Q4 pressure is peaking, 2026 plans are crystallising, and insight teams are being asked to do more – faster. From AI guardrails to attitudinal segmentation 2.0, here are four big themes shaping the insight space this November.

🤖 AI Guardrails Become a Strategic Priority

As AI tools become embedded in research workflows, brands are setting clearer boundaries, not just around data privacy, but around decision-making accountability.

Heineken introduced internal AI usage guidelines for research, setting out when AI should support, augment, or be left out entirely. One key rule: AI can summarise but never generate final recommendations without human review. This move followed a misinterpretation of sentiment in early AI-led social listening, which skewed tone-of-voice guidance.

It appears that we are now moving past the AI hype phase, and now many are looking to build smart, ethical infrastructure around it.

🛒 Segmentation Gets Real-Time and Behaviour-Led

Static attitudinal segments are being challenged by live behavioural signals…especially in e-commerce, where consumer needs shift hour by hour.

M&S moved beyond traditional personas to trial “real-time segment activation,” combining first-party data, page journeys, and session recency to adapt homepage content and email subject lines dynamically. A single user could shift between three need states in a day, and personalisation kept up. The result? A 12% uplift in click-through and stronger basket builds.

The new segmentation mindset is less “who are you?” and more “what do you need right now?”

📱 Gen Alpha Enters the Research Chat

Brands are starting to treat Gen Alpha (those born after 2010) as a research-worthy audience in their own right, not just as “kids of millennials.”

LEGO launched a co-creation community for 10–13-year-olds, with fully COPPA-compliant guardrails, moderated online spaces, and a hybrid of drawing, voice, and build-based tasks. Insights from the community fed into 2026 packaging and digital gameplay strategies, showing this age group’s strong lean toward environmental storytelling and mixed-reality play.

Gen Alpha doesn’t want to be marketed to… they want to shape what’s being built.

🧾 ‘Value’ Gets Redefined… Again!

As economic anxiety drags on, the consumer definition of valuecontinues to evolve, and brands are updating how they measure it.

ASDA conducted a mixed-methods study combining digital receipts, time-use diaries, and emotional check-ins during weekly shops. Findings showed that value isn’t just about price, it’s about reducing mental load (“can I get everything here without having to think?”). This insight has informed store layout updates, pre-bundled meal solutions, and smarter basket-building prompts.

The value equation in 2025 = price + time + headspace. Are you tracking all three?

The Big Shift: Automation Arrives Quietly… Then All at Once

What began as “experimentation” in 2023 has become a full-scale reset by Q4 2025. AI isn’t just augmenting work. It’s absorbing it. And suddenly, everyone from HR leaders to brand strategists is being asked to rethink what roles, teams, and capabilities look like in the next three years.

• Amazon is preparing up to 30,000 corporate job cuts. The automation wave is targeting ops, HR, AWS and devices, especially non-technical middle-tier roles.

• Microsoft announced 9,000 job losses (4% of workforce) to align operations with its AI-first future.

• Accenture, even as a key AI transformation vendor, cut 11,000 jobs this year.

• Layoffs across the tech sector now exceed 180,000 in 2025, according to OpenTools.

But here’s the twist: many of these companies are still hiring. Just not for what they used to.

1. AI engineers, prompt strategists, automation leads and talent designers are in.

2. Traditional generalist roles are being thinned out or merged with AI-enabled systems.

3. Brand, innovation, and people teams must now build strategy around capability gaps, not just market gaps.

📌 Takeaway: It’s no longer “AI vs jobs.” It’s “AI vs stagnation.” The talent strategies that win will be the ones that evolve fastest, not just react loudest.

Brand in Focus: Amazon’s Talent Rebuild

Amazon‘s layoffs aren’t just a cost-cutting play. They’re a talent reset. Internal sources and analysts suggest the company is moving from “people-heavy” operations to “platform-heavy” logistics, powered by its own AI tooling and internal LLMs.

Over 14,000 roles across devices, HR and AWS have already been confirmed for redundancy. Yet Amazon is actively hiring for thousands of automation specialists, robotics leads and prompt engineers.

According to a recent Forbes piece, Amazon’s “automation imperative” is now core to its cost-of-delivery model and future logistics dominance.

Why it Matters

• Internal capabilities are being rebuilt to match external strategy. Fast.

• Employer brand is being tested. Messaging now has to juggle “AI ambition” with “human responsibility.”

• Teams who once ran day-to-day ops are being retrained (or replaced) to manage the platforms instead.

📌 Takeaway: Brand trust now extends to your own people. If your automation play doesn’t feel like a talent strategy, it might just become a PR problem.

Consulting Corner: Deloitte Builds a Digital Workforce

While some consulting giants are pulling back, Deloitte is doubling down. Their Global Agentic Network, launched this year, aims to help clients not just “use” AI, but restructure their entire operating models around it.

In August, Deloitte released a framework for workforce evolution, centred on AI‑human collaboration, internal reskilling, and agile org design. Their services now include embedded AI strategy teams focused on people architecture, not just tech integration. Notably, Deloitte is hiring AI leads and workforce architects at a faster rate than traditional strategy consultants.

Why it Matters

• Consulting is becoming embedded, not external.

• Clients want speed, integration and transformation. “Advisory decks” alone won’t cut it.

• Talent agility is being sold as a service.

