Recruiting is entering a new era. The question everyone is asking quietly is not whether AI will affect recruiting jobs. It will. The better question is what the recruiter role becomes next.
In this session, we will explore the shift from today’s recruiter — managing reqs, inboxes, screens, scheduling, follow-ups, and updates — to tomorrow’s AI-enabled recruiter operating inside a recruiting command center. Instead of doing every task manually, recruiters will manage a network of sourcing, screening, scheduling, engagement, market intelligence, and candidate experience agents.
The result is not an 80-hour workweek. It is a smarter 40-hour week. Recruiters will handle two to three times the workload by knowing when to let agents run, when to intervene, and when the human conversation matters most.
This is not the end of recruiting. It is the redesign of the recruiting office.
Mike Watson, Director of Customer Agentic Enablement at Eightfold, discussed the transformative impact of AI on talent acquisition (TA). He highlighted his 25-year career, emphasizing the shift from manual to digital processes and now to AI-driven solutions. Watson detailed the various AI agents, such as sourcing, outreach, and screening agents, and their roles in enhancing efficiency. He stressed the importance of a large data source to mitigate bias and ensure fairness. Watson also mentioned the upcoming Agent Academy to train recruiters on AI tools. He concluded by predicting a future where digital wallets replace traditional resumes.
TA Week Host 0:45
Hello and welcome back! For me, it’s the afternoon session; for many of you, it’s the afternoon session. I took my hat off in honor of our next speaker, and you’ll see why in a moment. Mike Watson is the Director of Customer Agentic Enablement at Eightfold. Previously, he actually stood up their Customer Success team. But Mike is one of us because Mike has had this joy, mirth, and love of running TA—knowing and experiencing what we know and experience on a day-to-day basis. So, his talk today will be about how AI agents will actually transform TA. It’s something that has been in every feed, no matter what the platform, probably easily pre-2020, but we can talk about how much further back that goes. Anyway, I’ll be monitoring the chat for you, Mike. Take it away!
Michael Watson 1:56
Thank you, Steve. If you would have told me I would be speaking at a TA event 25 years ago, 30 years ago, back in 1997, I would have said, “You’re crazy.” As someone who was a criminology major in school and thought he was going into law enforcement, to end up in talent acquisition for the last 25 years is a real blessing to be here with all of you today. So thank you all. Steve, thank you for that warm introduction. Yes, we do have similar hairdos and designs. This is the result of 25 years of recruiting without AI, of dealing with horrible ATS and HRIS systems, and this is what happens. Steve, just double-check: you can see my presentation? I’m sharing the right screen, correct?
TA Week Host 2:48
Correct.
Michael Watson 2:49
Awesome, awesome. So welcome, everyone! We’ve got about 40 minutes. I promise you I’m not going to take you through heavy slides that you have to read. We’re going to be telling stories. I’m going to tell you about my journey, where I’m at, what I’ve been seeing, and what my role is. Everyone says they’re an AI expert, so I’ll give you my credentials and let you decide if there is such a thing. But let’s jump into this and have some fun. Any reactions? Thumbs up, thumbs down? Think I’m crazy? Put it in the chat. Please, let me make this interactive—we’ve got time here, so let’s have some fun. Sound good?
All right. So, who am I? Right, you signed into this presentation and you’re like, “I’ve got this Michael Watson guy here. Who is he? Why should I spend my time with this gentleman?” First and foremost, I was raised by military parents, and I’ll get to why that’s an important part of the story. They’re both still with us in their late ’80s, and I see them a couple of times a week to help take care of them. I didn’t realize the blessing I had by those two people kicking my butt when I was younger; I didn’t listen until later in life, but that’s another story.
That next picture there—that’s my beautiful wife. We’ve been married for 23 years as of August 2nd—so close, I moved it up; she’ll like that. As a result of that beautiful relationship, we have two children, Nolan and Angeline. That picture with the beards is an old photo; the one right below it is a little bit more recent: my son, my daughter, my niece, and her daughter. So, a bunch of Watsons in that photo! The next picture shows two of my three current dogs—that’s Clyde, and Faith the Red Lab. I love dogs; if I could retire and start a dog rescue today, I would. We’ll leave it there.
I started my career with Aerotek. Pretty soon, in a few slides, we’re actually going to jump into a time machine and go back to look at my first office at Aerotek in 1997 in Oakland, California. I spent about 10 years there on the contingent workforce side before I moved to Polycom. As you can see, I’ve run talent acquisition for numerous companies, specifically in the San Francisco Bay Area: Polycom, Western Digital, and about four years at Workday. I was at Gigamon when I first found out about Eightfold back in 2018.
