Sponsored by 12twenty.
Today, we are exploring one of the biggest challenges facing talent acquisition leaders: how to identify qualified candidates amid the flood of AI-generated applications. As the volume of applications grows, employers need a better way to separate genuine talent from the noise. We’ll discuss why hiring is entering the trust era, what distinguishes a trusted talent network from the open market, and how organizations can invest in stronger talent relationships before their next role even opens.
But before we begin today’s podcast, please ask yourself these two questions:
First, are you overwhelmed by AI-generated applications?
And second, are you relying primarily on general job boards or are you building trusted talent networks to support your recruiting and hiring efforts?
We are thrilled to be joined today by Kenny Berlin. Kenny is the co-founder and CEO of 12twenty, an applied AI talent technology platform connecting universities, employers, students and alumni through a trusted talent network. He has spent more than 15 years in technology, including Amazon, and has built 12twenty around a thesis that feels to me, and I think to many of you, it’s going to be very relevant today. As AI makes it easier than ever to apply for jobs, the future of hiring will literally be built on trust. Take that in, everybody. It’s not a volume game anymore. Under Kenny’s leadership, the company has grown from a small startup into a platform used by thousands of leading universities and employers to build stronger connections, make better-informed decisions, and I think so importantly right now, improve career and hiring outcomes.
AI and Qualified Talent
How has the flood of AI-generated applications changed employers’ ability to identify real, and yes, I’m using that word on purpose, qualified talent?
Yeah, this is such an important question. And I want to start just much, much higher level, why hiring is so important? There are great companies around the world, and these great companies are trying to build world-changing companies. They want to be exceptional, best-in-class companies. And the only way to do that, the only way to build these companies that are going to change the world are by hiring amazing A-level talent, right? Nobody’s hiring just anybody…
So what’s going on? So we know there’s this major, major problem. We know how important it is to solve. And it turns out in the last year or so, two years, all of a sudden AI has made this problem worse. It has made hiring even harder because all of a sudden, when you post a job in the old days where it was all about getting more applications; now AI has made applications limitless, right? If you post your job and you just get a flood of applicants and this becomes a problem, right? So we used to live in this world, if you go back five years ago, it’s okay, I need to hire 200 people. And if I can just get 1,000 applications, surely we’ll figure this thing out. But the problem now is you need to hire 200 people. I talked to an employer last week; they have 30,000 applicants for a job they’re looking to hire 50 people for, and they have three people on their team.
The Trust Era
 What is this paradigm shift that talent acquisition leaders around the world need to embrace?
So the trust era, it’s this shift from volume to confidence. For a long time, recruiting technology was built around getting more candidates into the funnel and processing them more efficiently. That’s what made sense when access to talent or volume was the constraint. It was like, “I can’t even get the applicants. So just how do I do that better?” But today, access isn’t the primary problem. There’s many tools where you can post a job and have 300 resumes in your inbox before you go to bed. Who cares, really? It doesn’t matter. Nobody wants that anymore. Confidence and quality, that’s what we’re trying to solve…
Right? So talent leaders, they need to ask a different question, right? Instead of how do I get more applicants? It’s really shifting to how do I know which talent I should trust and invest time in, right? And I think this is the thing: none of us have enough time or resources. It’s hard.
Where Candidates Come From Matters
You distinguish between two fundamentally different talent pools, the open market and trusted talent networks. Talk to us about what separates them and why does the source of a candidate matter now more than ever?
So the open market, it’s incredibly valuable because it gives employers reach. And at some point you do need thousands of applicants, right? If you’re hiring 2,000 people, you’re not doing that with 2003 applicants. At some point you are going to need applicants. And so there is a time when you go to the open market, but it’s also largely self-reported. A candidate, when you look at them by themselves, they can tell you where they went to school, what they did, what skills they have, why they’re a fit. In an AI-enabled world, creating that story is easier than ever, right? Anybody can go on ChatGPT and it’ll bang out a really nice resume that looks good. But the key is going to a trusted talent network that gives employers the additional context that they need.
For More Information
For more insights about how to turn AI noise into a trusted talent network, listen to this full podcast episode. And be sure to subscribe to the WorkTrends Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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