📌 Takeaway: Strategy firms are no longer just fixers. They’re builders. And the product is often the org chart itself.

🔔 Final Thought

The layoffs are real, but so is the opportunity. This month proves that “strategy” isn’t just about goals or markets anymore. It’s about how your teams are designed, what skills you’re investing in, and whether your internal narrative can match your external promise.

Welcome to the second edition of The Sharp End. Each month we’ll cut through the noise to bring you the signals, stories, and shifts that matter most for strategists, researchers, and insight professionals.

Written by Francis Nicholson an expert in Recruiting Insight & Strategy Leaders & Helping Brands Hire Better & Talent Find Purpose.

✍️ Editor’s Note — The AI-Literate Strategist

Last month we talked about retrainability — who companies choose to invest in when AI starts reshaping roles. This month, we look at what happens next: how strategists, researchers, and insight leaders are becoming AI-literate. Not “AI experts.” Not coders. But professionals who can use AI to think faster, frame sharper, and deliver insight that still feels human. Because the edge isn’t in the tools themselves, it’s in knowing how to make them work for you, not instead of you.

📈 Market Signal — From Tools to Thinking

We’re now seeing the second wave of AI adoption in the strategy and insight world:

• Early adopters used AI for speed — transcribing, summarising, automating.

• The next wave is using it for thinking — exploring scenarios, framing hypotheses, testing narratives. According to LinkedIn data, job postings mentioning “AI literacy” in marketing, strategy, and research roles are up 42% year-on-year. Yet few employers can define what that actually means. The firms getting it right see AI literacy as mindset over mastery:

• Curiosity to experiment.

• Judgment to challenge machine output. • Storytelling to turn data into direction.

Takeaway: “AI literacy” is emerging as the new differentiator — not as a technical skill, but as a way of thinking.

🗣 Frontline Story — “It’s Like Having a Junior Strategist Who Never Sleeps”

How often do you use AI in your day job? The answer;”90% of my day, when is the last time you ran a Google Search?”. “I started using AI to speed up desk research but now it’s in every stage of my process. I test hypotheses, summarise transcripts, even draft narrative frames to push my thinking. It’s not perfect, sometimes it’s way off, but it’s made me sharper. It’s like having a junior strategist who never sleeps. The trick is knowing when to trust it, and when to throw its ideas out completely.” That’s how one Innovation Director described their evolving relationship with generative AI. Others echo the same sentiment: AI is becoming the new thinking partner, not a threat. Those who use it well are learning to structure briefs faster, prototype insights earlier, and move their clients from analysis paralysis to action faster.

🔧 Sharp Skill — Framing with AI

If you want to show AI literacy, don’t start by listing tools — show how you think with them. Try this three-step approach:

1. Prompt for patterns — use AI to reveal what’s missing, not just what’s there.

2. Interrogate the logic — push back on its assumptions; make the invisible visible.

3. Rebuild the narrative — turn raw AI output into a point of view that moves people.

Takeaway: The best strategists aren’t being replaced by AI. They’re being augmented by it — faster thinkers, sharper framers, more decisive storytellers.

🌟 Case in Point — From Insight Manager to “AI Translator”

One insight manager at a global FMCG brand described how she began experimenting with AI to synthesise open-ended survey data. Instead of waiting days for coding, she could test hypotheses in hours — freeing up time to focus on the story and recommendations.

When she shared her results with leadership, her manager asked her to train the wider team. Three months later, her title changed to AI Translator, leading internal pilots on how to integrate tools responsibly. The lesson? AI literacy isn’t about learning to code — it’s about learning to communicate.

✂️ Closing Thought

AI is changing what it means to be “strategic.” The best people in our field won’t be the ones with the most tools — they’ll be the ones who use tools to think differently.

👉 The future belongs to the AI-literate strategist.

Welcome to the first edition of The Sharp End. Each month we’ll cut through the noise to bring you the signals, stories, and shifts that matter most for strategists, researchers, and insight professionals.

Written by Francis Nicholson an expert in Recruiting Insight & Strategy Leaders & Helping Brands Hire Better & Talent Find Purpose.

Our opening theme is retrainability. Accenture’s recent cuts show how companies are already sorting their people into those they will invest in — and those they won’t. For strategists and researchers, this question is no longer abstract: AI is beginning to nibble at the very edges of our craft.

This issue looks at how that line is being drawn, what it feels like on the frontline, and the tools you can use to prove your value. Because the sharp end of the AI transition isn’t about technology alone — it’s about who gets carried forward, and why.

📈 Market Signal: Who Can’t Be Retrained?

Accenture has just cut more than 11,000 jobs in three months and told staff more departures are coming — not because business is collapsing, but because the firm has decided some employees simply can’t be retrained for the AI era.

The consulting giant, which employs nearly 800,000 people worldwide, is spending $865mn on restructuring as it races to align its workforce with client demand for AI and data-driven projects.

In the past two years, Accenture’s AI and data workforce has grown from 40,000 to 77,000 people — a doubling that shows exactly where investment is flowing.

Why it matters for strategists and researchers:

• Skill adjacency: If your role touches data, insight, or digital delivery, you’re more likely to be reskilled than replaced.
• Learning velocity: Firms invest in people who’ve adapted before and can prove they’ll adapt again.
• Value horizon: Reskilling that doesn’t produce results within 12 months rarely makes the cut.

