RecFest UK 2026: Hung Lee on AI, the Future of Talent Acquisition & Keeping Work Human

Welcome to another live episode of RecTalk, filmed at RecFest UK in the RecTalk Podcast Lounge.Nitin Sharma is joined by Sean Kennedy for a fascinating — and deliberately provocative — conversation with one of the best-known voices in the recruitment and talent acquisition community, Hung Lee.Hung has plenty to say about where TA is heading in the age of AI, and he doesn't shy away from challenging some of the industry's biggest assumptions.From why Hung thinks skills-based hiring is “anti-human” and why organisations may need to stop documenting everything, to the risks of using AI to simply squeeze more productivity out of employees, this conversation gets into what happens when technology starts changing not just how we work, but how organisations themselves are structured.One of the standout ideas is Hung's “keep what you kill” approach to AI adoption: if technology makes someone more productive, why should all of that productivity automatically belong to the company? Could giving employees back some of the time they save be a better way to encourage AI adoption, improve autonomy and reduce burnout?The conversation also explores the future of Talent Acquisition. Hung argues that TA isn't simply going away — instead, its scope and professional identity could change dramatically as businesses begin working with AI agents, gig platforms and other forms of non-human capacity.And there's a bigger human message running throughout the episode: in an increasingly AI-driven world, recruiters and talent professionals need to understand where human value really sits — and actively protect the relationships, judgement, creativity and community intelligence that machines can't simply reproduce.Hung also explains what Recruitment Brainfood has become and why he sees himself as an ecosystem support person, helping connect and inform the wider recruitment and job-search ecosystem.Filmed live at RecFest UK, this is a wide-ranging conversation about AI, recruitment, productivity, leadership, employee autonomy, the future of TA and why keeping work human may become more important than ever.GUEST — Hung Lee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hunglee/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 #RecFestUK #Recruitment #TalentAcquisition #RecruitmentAI #AI #HRTech #FutureOfWork #RecruitmentTechnology #TalentTech #RecruitmentLeadership #HungLee #NitinSharma #SeanKennedy