume of applications has the potential to reach unprecedented levels. What was once a manageable applicant surge will evolve into hundreds of automated submissions, leaving recruiters overwhelmed.
This influx, driven by the ease with which candidates can use AI tools and automated bots to apply to numerous positions at once, will create a significant strain on traditional hiring funnels. The automated nature of these applications means that recruiters will spend more time filtering through a mountain of submissions, resulting in frustration.
3. Automation becomes a necessity
Automation will no longer be a luxury or a nice to have—it will become a necessity.
AI-powered tools will take over key recruitment tasks, from scheduling interviews to screening CVs and composing candidate messages. By 2025, these functions will be standard features in any good applicant tracking system, enabling recruiters to focus on activities that bring higher value. If you’re ATS doesn’t offer these functionalities today, it might be time to update your tech stack with a modern all-in-one applicant tracking system.
4. AI voice pre-screening will become more prevalent
Voice-based AI pre-screening will change how recruiters engage with candidates. Voice AI pre-screening technology works by conducting interviews or screening calls with candidates, analysing their responses to key questions, and providing recruiters with comprehensive insights and evaluations based on the input the recruiter has given. This will reduce the need for recruiters to manually conduct early-stage interviews, saving significant amounts of time while still ensuring a thorough assessment of each applicant.
5. Fraud detection will become more important
As remote work and AI tools become more prevalent, verifying a candidate’s identity and credentials will become a critical priority for talent acquisition teams. The accessibility of AI tools allows candidates to potentially manipulate skills tests and qualifications listed on their CVs. Consequently, recruiters will need to become vigilant in detecting fraud and ensuring the authenticity of every candidate they engage with. Recruiters might need to learn to use advanced fraud detection tools to navigate this new landscape. Tools that detect fraud and ensure authenticity will play a crucial role, making background checks and candidate verification a critical part of a recruiter’s day-to-day responsibilities.
Slide from Hung Lee’s presentation.
6. Candidate sourcing might need a more strategic approach
AI will blur the lines between job advertising, candidate matching, and sourcing. With the increased number of applications per job opening, talent teams will have to figure out ways how to make sure their postings reach the right candidates to avoid an overwhelming applicant surge. Programmatic advertising and personalisation will become more important.
7. Talent upskilling becomes more important
As companies face ongoing budget constraints and the pressures for efficiency, they will increasingly shift focus from external hiring to internal talent development where possible. Organisations will increasingly look inward to develop and grow their existing talent to get the most out of their current teams. As AI enables and optimises workflows, the People function will be responsible for driving this change and upskilling their current workforce.
8. Candidate engagement plummets
As AI continues to automate and personalise mass outreach efforts from all sides, candidates are likely to grow more skeptical of the authenticity of the messages they receive. Their engagement might decline.
With inboxes flooded by automated emails, texts, and LinkedIn messages, candidates may start to treat these messages like spam or unsolicited “unknown callers” that are impersonal and often irrelevant. The result is a growing sense of disengagement, where candidates ignore or fully reject recruiter outreach, assuming it’s just another AI-generated, impersonal message. As a result, recruiters will need to rethink how they connect with candidates, moving away from high-volume, impersonal communication toward more creative and meaningful interactions.
9. Building a trustworthy personal brand becomes important
The importance of personal branding for recruiters will become more important. With AI able to replicate much of the content and outreach that recruiters have previously relied on, the human touch is what will make the biggest difference. Candidates, overwhelmed by a surge of AI-composed messages, will begin to seek out more genuine, authentic interactions. As a result, recruiters who invest in building and maintaining a strong personal brand and use a more personal outreach will stand out from the sea of automated messages.
What This Means for Talent Acquisition Teams:
This is probably not news to anyone, but AI will dominate and change many aspects of the recruitment process- bringing both complications and benefits (from applicant sourcing to interview scheduling) but the human element will be more important than ever. Talent teams who learn to use AI and automations to their benefit while maintaining a personal touch in key stages of recruitment will stand out and continue to be successful.
At Teamdash, we’re committed to helping in-house recruiters and talent acquisition managers stay ahead of these trends. Whether it’s through AI-powered recruitment automation or tools to enhance your personal outreach and targeted sourcing, we’re here to help you make your recruitment process smoother and more effective. Let’s tackle recruitment together in 2025!