Takeaway: Retrainability is becoming a new professional currency. If you can’t show it, don’t expect employers to bet on you.

🗣 Frontline: “If AI Can Do the Decks, What’s Left for Me?”

“I’ve built my career on turning consumer research into clear strategy. Now clients are asking if they really need a team to do that — or if AI can churn out the insights faster and cheaper. I can see the tools getting better by the month. Part of me is excited to use them, but another part is worried: if AI can write the deck, what’s left for me?”

That’s how one strategy director at a global brand described the tension. The core craft of research and strategy — synthesising data, pulling threads, telling the story — is exactly what generative AI is beginning to nibble at.

And it’s not just candidates feeling the pressure. One CMO we spoke to put it bluntly:

“We don’t need strategists who tell us what the data says. We need strategists who tell us what to do about it.”

Why it matters:

• For strategists and researchers, the retrainability question is sharper than ever: what new value can you bring that AI can’t?
• For employers, the risk is assuming that “research” or “deck writing” is the whole job. The human edge lies in judgment, provocation, and credibility with decision-makers — areas where AI still lags.

The anxiety is real, but so is the opportunity: those who integrate AI into their toolkit, while doubling down on influence and storytelling, are the ones most likely to be deemed worth retraining.

🔧 Sharp Tools: 3 Ways Strategists & Researchers Can Prove They’re Retrainable

1. Frame Better Questions AI is good at answers, weak at defining problems. Show that you can ask sharper, more commercial questions that AI won’t.
2. Blend Machine Output with Human Judgment Don’t just use AI — challenge it. Turn outputs into compelling arguments that persuade decision-makers.
3. Make the Story Stick A model can write a deck, but it can’t read a room. The ability to land a message with executives or clients is what sets retrainable strategists apart.

Takeaway: Retrainability in this field isn’t about coding skills. It’s about proving you can sit at the intersection of AI outputs, human judgment, and organisational influence.

🌟 Case in Point: From Planner to AI-Literate Insight Lead

Not every story is one of anxiety. One senior brand planner we spoke to recently has already pivoted successfully. Faced with shrinking budgets and rising expectations, she took the lead in experimenting with generative AI tools to accelerate early research synthesis.

Instead of fearing replacement, she positioned herself as the translator: testing outputs, spotting blind spots, and shaping them into compelling recommendations for senior leadership.

Her reward? A newly created role as Insight Innovation Lead, where she now guides how the business blends AI with traditional research.

The lesson: Retrainability isn’t just about technical skills. It’s about curiosity, experimentation, and making yourself the person who shows others how to use new tools wisely.

👤 People Move: Retrainability at the Top

EY has promoted Nicola Morini Bianzino, its global Chief Technology Officer, into the role of Global Managing Partner for Client Technology.

What makes the move interesting isn’t just the title change, but what it signals: the firm’s most retrainable leaders are those who can pivot from technical depth into client-facing influence.

Why it matters: Retrainability isn’t just for analysts. At the top level, the people rising fastest are those who can bridge worlds: from technologist to strategist, from data to story, from back office to boardroom.

✂️ Closing Thought

AI isn’t just another tool in the strategist’s kit. It’s a sorting mechanism. The winners won’t be those who know the most — but those who prove, day in and day out, that they can be retrained, reinvented, and still matter.

👉 In the AI era, retrainability is your strategy.

By Cameron Maskell

Halloween has come and gone, campaign season is peaking, and insight teams are digging into end-of-year trends and 2026 planning. So, what’s been brewing across the research landscape this October? Here are four developments that stood out.

💬 AI Moderators Take on Qual at Scale

As online qual grows, AI is stepping in… not to replace researchers, but to support smarter, more scalable moderation and follow-up.

Unilever recently piloted an AI moderator for a week-long online community exploring teen skincare habits across five markets. The AI tool used natural language prompts to probe participants in real time, flag contradictions, and tailor follow-up questions. Human moderators oversaw and refined key threads, cutting analysis time by 40% and improving depth on niche topics.

Takeaway? The human touch still matters, but with AI co-pilots, qual is getting faster, deeper, and more flexible.

🧭 “Second Screen” Ethnography Captures Real-Life Context

Forget scheduled diaries! Second-screen ethnography is giving researchers real-world behavioural insight, in real time.

Just Eat worked with a mobile ethnography partner to capture how people really decide what to order, not just what they say they do. Participants screen-recorded their scroll behaviour on food apps, paired with voice memos explaining their thought process (e.g. “I was craving Chinese, but then the delivery time made me change my mind…”). The data led to UX tweaks and new delivery-time filters now rolling out across the app.

Takeaway? When you see the decision unfold live, the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’ becomes clearer than ever.

📦 Research Supports the Rise of Re-commerce

As resale, rental, and return models surge, insight teams are guiding how brands tap into the growing re-commerce economy.

John Lewis launched a second-hand furniture pilot and partnered with an insight consultancy to explore perceptions of pre-owned value. Through on-site pop-ups and digital ethnography, they found that product condition mattered less than storytelling. Consumers valued transparency (e.g. “tell me who used this before”) and sustainability framing more than price alone. The findings led to a test of branded storytelling tags on pre-loved listings.

Takeaway? Research and insights are showing that resale value is about reputation, relevance, and re-framing what ‘used’ really means.

📊 Insight Teams Embrace “Test-and-Learn” Budgeting

As agility becomes a C-suite mantra, insight teams are rethinking how they use and justify budget.

