Recruiting today isn’t just about posting jobs and waiting for resumes. As shown during the recent panel at RecFest 2025, programmatic advertising and AI are redefining talent acquisition — if done right. Here’s how.
Why programmatic matters now
Many talent acquisition teams still ask “What exactly is programmatic advertising?” And yet, the same tools that revolutionized digital consumer marketing are becoming central to recruiting.
The panel, moderated by Alex Fourlis, Senior Vice President and GM at Veritone, featured Wendy Wick (People Ready), Jason Roberts (Cielo), Scott Williams (Interim Healthcare), and Thalia Diedrick (Gotu). The panel pointed out:
- In sectors with high demand and low supply (e.g., healthcare, dental staffing), programmatic opened ad channels the team wasn’t even aware of.
- Unlike manual job-posting, programmatic allows one job requisition to vary titles, locations, and target audiences dynamically — matching how potential candidates search.
- Candidate attraction is increasingly consumer marketing: the candidate is the “buyer” of the job, and ad-tech must reach niche, passive or semi-passive audiences.
From hype to real value
While programmatic and AI are now staples of recruiting tech discussions, the panel raised important caveats. There’s a misconception that you can “set it and forget it.” In reality, it takes active management, data-analysis, and optimization for it to pay off. Part of that pay off requires people to use undervalued features such as built-in A/B testing, dynamic title and location variance, and deeper integrations with ATS/CRMs. For the latter, seamless integration is often superficial. Many vendors claim integrations that are one-way or limited, forcing teams to implement manual workarounds.
At the end of the day, the real value for the promise of this new technology is not just about cheap candidates. It’s about hiring quality candidates faster.
Where AI adds real benefit (and where it doesn’t yet)
The buzz around AI in TA is real — but the panel drilled into what it can do now vs what it promises. Right now, AI can help:
- Automate administrative/repetitive tasks, freeing recruiters to focus on human interaction.
- Generate hyper-personalized outreach, enabling more human-like, empathy-driven communication at scale.
But technology is still emerging in space. Some of the things that will come in the years to come include:
- Fully autonomous “agentic” recruiting workflows where the system manages end-to-end hiring. These are still more visions than reality.
- Skill-verification and nuanced candidate qualification: when judgement matters, human discernment is still essential.
- The technology’s role is to augment recruiters, not replace them.
Data, KPIs & how to make the business case
To gain stakeholder buy-in for programmatic/AI tools, clear, business-oriented metrics matter. The panel emphasized the importance of monitoring key metrics including cost per applicant, time to hire, applicant-to-hire conversion, recruiter response time, and quality of hire. However, the panel emphasized that it’s not enough to show lower cost per applicant, you must also show improved outcomes such as interviews, offers, and quality hires. Lastly, it’s essential for teams to monitor their hiring funnel end-to-end to spot where any bottlenecks might exist.
The human side: recruiter roles and candidate experience
Technology alone cannot make recruiting better. The human experience is still central to everything. As automation frees up time, recruiters can invest in valuable tasks such as detailed intake discussions, engaging high-potential candidates, and meaningful hiring-manager interactions.
Candidate experience remains non-negotiable. Even as processes become more automated, candidates expect human-centric, empathetic interaction. To help stay on top of this, having feedback loops are critical. Surveys, even simple in-app or email ones, help gauge candidate experience and surface issues caused by over-automation.
What TA professionals must learn and prepare for
Looking ahead, the skills and mindset of TA teams must evolve. Here are the key areas that panelists recommend teams should focus on:
- Prompt engineering: recruiters must learn to “talk to the machine” and frame the right questions, challenge and validate what AI produces.
- Empathy & communication: as automation grows, human connection becomes a differentiator, especially in candidate decline, retention conversations and culture fit.
- Data storytelling & analytics: with more metrics and dashboards, recruiters must interpret, present and act on data and not just rely on vendors.
- Voice and conversational technology: navigating new input/output modes (voice, chat) will become table stakes.
- Strategic mindset: recognize the role of programmatic plus AI in the wider hiring function (sourcing, employer-brand, retention)—not just “post jobs and wait.”
Final thoughts
The RecFest panel served as a strong reminder that programmatic advertising and AI in talent acquisition are not just hype—they’re going to be staple tools for the future of hiring. However, the winners will combine tech with data literacy and human empathy.
If your team is still treating recruiting like job-board dispatch, you’re missing out. But if you’re ready to treat candidates like customers, automate where you should, and keep the human where it matters—you’re on the right path.
Want to dive deeper? Let’s talk about how to build a practical roadmap for implementing programmatic recruiting, choosing the right KPIs, and equipping your team for the next wave of talent acquisition transformation.
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