Conferences usually produce polished panels and forgettable takeaways. Transform 2025 produced 12 unscripted Metaview-booth conversations with talent leaders who said what they actually believe. Five themes kept surfacing across every interview, and they form the most honest read on where recruiting is heading.
Nolan Church recorded the live edition of 10x Recruiting (more episodes on the 10x Recruiting hub) from the Metaview booth at the Transform conference in Las Vegas. Talent leaders from Affirm, Greenhouse, Ethena, Higher, Craft Ventures, Swing Search, Talent Collective, Normal Compute, Notabene, Reku, Connery Consulting, and Mysten Labs each got fast questions, no polish, real answers.
This recap synthesizes the five themes that surfaced across the conversations: AI is an amplifier (not a fix), efficiency is the new flex, the DEI pullback is real, in-office mandates are returning to candidate pushback, and fractional talent is rising while the term gets misused.
Note: These five themes emerged from 12 unscripted booth conversations at Transform 2025, not a curated panel. Talent leaders from Affirm, Greenhouse, Craft Ventures, Swing Search, and eight more companies gave fast, unpolished answers. The framing below synthesizes what kept surfacing across all twelve, not what any single speaker intended.
AI is an amplifier, not a fix
The dominant Transform theme was AI, but the framing surprised everyone. Leaders agreed AI does not solve recruiting problems. It amplifies whatever is already in place.
AI won't solve any problems. It will enhance whatever is happening. So if the muscle is atrophied, it will enhance the atrophied muscle.”
Greenhouse CEO Daniel Chait echoed the framing through a different lens. AI as a tool for fairness and inclusivity, not a replacement for recruiters. Greenhouse's resume anonymization model hits 96% accuracy versus the 80-85% industry standard, helping hiring managers evaluate skills without bias triggered by names or demographics.
Ed Snook of Mysten Labs admitted most teams are still in early experimentation: "We've started playing around with ChatGPT, but that's nothing earth-shattering." Scott Kirsch of Connery Consulting agreed that AI implementations remain surface-level for most companies. The deeper implication: AI is not a standalone solution. It is an extension of recruiter strategy, and demands thoughtful deployment. See claude-for-recruiters for the practical version of this.
Efficiency is the new flex
Growth-at-all-costs hiring is out. Productivity per employee is the new headline metric. AI tools that let 5 people do the work of 10 were treated as essential, not optional.
With the right tooling, you don't need as many people anymore.”
Cassie shared a story about her husband, a recruiter with no coding experience, who used a stack of tools (Vercel, Cursor, Claude) to build custom recruiting tools. The implication raised the bar for every adjacent role: if recruiters can build tools solo, what should engineers be capable of with AI copilots?
Hiring is also becoming more aligned with product planning. Ed Snook's team plans in six-month cycles tied to product launches: "We ask, what do we need to ship this product in the next six months? Then we reassess." The approach borrows from Airbnb's cadence of two major launches a year. Hiring is becoming integrated with product and go-to-market planning, not back-office support.
Chloe Glasgow, Head of People and Talent at Normal Compute, framed the new bar as "sourcing with intention." Her version: target just 20 highly aligned candidates per role and recruit the "give a shit" factor. Mass outreach is out; precision is in.
The DEI pullback is real
One of the most emotionally charged Transform topics was the quiet dismantling of DEI initiatives. Programs dissolved, tools deprecated, goals deprioritized.
We built process. We built strategy. We invested in technology like Textio to make sure that we're doing this the right way. And now, companies are reversing course.”
There was a sense of being "rug-pulled" as years of hard-won progress quietly rolled back. But some innovation persists. Greenhouse's anonymization tools offer measurable change. Their new "Greenhouse Verified" badge signals when companies follow up with every candidate, not just finalists, a meaningful step in restoring trust in a market where candidate ghosting remains rampant.
Daniel Chait's framing: "If you're only focused on the risks of AI, you sometimes don't see those opportunities." The future of DEI may rely less on formal departments and more on embedded practices, inclusion built into every stage of the hiring process. The leaders who keep pushing forward, even without formal mandates, are the ones doing the slow, invisible work of designing fairer systems. See good-interviewer-bad-interviewer for the structural angle.
In-office is back; some candidates aren't buying it
Return-to-office mandates are rising at early-stage companies, and not just hybrid setups. Five-days-a-week in-person work is back. The friction is acute on the candidate side.
I'm seeing five days a week come back, which I actually don't want to say out loud because it's a recruiter's worst nightmare.”
Founders want in-person alignment, speed, and culture-building. Candidates are hesitant, shaped by years of layoffs, instability, and shifting expectations. Many moved to smaller or more lifestyle-driven cities during the remote boom and resist uprooting back. As Annie noted: "People are scared to make the move right now. More so than in the past."
Candidate caution is reshaping funnels. Job seekers are doing deeper due diligence (asking around, backchanneling hiring managers, gathering signal before responding to outreach). Companies that articulate the why behind their return-to-office stance will fare better than those that just issue mandates. Even as hiring velocity picks up, close rates are lagging.