Sky ran a “test-and-learn” budget structure across its research road map this quarter, allocating 20% of spend for fast-turn experiments tied to live business questions. Quick audience pulses and message tests fed directly into weekly creative decisions for an entertainment campaign. The result? Shorter time-to-insight, fewer bottlenecks, and more buy-in from commercial leads.

Takeaway? Insight is becoming a testing engine for smarter business decisions.

“By far the most frustrating thing I’ve found recently is how bad the ‘front door’ application route is Vs recruiters or network. I’ve applied to around 20 jobs by applying cold in response to a job add. Almost all have required intense effort to tailor CV, write a cover letter and transcribe loads of information into their job system. Not a single one has resulted in an interview. By contrast, using network has resulted in an interview every time. I can’t work out how initial HR screens seem so random when evidence suggests I’m at the level to at least interview for the roles. They also provide no feedback, just an auto generated ‘we’re sorry …’ mail, sometimes within minutes of applying.”

Why does this account seem familiar?

When you apply for a job online, whether through a company’s careers page or a job board like LinkedIn, Indeed, or Monster, your CV is typically parsed electronically by an Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). These are software applications used by recruitment teams to manage and streamline the recruitment process.

ATS algorithms serve as gatekeepers, scanning CVs for specific keywords and qualifications deemed essential by employers. They either rank your application for further review by human recruiters or filter it out if it doesn’t meet the predetermined criteria.

According to a report by CareerBuilder, 75% of hiring managers use an ATS.

With such a high proportion of CVs filtered out before human eyes lay upon them, failure to align with the required criteria will result in your CV being consigned to digital oblivion. Understanding how to optimise your CV is paramount to success.

8 Tips to Improve Your CV for ATS

1. Keyword Optimisation: Tailoring your CV with relevant keywords is key to beating ATS algorithms. Ensure your CV includes industry-specific terms, skills, and qualifications found in the job description to increase visibility.
2. Format for Clarity: Simple, text-based formats are preferred by ATS algorithms. Avoid complex graphics, tables, or unconventional fonts that may confuse the system. Stick to standard fonts and layouts for optimal readability.
3. Utilise Standard Section Headings: Categories such as “Professional Experience” and “Skills” help ATS algorithms categorise information effectively, enhancing your CV’s chances of passing through filters.
4. Avoid Extraneous Graphics: Graphics can hinder rather than help. Stay clear of unnecessary images, charts, or text boxes that may confuse ATS algorithms. Stick to a clean, text-based format to ensure compatibility.
5. Proofread Diligently: Errors are CV killers. Spelling and grammar mistakes can lead to automatic rejection by ATS algorithms.
6. Tailor for Each Application: Customisation is key. Craft each CV to align with the specific job requirements, incorporating relevant keywords and skills.
7. Stay Informed and Adapt: Knowledge is power. Stay abreast of ATS trends and best practices for CV optimisation through industry publications, webinars, and workshops.
8. Leverage Networking: Connections count. In addition to online applications, network with professionals in your industry and seek referrals. Many companies prioritise candidates referred by employees, bypassing ATS filters altogether.

By implementing these strategies, you can enhance your CV’s effectiveness in navigating ATS algorithms. You can swerve the black hole and increase your chances of securing job opportunities.

The cogs of the data world are perpetually turning. Data never sleeps. Brace yourself for an exciting overview into some of the top data news stories that have been gracing our screens over the past month.

Supermarkets Are Selling Loyalty Card Data to Third-Party Advertisers

You’d be hard-pressed to find a wallet in the UK that didn’t have either a Nectar or Clubcard in it. So many of us depend on loyalty cards to save money at the supermarket – but did you ever think about what happens every time you tap it up against the pay screen?

Turns out that Tesco and Sainsbury’s make around £300m per year by selling customer data acquired through loyalty cards to third-party consumer goods advertisers.

While both supermarkets have been met with a tidal wave of backlash in light of this news, Sainsbury’s chief executive, Simon Roberts, defended the company’s decision to sell customer data. Roberts told The Guardian that the anonymised data of Sainsbury’s customers was in safe hands, and that it would ultimately benefit consumers by tailoring ads to be more relevant to them.

We’re Entering an Era of AI News Anchors

It’s no news that AI is beginning to infiltrate nearly every facet of our modern lives. Whether we’re watching robot comedians perform at the Edinburgh Fringe, or asking ChatGPT what to eat for breakfast, AI is quickly becoming inextricably tied to the real world. But what’s the next big thing that AI is set to conquer, you may ask? The answer, it seems, is news broadcasting.

A new startup LA-based television network called Channel 1 is set to launch news broadcasts featuring AI-generated anchors. And these computer-generated anchors could be gracing our screens as early as 2024.

The news has stirred up a flurry of emotion on social media, with some ushering in this new era of technology, and others expressing fear and concern over the prospect. Is it an exciting and inevitable development or does it signal the end of human-led journalism? And, most importantly, will you be tuning in?

Boots is Expected to Launch an AI ‘Personal Shopper’

Buying a new lipstick can be more daunting than you might expect. Walking into the shop, perusing all the different shades on offer, trying to navigate the endless sea of brands on display – it’s easy to find the experience overwhelming. And more often than not, going online is just as arduous – you have to trawl the internet for hours, comparing reviews and prices. If you’ve ever faced this dilemma, you might just be in luck: Boots has announced plans to launch an AI ‘personal shopper’.