Going back to noticing trends and patterns: if there’s one piece of advice I can give you as TA folks, it’s that you have to identify patterns and be able to take action on them. That’s what I did back in 2018—I saw AI coming, I was an early adopter, and here we are. If you add the 18 months I was a customer, I’m almost nine years into the ecosystem here, so a long time.
So, first story I have for you goes back to my mom. Once my mom got out of the service—that’s her in her Marines uniform—she went to work at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a big federal nuclear research facility in the Bay Area. Every year they would have an open house. One of the coolest parts about the open house back in the very early days of home computers (’81, ’82, ’83—I was eight or nine years old) was seeing this. Anyone know what this is called? This is a Cray supercomputer. The picture on the right is their current supercomputer, El Capitan, and I’m going to get to how powerful it is—it’s going to blow you away.
Michael Watson 6:39
If you would have told me 40 years ago, “Mike, 40 years from now you’re going to be able to hold 10,000 to 13,000 of these supercomputers in your hand,” I would have said you were crazy. There is no way that’s happening! Yet here we are. And here’s the even crazier part—and I think this is what gives people uneasiness—the next six years are going to evolve faster than the previous 60. Things are moving at an exponential pace. Boards are expecting this out of organizations, CEOs are expecting this out of CHROs, and CHROs are expecting it out of their directors. It rolls downhill.
We just jumped in the time machine. We are now back in my old office—I’m not kidding you, it looked just like this. If there’s anyone here from the old Aerotek days of recruiting pre-2000s, tell me how close this looked to our offices back in the day. We had milk crates and file cabinets. Every time we interviewed someone, we would take these G2 informational sheets and put them in our three-ring binder. In ’97, this is how we were recruiting. This process of putting a Help Wanted sign in the window or posting in the Sunday newspaper had been going on for hundreds of years prior.
What happened in ’97 was the digital transformation. Right out of college, I took my first email course, and I remember talking to some of the recruiters at Aerotek saying, “Hey, what about using Craigslist?” They were like, “No, no. I have a proven method: I post by Thursday at noon, it gets published on Sunday, people lick a stamp, mail their resume, and then I start looking at resumes.” I asked, “Don’t you want to try this Craigslist thing?”
That was the first transformation. What I tell folks now is that the same shift we saw from manual to digital, we are now seeing with the advent of AI—specifically Agentic AI. We went from that paper process to, “Oh, we’re going to give you an ATS.” Remember our first ATS at Aerotek was called TeamTrack? It was homebuilt, but we would go in, leave messages, and talk trash to other offices: “Hey, I found this person first before you!” Those were real days. But it didn’t help us get our job done any easier or improve efficiency; it just helped us keep track of things.
So then what happens? They bring in the CRM. What does that do? It just adds more to-dos, emails, calls, and logging. In the early days, nothing was integrated, so you had to do follow-ups manually. Those systems were never great. I’ve used just about every single ATS out there—I helped develop Workday’s (some of you might want to cuss me out, some might want to praise me!), I’ve used Jobvite, iCIMS, name them all. I never found a perfect one; none of them were able to search well. So we tried to fix that with CRMs, but that didn’t fix it either.
What’s been going on over the last 15 to 20 years is LinkedIn. It’s the same conversation I had with the gentleman posting in the Sunday Tribune as the conversations I have now with recruiters who ask, “Why would I want to use AI?”
Michael Watson 11:04
“It’s just trying to replace my job. I have a proven method: I go onto LinkedIn, post my job, and look at profiles.” You’re like the person telling me, “No, I don’t need to post on Craigslist.” I’m telling you, change is coming, and the recruiters who embrace this change and lean into it first will be the ones who succeed.
Once again, more technology just meant more work. Now I had dashboards to manage. How many of you have looked at dashboards where different sets give you different information? Now I’m in an internal struggle to figure out what data is even real—spreadsheets, ATS systems, CRMs, you name it. The recruiter in these traditional models has become the human integration layer. This is something I’ve been thinking about for so long: when can we get to a point where I can leverage AI to do this less meaningful work?
Steve, let me know if any questions come up in the comments. I see things coming in, but I’m going to keep going.
TA Week Host 12:28
I will. I will.
Michael Watson 12:29
Awesome, thank you! So, the shift happening now is in part due to that next six-year shift we’re seeing. Technology is moving so fast. I can go onto ChatGPT now and have conversations with a chatbot that sounds so real I question who I’m talking to! From a recruiting perspective, AI takes these repetitive tasks off your plate.