Fractional talent is rising, but it's not for everyone
Fractional roles (experienced executives taking on part-time, high-impact leadership work) are gaining traction with startups and nonprofits that need strategic guidance without the budget for a full-time exec. But Natalie Stones, co-founder of Talent Collective, called out a real misuse of the term.
"Fractional should be reserved for people that have previously been in some sort of leadership position. Maybe they're responsible for strategy and/or have managed a team. Fractional is not an IC-level role." Many individual contributors are branding themselves as fractional when they are actually offering project-based recruiting support, what Natalie calls "consulting," not leadership.
Natalie speaks from experience. After building a full recruiting function as Head of Talent at a Series A company, she stepped away when the role no longer needed her full-time. "After maybe nine months, I was like, okay, this is just kind of humming along. But meanwhile, I'm sitting here with a nice salary and benefits, but I don't feel like I'm doing much."
Still, tension exists. Founders often view fractional with skepticism. As Nolan put it: "If you're not with me full-time, then you're against me." When expectations align and the scope is truly strategic, fractional roles can unlock serious value for early-stage and scaling teams. When the term gets misused for project-based IC work, it muddies the signal for everyone.
Where AI gives recruiting teams use
The Transform throughline aligns with what every shipping recruiting team is figuring out: AI is the use that compounds the work that was already getting done well, and exposes the work that was not.
Metaview Notetaker captures every interview verbatim so the team builds a real data foundation, not a memory-based one. Application Review handles the inbound volume so senior recruiter hours go to candidates who need real conversation. AI Sourcing turns intake-doc criteria into ranked candidate shortlists without burning sourcer hours. Reports closes the quality-of-hire loop by tracking whether the hires you made are still performing 12 to 18 months in. For the broader category map, see best-ai-recruiting-tools-2026.
Numbers from the 2026 AI & Hiring Alignment Report, based on surveying 505 recruiting leaders and hiring managers across North America and EMEA. The 85% AI-adoption stat anchors the Transform throughline: the teams at the conference that are winning are not debating whether AI belongs in the funnel; they are optimizing where to deploy it and how to measure the output. The 79%/36% goal-attainment split is the structural consequence: teams with tight recruiter-HM alignment perform at more than double the rate of teams without it.
The operating shift
Three concrete moves from the Transform conversations for any TA leader trying to land on the right side of these shifts:
One: pressure-test where the recruiting muscle is atrophied before deploying AI. If sourcing was weak, AI will produce more weak sourcing faster. Diagnose the underlying recruiting work first; layer AI on top of what already works. The teams skipping this step are amplifying problems they should have fixed.
Two: rewrite the success metric from headcount to productivity per employee. The growth-at-all-costs era is over. AI-tooled teams of 5 outproduce legacy teams of 10 when deployed deliberately. The TA leaders who frame their work around output rather than headcount will be the ones who keep budget when the next correction hits.
Three: when you're hiring fractional, demand leadership scope. If the person you are hiring is doing project-based IC work, they are a consultant, not a fractional exec. Be precise. The fractional model works when the scope is genuinely strategic and the operator has the leadership chops to back it up.
The TA leaders who internalize these three moves will operate from the front foot through the next 18 months. That is the operating shift.
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Frequently asked questions
Why do leaders call AI an amplifier rather than a fix?
Because AI scales whatever is already happening in the recruiting funnel. If sourcing is weak, AI sources weak candidates faster. If interview signal is noisy, AI captures noisier signal. The implication is that the use is real but it lands on existing fundamentals, not on the AI itself. Teams have to diagnose the underlying recruiting work before they layer AI on top.
What does "efficiency is the new flex" actually mean?
Growth-at-all-costs hiring is out. Productivity per employee is the headline metric. Leaders at Transform consistently described AI-tooled teams of 5 outproducing legacy teams of 10. The bar is shifting from how many people did you hire to how much output did the team you have produce, and AI is the lever that lets the smaller team win.
Is DEI dead at the institutional level?
Mostly yes at the formal program level, with widespread rollbacks and tool deprecations. But the practitioners who stay committed are embedding inclusion into hiring systems quietly: anonymization tools at Greenhouse, structural fairness in interview design, candidate-experience improvements like the Greenhouse Verified badge. The future of DEI looks less like a department and more like default practice.
Why are candidates resisting return-to-office mandates?
Many moved to smaller or lifestyle-driven cities during the remote era and would have to uproot to take a 5-day in-office role. They are also shaped by years of layoffs and instability, which makes them more cautious about any high-friction move. Companies that articulate the why behind their in-office stance (mentorship, culture-building, career-growth velocity) close better than those that just issue mandates.
When does the fractional model actually work?
When the role is genuinely strategic and the operator has prior leadership scope. Fractional means a former Head of Talent or VP-level operator running strategy and team-building part-time, not an individual contributor doing project-based recruiting. When the scope is clear and the seniority matches, fractional unlocks real value for early-stage and scaling teams. When it's mislabeled IC consulting, it muddies the signal for everyone.
