2026 June- TLIX Deep Dive
Although AI is receiving practically all of our attention these days, the consensus opinion during our recent TLIX: Talent Leader Information Exchange Deep Dive on Sourcing was that it’s not yet living up to its promised potential.
We started by reviewing industry expert predictions that a majority of TA leaders plan to add autonomous agentic AI agents in 2026. But, five months into the year and we’re finding most TA teams don’t feel the tools are ready yet when it comes to sourcing. The effort it’s taking to teach AI is greater than its current time savings, and several feel the technology doesn’t adequately understand their data and key nuances. A key requirement for success is committing to the tradeoff of putting other work on hold in order to dedicate time toward AI tool design and optimization. Not surprisingly, it’s proving hard to take one step back for the chance to possibly take two steps forward.
Our next topic was skills-based hiring which also continues to gain attention yet is also limited by operationalizing challenges. Those who have embarked on this effort feel it’s necessary to focus internally first – developing skills taxonomies and mapping them to internal talent and success profiles before applying them to external searches. Once again, this takes time and tremendous levels of collaboration and agreement. Another issue is that there are no universal skills standards, so matching external talent to company-specific skill sets is more of an art than science.
Finally, internal mobility and internal talent as a sourcing channel are becoming essential bridge strategies as hiring remains constrained or uncertain in 2026. Several member companies have active initiatives to increase internal hiring, including posting roles internally before externally, and working to shift manager mindsets around hoarding talent. Many are realizing that today’s candidates recognize continuous skill development is critical as AI comes to bear on their careers, and they will be seeking organizations that truly ‘walk the talk’ when it comes to growth and development. Are we all training our interviewers to share stories in this regard?