This ‘personal shopper’ is still in its testing stages, but if launched, it would use a chatbot software that would permit consumers to ask questions and receive product recommendations.

If approved, this AI tool could be about to make life a lot easier for the beauty obsessed among us.

Netflix Data Reveal Tells Us a Lot About Our Viewing Habits

If you spent countless hours decaying in front of your laptop screen this year watching reruns of Selling Sunset, you weren’t the only one. Netflix’s new engagement report reveals user trending habits for this year – and they might just surprise you.

According to the new report, users spent hundreds of millions of hours watching their favourite series between January and June this year. The Night Agent came in at first place, with users spending 812,100,000 hours watching. And perhaps unsurprisingly to some of us, shows like You, Love is Blind and Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story proved to be particularly popular with Netflix’s audience.

One obvious takeaway from this new report is how much we collectively love a throwback – whether we’re rewatching our favourite series or tuning into an old-school classic for the first time. Breaking Bad Season 2, released in 2009, and Suits Season 1, released in 2011, both received over 100,000,000 views in that particular 6-month period.

Love it or loathe it, social media has undeniably infiltrated practically every facet of modern life. Planning a last-minute weekend getaway? You undoubtedly take to TikTok to see which destinations are trending, flicking through countless videos which sum up the benefits and setbacks of every city under the sun, from Marrakesh to Morecambe.

If you’re finishing school, there’s no way you’d contemplate applying for a university these days without scouring forums, chatrooms and tweets for insider info. And if you happen to be thinking of going to a restaurant for a special occasion, there’s no way you’d just book somewhere, cross your fingers and hope for the best, blindly trusting the marketing material on their website alone. You’d trawl the internet for reviews, taking them as gospel. These days, an influencer – or anyone with a phone and an opinion for that matter – holds as much sway as a top food critic.

And it turns out that the working world is no different. It’s impossible to ignore the fact that the vast majority of jobseekers are using social media in their job search efforts: 96%, to be exact. Meanwhile, according to LinkedIn, nearly 40 million people search for jobs on the professional networking site every week. The traditional job application process, which saw candidates applying for roles through clunky job board websites, is a practice that now belongs to a bygone era.

As technology inevitably evolves, is it any wonder that recruiters and hiring managers will have to seek out new and innovative ways to find and engage top talent? As it stands, it seems that many companies are catching on and beginning to harness the power of social media: 71% of US hiring managers believe that looking at a candidate’s social media profile is a good method for screening job applicants.

But how exactly can recruiters make the most out of their social media presence to attract top talent? Spoiler alert: There’s a lot more to it than posting job ads to LinkedIn.

Strong employer branding

We’ve already covered the power of meaningful employer branding in another article, but it’s worth rehashing here, because a strong employer brand is one of the most effective tools in your company’s arsenal when it comes to finding and engaging talent.

According to McKinsey, strong brands outperform their competitors by a whopping 96%, while research from Beamery found that 69% of candidates who are active on the job market are more likely to apply to a company that proactively manages its employer brand. LinkedIn reports that 49% of professionals currently follow companies that they’re interested in on social media to stay up-to-date with job opportunities.

But what exactly is a strong employer brand? Well, as we mentioned in our dedicated article in more detail, it basically entails having a strong sense of brand personality: What makes your company unique and what can you offer to potential candidates that other competitors cannot? Your company needs a powerful and convincing EVP (Employer Value Proposition) – which is basically an elevator pitch, aka the messaging that is funnelled into all of your marketing material. 

Consistency is key: Engage with the latest social media trends and provide your followers with tailored, value-add content in order to garner attention from the right audience.  It’s important for recruiters to work alongside marketing teams in order to ensure a streamlined approach to engaging talent.

By crafting a strong employer brand, you’ll be playing the long game of building the talent pipe-line when hiring in the future, not just in the here and now. You’re cultivating a meaningful relationship based on trust by regularly engaging customers and candidates – even those that may not be looking for a job right now, but will have your company at the front of their minds when they do ultimately embark on a job search.

Individual recruiter branding

Taking this one step further, we introduce you to the concept of personal branding. While having a strong employer brand is all well and good, ultimately there’s no denying that people buy from people – more so than companies – and this is where the value of a strong recruiter social media profile comes in.

Around half of adults (51%) with a bachelor’s or advanced degree use LinkedIn, so you really want to optimise your presence on this platform as a recruiter to ensure that you’re dipping into as much of this rich talent pool as possible. Promoting jobs and showcasing your personality on LinkedIn is a crucial means of getting yourself in front of top talent. LinkedIn can often feel like an echo chamber, full of recruiters and companies vying for the attention of an elite echelon of talent. You really want to optimise your chances of engaging these candidates, and to do so you need to be posting on your individual profile, not simply depending on the company page to do the work for you, in order to broaden your reach as widely as possible.

Proactive recruiters and employees who post on their own social media profiles are powerful advocates for the company who can draw in top talent.  Employee advocacy adds another layer of insight to potential candidates who may be researching your company already, with Gallup reporting that 71% of candidates use referrals from employees currently working at the company to inform their decision when it comes to choosing a role.