This was one of the talk tracks I gave my recruiters when we first started using Eightfold for talent rediscovery and agentic AI: moving away from being just an order taker gives you more time to spend on strategic conversations and partnerships. Where do we need to go from a skills perspective? Moving away from agents for a second: if Blockbuster had known what was happening with skills in streaming media, they’d still be around. If BlackBerry had known where industry trends were going with iPhones, they’d still be around.
Early on, using AI for market intelligence gave me visibility into where we needed to go as an organization. When you leverage agents like this, you can spend time with hiring managers having meaningful conversations. It switches from, “Hey, I need you to find these 38 bullet points,” to, “Hey Mike, I just lost a critical team member. These were their core skills. I need you to create AI models that mirror what they were doing and go find that person.” Easy, no problem!
When we talk about agents—listen, I have eight listed here now, but two more could pop up overnight. This thing is moving so fast. I was looking for new LMS software that had to be Agentic AI, and I told a colleague, “Just when I think I’ve found the right one, I hear about a new one coming out.” The market moves so fast that we have no time to figure it out, which is why recruiters need to leverage these agents.
This is Mike Watson speaking—someone who has written books on this and spends a lot of time thinking about it. Recruiters who lean into this will make it through the transition. If you don’t, you’re like the recruiter saying, “No, I’m going to keep posting in the Sunday newspaper.” Sure, sometimes you have to post there for H-1B processing purposes, but leaning into these agents will truly help you.
Let’s scroll through them:
If I were to leave Eightfold today and go back into recruiting, I would use Eightfold. I know what all the platforms do. I would embed our AI recruiter and AI interviewer as my first screening step. Recruiters on my team would never do a front-end screen again. We’d have exceptions—like executive or director-level roles—but for the most part, every candidate would go through it.
I’d do this because of lawsuits where candidates feel they didn’t get a fair chance. How do you remedy that? Give everyone a chance! Leveraging AI lets me say, “I don’t care what your background is or where you came from; if you have the skills and experience, come one, come all.” No one can say the process wasn’t fair.
We recently hit a massive milestone number for AI interviews used. The market is moving this way. It becomes a process where you interpret and read results, review videos, or check code. We aren’t letting AI make the final decisions; we make the decisions.
Have you seen the movie Limitless with Bradley Cooper? When we use AI as recruiters, it’s like when his character pops that pill and becomes super intelligent. (I’m not suggesting taking pills—just logging into Eightfold!) The recruiter becomes the architect. They understand their pipeline, when to leverage the AI interviewer, when to jump on a call, and how automation paths are set up. I envision it like a television production control room with monitors everywhere. Go ahead, Steve.
TA Week Host 20:35
That’s a pretty good segue. We have two closely aligned questions—I’ll ask both together. First: What do you think the secret sauce is if everyone uses outreach agents and the noise reaches a level where candidates just shut down? Second: A previous session touched on the danger of losing candidate trust by using AI too much in screening. How do you manage that balance between going all-in on agentic systems versus candidate hesitation?
Michael Watson 21:30
Let’s take those one by one. To the first question: our secret sauce is the size and ontology of our skills dataset. We’ve been around for 10 years (the first three in stealth) and have ingested over 1.5 billion data points, career trajectories, and resumes. We can infer skills candidates might have even if not explicitly listed on a resume, or highlight missing experience based on peer data. It guides you to be a talent expert rather than an order taker.
Regarding burnout from automated outreach (like LinkedIn InMails): I think it will eventually boomerang back where candidates actively seek human conversation. In our platform, candidates can opt out of the AI interviewer to speak with a human. As people adjust to technology, they get comfortable. A few years ago, people were hesitant about AI note-takers on calls; now, I don’t jump on a call without one!
TA Week Host 23:47
And candidates are taking AI notes too! From a discovery or legal standpoint, you’re best off covering your assets by using them as well.
Michael Watson 24:11
That’s right. Will every recruiter make it through this transition? I don’t think so, Steve. But just like 40 years ago when I couldn’t imagine holding supercomputers in my hand, there will be future jobs we can’t imagine yet. From a TA perspective, instead of managing 25 reqs, a recruiter might manage 50 reqs because they aren’t doing initial screenings or coding tests. Their focus shifts to human touchpoints: check-ins, psychological alignment, closing offers, and advisory work.
TA Week Host 25:09
We shall see!
