RecFest UK 2026: AI, Inclusive Hiring & The Human Touch with Jen Hulme and Thomas Woodhams

Welcome to a special RecTalk episode filmed live at RecFest UK, hosted by Nitin Sharma and Sean Kennedy.This time, Nitin and Sean are joined by Jen Hulme and Thomas Woodhams for a wide-ranging conversation about some of the biggest issues facing talent acquisition right now: inclusive hiring, neurodiversity, AI adoption, candidate experience, workplace redesign and why the “human touch” still matters in an increasingly automated recruitment world.Thomas shares insights from his RecFest talk on inclusive hiring and explains why organisations can genuinely believe they are inclusive while still creating unnecessary barriers throughout the recruitment process. The conversation explores how job descriptions, interview formats, assumptions around eye contact and communication styles, and even onboarding can unintentionally exclude talented candidates.Jen brings a talent acquisition perspective to the AI conversation, discussing the shift from simply talking about “AI” to understanding what organisations actually need it to solve. Rather than adopting technology because it is the latest shiny tool, the discussion focuses on identifying the underlying recruitment problem first — and then working out whether AI is the right solution.The conversation also looks at the changing role of humans in recruitment. With AI increasingly embedded into recruitment workflows, what should humans actually be doing? How do we use technology to supercharge expertise rather than replace it? And how will AI change the skills organisations need as roles and workplaces themselves evolve?They also discuss:• Why inclusive hiring needs to start with the job advert, not just the interview• Neurodiversity, hidden disabilities and removing unnecessary recruitment barriers• Why treating everyone “the same” doesn't necessarily create a fair hiring process• The evolution from “human in the loop” to the “human touch”• Why AI has become too broad a term in recruitment• Avoiding AI for AI's sake and starting with the actual business problem• How AI could improve candidate communication and engagement• Workplace and role redesign in an AI-enabled worldGUESTSJen Hulme: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jen-hulme/Thomas Woodhams: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-woodhams/HOSTSNitin Sharma: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nitin-rectools/Sean Kennedy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanthetaguy/SPONSORED BYNOVA by Dweet — Define what good looks like. Screen, source, and shortlist talent automatically. Nova works with your hiring team to build structured scoring criteria for each role, then screens every applicant, resurfaces past candidates, and finds new ones automatically.https://nova.dweet.com/Zyverno — builds Frontline Hiring Intelligence for logistics, care, hospitality and retail: the sectors where a single vacancy can attract hundreds of applications that never get properly assessed. Its AI agent, Lina, conducts structured screening interviews against manager-defined criteria and returns ranked, scored shortlists. Lina screens and ranks. Hiring managers make every decision.https://www.zyverno.app/Screenloop — is the all-in-one ATS built for SMEs. Replace your scattered stack of tools, from ATS to interview intelligence, scheduling, scorecards, and note-taking tools with one intuitive platform. Backed by AI time-saving features and an award-winning support team. That way, you save time, cut tooling costs, and make smarter hiring decisions faster.https://www.screenloop.com/Find out more about RecFest UK: https://recfest.com/uk/Discover recruitment tools and services: https://www.rectools.io/Listen to RecTalk on another platform: https://rectalk.co.uk/#RecTalk #RecFest #Recruitment #TalentAcquisition #RecruitmentTech #HRTech #AIRecruitment #ArtificialIntelligence #InclusiveHiring #Neurodiversity #CandidateExperience #FutureOfWork #RecruitmentTechnology #HR #TA #RecTech