Look beyond LinkedIn

While LinkedIn is likely to be your first port of call when it comes to attracting talent, it’s important not to dismiss other social media platforms where top talent may be dwelling. As part of your employer branding, it’s important to ascertain which platforms your unique audience and desired talent pool are using, so that you can be more targeted in your approach when it comes to engaging potential candidates – it’s better to focus on a limited few platforms rather than aimlessly using many of them.

For example, if you’re advertising for a more interactive or artistic role it might be a good idea to leverage a visual platform like Instagram, which boasts 2 billion users, while if you’re looking for fresh talent to fill more junior roles it could be worth showcasing your business by uploading quirky, fun and engaging videos on TikTok. Meanwhile, Twitter can be a great tool for engaging candidates, thanks to hashtags and the focus the platform places on communication – which make it a great place to share industry news and valuable insights, as a means of staying involved in the conversation happening among the wider community you’re recruiting in. This is one way of organically growing a valuable following of individuals who are genuinely interested in their specialism.

It’s not a one-way street

There’s no doubt that social media is an efficient, immediate and cost-effective tool when it comes to presenting your company in the best possible light. When used correctly, companies can provide top talent with an insight into what it’s like to work there, promoting jobs while simultaneously providing candidates with valuable resources.

Social media also allows recruiters to look at how candidates present themselves in their personal lives, on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. However, if you really want to leverage social media to its fullest potential, you need to open up the conversation and allow potential talent to truly engage with you…Even if that can be uncomfortable at times.

Your company’s social media platforms need to be more than just glittering, carefully-curated online brochures that reek of superficiality. These platforms need to be safe spaces that allow employees and job seekers to get vulnerable and candid about their questions, concerns and expectations – where open communication is valued above all else. This element of meaningful authenticity is ultimately what sets your social media presence apart from old-school, outdated recruitment methods.

Ten years ago, you’d be able to find teenage me cocooned in a duvet, perched in front of my computer desktop and glued to the screen, tending to my carefully curated Sims characters or launching a game of Fireboy and Watergirl on Miniclip. Computer games were life. If you’d have told me that I was in any way doing something productive – let alone preparing for the hiring process that could land future me my dream job – I would have laughed you out the room then and there.

And yet here we are, in the good year of 2023, playing our way through the hiring process at some of the world’s most prestigious organisations. Nowadays, it’s not even remotely farfetched to imagine a future management consultant at Unilever or auditing analyst at Deloitte sat in front of a computer, violently prodding at the keyboard to win a car racing game to prove themselves to their potential employer. Imagining a future banker hitting the spacebar again and again to blow up a balloon until it pops in a bid to showcase their risk-taking skills sounds like a skit straight out of a comedy sketch, but it’s actually a real-life scene from the realm of reality. This is just one example of the many psychometric tests used to gauge the suitability of a candidate for a particular role.

More and more companies are adopting gamification as part of their hiring process, including PwC, McKinsey, Diageo and HSBC, to name just a few. It’s often the first hurdle that graduates have to jump over in order to make it through to the next assessment stage of the hiring process. Gamification is a recruitment trend that has been growing steadily in popularity for the past twenty years. While it is still shrouded in scepticism, with many questioning its effectiveness and validity, it’s a phenomenon that has most of the working world in a firm chokehold, and there seems to be no way to escape its tight grip: The industry was valued at a whopping $6.8 billion in 2018, a figure which is projected to rise to a staggering $40 billion by next year. So, what exactly is the purpose behind gamification in hiring, and should you be incorporating it into your company’s recruitment process too?

What is gamification in hiring?

This is a surprisingly difficult question to answer. It’s near impossible to concisely summarise exactly what gamification in hiring looks like, because it has proliferated into such a far-reaching and wide-ranging industry. There is such a colourful variety of recruitment games out there, all designed to uncover particular skillsets or geared towards a particular sector. However, there’s one thing that all recruitment games have in common, and that is a singular purpose: To bring out the best in candidates, unveiling their unique skills and putting them to the test first-hand. These games come in many shapes and sizes.

Rewind to 2002, when games were first introduced into the hiring process by the US Army. Young recruits were encouraged to partake in a multiplayer video game called ‘America’s Army’, which formed part of their overall assessment, a prospect which naturally enticed many candidates. To this day, the games have stuck, thus demonstrating that they have clearly stood the test of time: The US Army continues to tap into the popularity of competitive Esports, mimicking games like Call of Duty and incorporating them into the recruitment process.

Since its inception, the recruitment gaming industry has exploded and flourished and multiplied, evolving into a limitless network of games, all with their own unique quirks and variations. Games are only effective insofar as they shine a light on the skills and qualities considered important by recruiters and hiring managers. For example, Marriott Hotels developed a game inspired by the infamous Facebook game Farmville (find me someone who wasn’t taunted and haunted by spam Farmville notifications from Facebook friends back in the 2010s, I dare you), that saw candidates running their own virtual interactive hotel.

The Marriott Hotel game feels a world away from the interactive test used by McKinsey, which thrusts candidates into an ecological minefield that involves protecting plants, saving animals from natural disaster, and managing resources during periods of migration.

Silly and outlandish as some of these games may potentially sound, they actually have the power to showcase the potential of candidates. Used correctly, gamification can provide a great deal of clarity to recruiters and hiring managers at the early stages of an application, streamlining the process by eliminating the need to sift through an endless pile of CVs, and complementing a candidate’s application. It looks increasingly likely that gamification in recruitment is set to become the norm.