Michael Watson 25:11
So what does this new day look like? You check your operations center for at-risk requisitions, candidate follow-ups, and scheduled screens across your agents. You perform feedback assessments and address issues like fraud detection—figuring out if a candidate profile is authentic or completely fabricated.
Next, you review agent activity. We essentially become TA managers overseeing digital agent workforces. Human intervention steps in during intake calibration, deep candidate conversations, and hiring manager advisory.
My dream when implementing AI for recruiters was that they wouldn’t have to open laptops at night to review resumes—that everything could be accomplished within a standard 40-hour workweek to restore work-life balance. Coming from the old Aerotek “Red Zone” days where you burned the midnight oil, this technology finally makes that balance possible.
The choice is clear: we are moving toward becoming architects of tomorrow leveraging agents. While I’m nostalgic for the old days of milk crates and paper resumes, I’d never want to go back to hauling banker boxes off college campuses.
We’re also launching “Agent Academy” soon to help recently laid-off recruiters learn Eightfold and AI skills for free so they can upskill for new roles.
Lastly, here are two QR codes:
I’ll open it back up for remaining questions!
TA Week Host 30:30
We have a few great questions coming in, all surrounding the balance between AI and human touch. First: Have you considered the risk that candidates may view AI-led first-round interviews as impersonal, leading them to question how much the organization values them and causing them to drop out?
Michael Watson 31:01
We have. Interestingly, I asked my teenagers (17 and 19) this question. They told me, “Dad, I’m perfectly comfortable interviewing with an AI agent.” The younger generation grew up interacting with technology seamlessly. It’s often people of my generation who feel hesitant.
When I ran operations at HGST (Hitachi Global Storage Technologies), we had swing and night shifts. It was extremely difficult to schedule interviews for people working non-traditional hours. Using an AI interviewer allows a candidate getting off shift at midnight to complete an interview at 3:00 a.m. on their own schedule. It levels the playing field. As younger generations enter the workforce, adoption will naturally increase.
TA Week Host 33:28
That dovetails into another point: candidates worry company reps aren’t real, and companies worry candidates aren’t real.
Michael Watson 33:44
I recently created my own digital twin on LinkedIn! I think within years, resumes will disappear in favor of verified digital skill wallets. When you graduate or complete a role, verified credentials get added to your digital wallet. Applying for a job will be as simple as tapping a credit card to share your verified skills.
TA Week Host 35:25
People talked about that with blockchain, and now we’re moving to new iterations. It’s a much deeper conversation than just “Skynet becoming self-aware!”
Michael Watson 35:41
Haha, yeah, that’s a conversation best had over a pint of beer!
TA Week Host 35:47
What role do you see AI agents playing in executive search, where human touch is paramount?
Michael Watson 36:07
It’s not a single button press; it’s like playing an organ. For executive search, you might only leverage a sourcing agent to aggregate market data, read 10-Ks, pull ZoomInfo insights, and consolidate a targeted list of top candidates for the executive recruiter to personally engage.
TA Week Host 36:53
That foundational research is everything in executive search. Having real-time dossiers on candidates is invaluable.
Michael Watson 37:08
Exactly—real-time insight instead of static spreadsheets.
TA Week Host 37:34
Do you recommend AI recruiting tools for companies of all sizes, or is there a minimum threshold?
Michael Watson 37:46
It depends on volume and use case. My neighbor owns a local Harley-Davidson dealership with low hiring volume—an AI interviewer doesn’t make sense for him. But a friend running an oil change business across 36 locations loves it because of high volume.
TA Week Host 38:18
Is there a link for your Agent Academy?
Michael Watson 38:28
Follow me on LinkedIn! As we open up free courses for the community, I’ll announce details there.
TA Week Host 39:16
Final question, Mike: What is the first thing a company should consider when looking to implement AI agents?
Michael Watson 40:03
Taking off my Eightfold hat and putting back on my practitioner hat: look at the size of their underlying data source. If an AI vendor’s dataset isn’t large enough, bias becomes a major issue.
Think of it like salt water: if you drink pure salt water, you’ll gag. But if you pour that salt water into a 40,000-gallon pool of fresh water, you won’t taste the salt. A massive, diverse dataset dilutes inherent biases. That’s my number one piece of advice when evaluating AI vendors.
TA Week Host 41:28
On that note, Mike, thank you very much! Up next, we have Brittany Duncan from Dairy Farmers of America. Thank you all, and see you in a few minutes!
Michael Watson 41:43
Thank you all. Bye-bye!
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