We Went from Doing More to Doing Better: HR Tech Analyst Kyle Lagunas's State of the Union on AI (LIVE @ Transform 2026)

These episodes of #thePOZcast, live from Transform 2026 in Las Vegas, are proudly brought to you by our friends at PIN. AI recruiting tools that automate candidate sourcing, screening, and scheduling across 850M+ profiles. Built for recruiters, agencies, and hiring teams. Learn more and check out a demo:  https://www.pin.com/book-a-demo?via=adam-posner Thanks for listening, and please follow us on Insta @NHPTalent and www.youtube.com/thePOZcast For all episodes, please check out www.thePOZcast.com TAKEAWAYS: 1. The Industry Shifted From Doing More to Doing Better Kyle's State of the Union in a single sentence: a year ago, AI was being applied to do more things faster. In 2026, the question has become whether those things are being done better. Volume was the first wave. Quality is the second. The vendors who survive the next cycle will be the ones who can demonstrate genuine outcome improvement, not just efficiency gains. 2. The Consolidation Bloodbath Is Over — and the Race Is Back On The expected wave of vendor exits didn't fully materialize, but AI gave surviving vendors the ability to ship value to customers faster than ever before. The competitive dynamics haven't eased — they've intensified. The companies still standing are moving faster, not slower. 3. Build vs. Buy Is Now a Real Strategic Question for TA Teams Enterprise talent acquisition teams are building their own AI workflows in-house, and that's changing the calculus for every vendor on the floor. Kyle's framework for go-to-market leaders: track how much building culture exists in your target accounts before burning sales calories. If a prospect is already building, that's not necessarily a lost sale — but it's a fundamentally different conversation. 4. Recruiting Fraud Has Become a National Security Issue The convergence of application agents, high job-seeker volume, and organized bad actors has turned recruiting fraud from an edge case into a genuine organizational risk. Kyle knows first- degree connections who have had the FBI in their office after hiring agents of foreign states. This is not hypothetical. Every company with any sensitive data or infrastructure is a target. 5. Fraud Detection Isn't One Problem — It's a Stack Problem Interview fraud doesn't have a single point of intervention. It needs to be addressed at the ATS, at the top of the funnel, and through identity verification across multiple interview stages. Kyle's benchmark of 12 AI interviewers found screen analysis capabilities — matching visual identity from interview to interview — becoming a standard feature. Manual workflows are a bridge, not a solution. 6. AI Is Finally Making Benefits Personal at Scale Benefits has always been complicated, jargon-heavy, and delivered as a one-size-fits-all package that employees don't understand. AI chat interfaces that know an employee's profile — single, two dogs, no kids — and can explain in plain language which plan makes sense for their specific life are making personalized benefits navigation possible without requiring an HRBP to sit with every employee. That's a meaningful change in how benefits gets delivered. 7. Candidates Are Getting Smarter About Total Comp — And Recruiters Need to Keep Up Kyle's observation from the market matches what Adam hears in the trenches: candidates are increasingly asking about the full picture of compensation, including employer contributions to healthcare, equity, and benefits value. Recruiters who can't articulate total comp in real numbers are at a disadvantage — and companies that can are converting more offers. 8. The Trust Gap Between Candidates and AI Is a Communication Failure, Not a Technology Failure The friction candidates are experiencing with AI in the hiring process isn't primarily a product problem — it's a communication problem. Employers are deploying AI interviewing, screening, and assessment tools without telling candidates how to use AI, what to expect, or why these tools actually benefit them. That vacuum is being filled by Reddit misinformation and candidate frustration. Simple, proactive communication could close most of that gap. 9. AI Interviewers Eliminate Ghosting — and That Matters More Than People Admit Kyle's case for AI interviewers directed at frustrated candidates: no ghosting (every candidate gets an interview option), 24/7 scheduling flexibility, the ability to self-select out of a bad fit, and a genuine touchpoint with a company that otherwise might never respond. The value proposition is real. The problem is nobody