Why use games in the recruitment process?

According to a growing number of hiring managers and recruiters, there are countless benefits to using gamification in the recruitment process. First and foremost, it injects some much-needed fun into a process that is often riddled with an excess of stress and pressure. Games spice up an experience that is otherwise notoriously mundane and predictable, while simultaneously giving candidates a positive and exciting glimpse into a company’s distinctive culture. From the offset, it creates the impression that your organisation is forward-thinking, interactive, enjoyable and progressive, thus keeping them more engaged throughout the hiring process. Games can also be used to showcase your organisation on a practical level, allowing candidates to experience a day in the life at your company, offering them an insight into some of the responsibilities and demands of the job in a more interactive, immersive and engaging way.

From a diversity standpoint, using gamification in hiring can, to an extent, democratise the recruitment process in its earlier stages. In the past, hiring managers would routinely follow an archaic recruitment practice: Dusting off a towering pile of CVs and sifting through them, instantly dismissing those that don’t have a top university plastered across them. Attending Oxford, Cambridge, or Durham used to be a hall pass into some of the most prestigious organisations and businesses, but thankfully the recruitment process is not as elitist as it once was. Only 27% of the UK’s student population attend Russel Group Universities, and the vast majority of those students come from privileged backgrounds. According to recent data, the proportion of black students at Russel Groups is just 4%, which is merely half the UK average of 8%. By utilising gamification, hiring managers can test individuals for raw talent and potential rather than simply the relevance of their experience or the status of their degree, giving gifted candidates a chance to prove themselves rather than writing them off from the get-go. While some may argue that this diminishes the hard work students put into attaining a degree from a prestigious university, it cannot be argued that it ultimately makes the hiring process fairer.

There’s also a more psychological element to recruitment games. For one thing, those who opt to complete the games are proactively engaging in your company’s hiring process. They’re not just clicking a few buttons and serial-sending their CV out to hundreds of companies; They’re dedicating time and energy to the assessment at your organisation. From a hiring manager or recruiter’s perspective too, games can be massively beneficial. They have the potential to significantly cut the time taken to hire, because while it may take hours to sift through CVs or grade individual assessments, a game can be completed in a matter of minutes, and results can be collated instantly thanks to automation.

The downside

Despite the plethora of benefits that gaming undeniable boasts, the phenomenon has definitely garnered a fair few naysayers and sceptics. Some argue that it is unfair to judge candidates simply off of a game; After all, there is no set formula to hiring, and using a computer game to slot individuals neatly into boxes rather than assessing them in-person could be seen as a bit of a cop-out. In an ideal world, hiring managers would be able to spend a significant amount of time assessing every candidate who applies for a role, but that is simply untenable in today’s working world. The number of graduate applicants emerging from university is growing rapidly, and it’s becoming near impossible to screen such a vast number of candidates. According to recent data, there are now over 800,000 grads and postgrads making their grand debut in the working world each year, with many naturally gravitating towards the same graduate schemes and entry-level roles. It’s no surprise that only 30% of companies use interviews at the initial stage of the hiring process for graduate roles; Some level of gamification or automation is needed in the early stages to streamline the hiring process. Simply put, it’s a practical necessity.

Some critics are wary of the hype surrounding gamification in hiring, believing it to be nothing more than a fleeting fad that will soon fall out of fashion. It could be argued that the effectiveness of gaming in hiring is yet to be proven in any sort of concrete terms. Indeed, Brian Burke undermined the concept of recruitment gamification when he said back in 2013 that the “initial hype surrounding the trend creates unrealistic expectations for success and many poor implementations follow. Like any new trend, gamification will move through the hype cycle from the peak of inflated expectations into the trough of disillusionment”. There have undeniably been instances of recruitment games failing, for example when, according to Mashable, the Marriot Hotel Game fell off the face of the earth because candidates didn’t want to play it, despite the huge production costs that had been pumped into it. There are definitely some common pitfalls when it comes to recruitment gaming that need to be avoided in order to ensure success.

The key is not rushing into implementing games in the hiring process without doing proper research. But when you find the right game for your recruitment practice, the benefits are indisputable. According to Workable, Forbes reported that since introducing a game into their assessment process, PwC’s candidate pool had grown by a staggering 190 percent, and candidate engagement had increased by 78 percent.

Now, that’s not to say you need the budget of a big four consultancy to ensure that gaming can be an effective and reliable part of your hiring process. The recipe for success is research; You need to ensure that the company you’re using is valid and reputable. The proof is in the pudding: Can they provide you with solid results from their customer base? Is the design of their games attractive, streamlined and straightforward from a candidate perspective? And are their games able to test for the particular skillsets you’re looking for in your sector?

Finding the right games for your hiring process is a delicate art form, and it’s important to strike the right balance. You don’t want to put candidates through the experience of playing a game that verges on tacky and childish; It’s a fine line to tread. The games must be relevant to the particular role they’re applying for, and candidates should feel like they’re getting something out of it. Psychometric tests are particularly beneficial because they feed back to candidates, reporting on their strengths and weaknesses so that they can learn from their results. Moral of the story: Don’t use gamification in hiring for the sake of it. Identify the purpose you want it to serve, and invest in a reputable and effective game to yield the best long-term results.

The cogs of the data world are perpetually turning. Data never sleeps. Brace yourself for an exciting overview into some of the top data news stories that have been gracing our screens over the past month. 

