Edgewell Personal Care

Laura Caron

Talent Acquisition Modernizer

Talent acquisition is changing faster than ever. Artificial intelligence is transforming how we source candidates, write job descriptions, identify talent, schedule interviews, analyze data and manage the talent acquisition process. As talent leaders, we have an opportunity to use these technologies to make our organizations more efficient, more strategic and ultimately better at finding the right people. But there is one thing AI cannot replace: human connection.

After more than 20 years in talent acquisition, I have seen our profession evolve from largely transactional recruiting to a strategic business function. I have also had the opportunity to lead global talent acquisition transformation, build teams and Centers of Excellence, implement new technology and introduce AI-enabled recruiting tools.

These experiences have reinforced something I believe strongly: the more technology we introduce into recruiting, the more intentional we need to be about keeping the human element at the center. AI can help us identify a candidate whose experience aligns with a role. It can help talent acquisition teams spend less time on administrative tasks and more time engaging with talent. It can surface patterns in data and provide insights that would be difficult to uncover manually.

Those are meaningful advantages. Still, AI cannot have a meaningful conversation with a candidate about why a particular opportunity matters to them. It cannot understand the personal circumstances behind a career decision. It cannot build trust with a hiring manager who is struggling to articulate what they really need. It cannot replace the judgment, empathy and curiosity that experienced Talent Partners bring to complex hiring decisions.

Combining Technology with Human Expertise

In my experience, technology has been most successful when it has enabled recruiters rather than replaced them. At Edgewell Personal Care, we transformed Talent Acquisition into a global Center of Excellence while introducing greater automation, analytics and AI-enabled recruiting capabilities. These efforts contributed to significant efficiencies, opportunity-cost savings and a reduction in timeto-fill.

Those results were not achieved through technology alone. They came from combining technology with people, process and partnership. Talent Partners needed to understand the data. Leaders needed to trust the process. Candidates needed to feel respected throughout the experience. Hiring managers needed a Talent Acquisition partner who could challenge assumptions, provide market insight and help them make thoughtful decisions.

That balance will become even more important as AI becomes increasingly embedded in our work. The future Talent Partner will not simply be someone who knows how to use recruiting technology. They will know when to use it and when not to. They will understand that a candidate is more than a résumé, a hiring manager is more than a requisition and a successful hire is more than a metric. We must have people leading AI, not simply a person in the AI loop.

Keeping Empathy in the Candidate Experience

Talent Acquisition leaders also have a responsibility to think carefully about the candidate experience. Efficiency matters, but efficiency without empathy can quickly become impersonal. A perfectly automated process can still leave a candidate feeling ignored. A chatbot can answer a question, but sometimes what a candidate really needs is a person who will listen.

The opportunity ahead is not to choose between technology and humanity. It is to bring them together. AI can make us faster, smarter and more efficient. But empathy, curiosity, judgment and genuine human connection are what make Talent Acquisition meaningful.

As our profession enters this next chapter, I believe the strongest talent organizations will be those that embrace innovation without losing sight of the people at the heart of hiring decisions.

Even in the age of AI, Talent Acquisition still needs a heart.