BBC: Using brain data to watch workers

Once upon a time in the not-too-distant past, the concept of being able to read somebody’s mind was nothing more than the plot of some cheesy dystopian movie; An entertaining prospect insofar as it remained ludicrously unrealistic. However, believe it or not, it seems to be veering closer and closer towards the realm of possibility.

According to the first ever ICO report on “neurodata”, workplaces could be monitoring employees’ brains in the next four to five years for “safety, productivity and recruitment” purposes. Scary as it sounds, what would this actually look like in practice, you may ask? Well, it’s probably not as invasive as you think. It would most likely involve using helmets or safety equipment worn by employees in high-risk environments to measure their attention and focus levels while on the job, in order to ensure optimal safety.

This report comes in the wake of the news that Elon Musk’s “neuralink” has won permission for human trials of its human brain computer implant, which is already worth £4 billion.

The report also suggests that schools could end up using wearable devices to track the brain activity of students, measuring their stress and concentration levels in the process. While some may welcome this development, others among us (mainly the ones who spent their chemistry lesson daydreaming and drooling over the Bunsen Burner) are simply relieved that we finished school as long ago as we did.

BBC: Warning firms may use brain data to watch workers

Sky News: AI could render actors obsolete

No industry is immune to the power of AI, and the acting world is no exception. Computer technology is already playing a significant role in Hollywood blockbusters: The Fast and Furious franchise spent an extra $50 million on CGI so that Paul Walker’s character could be included in their latest release, while Joe Russo, director of many a Marvel movie including Avengers: Infinity War, has stated that AI is democratising filmmaking, saying that it’s now possible to “have a rom-com starring you that’s 90 minutes long”.

Unsurprisingly, many professional actors aren’t exactly welcoming this development with open arms. Among sceptics is Laurence Bouvard, a smaller-scale voice actor who laments the fact that many actors end up in contracts that restrict the authority they have over their own work; Once their performances are out there, where they end up is out of their hands.

Bouvard explained to Sky News that certain technology companies have the power to use the work of actors without any repercussions. Her acting colleagues will frequently submit audio for auditions and later discover that very same audio being sampled in a different context. The legal framework surrounding acting performances and AI tech is not built to handle this issue; There’s a grey area that tech companies are exploiting to use the work of jobbing actors without their permission. AI is developing at a rapid rate and doesn’t look to be slowing down any time soon, so it’s inevitable that technology will continue to play an increasingly important role in the acting world, for better or for worse.

Sky News: AI could make actors in TV shows and blockbusters unnecessary, experts fear

BBC: AI helping to spot breast cancer

It’s no news to any of us that the NHS is weighed down by immense pressure at the moment. Now more than ever, exceedingly long waiting lists and staff shortages are crippling the NHS and holding health workers back from providing the immediate attention that many patients need. Particularly when it comes to cancer diagnosis and treatment, many patients are experiencing delays in receiving vital care.

In Scotland, one such dilemma is that more and more women are attending routine breast screenings, but the number of radiologists who can examine the results of those mammograms is dwindling. It goes without saying that this massively slows down the process of providing many patients with a diagnosis, and when it comes to disease discovery, time really is of the essence.

Well, it turns out that AI might just have the potential to come to the rescue. A trial is currently taking place at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary to establish whether or not AI can work alongside radiologists to examine the results of mammograms and streamline the diagnostic process.

Now, it’s important to note that the company behind the AI model being used in the trial – Kheiron Medical Technologies – has firmly underlined that it would by no means be seeking to replace radiologists, but rather assist practitioners in examining results. This AI model would be used not as a substitute for human review, but rather as a final check at the end of the reviewing process for a faster outcome.

If successful, this trial could transform the breast screening process in more than 30 NHS trusts across the UK. It would be a godsend for overworked doctors, and improve the outlook for millions of breast cancer patients across the country.

BBC: Aberdeen AI trial helps doctors spot breast cancer

New York Times: Wellness chatbot shut down after problematic weight loss advice

For anyone struggling with an eating disorder, speaking to a specialist psychologist should be a first port of call. But as of late, artificial intelligence has started to play a limited role for a number of people struggling with eating disorders. One such tool is Tessa, a chatbot funded by the National Eating Disorders Association in the US which was designed to help people discover coping skills. The information used to build the chatbot had been provided by eating disorder experts to ensure that people were receiving the right kind of guidance.

However, a major issue surfaced when Alexis Conason, herself an eating disorder specialist psychologist, decided to put the chatbot to the test. She discovered that, when prompted, the tool ended up providing some extremely problematic advice.

Dr Conason shared her findings on social media. She had told Tessa that she had an eating disorder, had gained weight and hated her body, and the chatbot’s response was deeply worrying. The chatbot advised tracking calories in order to stay in a deficit, and as anyone with experience of an eating disorder knows, mentioning calories and weight loss can be a trigger for many people. Upon hearing about this incident, the AI-generated helpline was shutdown with immediate effect and is now under investigation.

The National Eating Disorders Association has specified that Tessa was never meant to function as a substitute for psychological help from a trained professional, but rather as a support for those at risk of developing an eating disorder. It comes at a time where there is an increased demand for mental health services relating to eating disorders, and too few providers to meet it.

NY Times: A wellness chatbot is offline after its ‘harmful’ focus on weight loss