What’s Shaping Work: Why we shouldn’t have to choose between efficiency and empathy

As 2026 gets underway, our Australasian clients are settling back into work after the summer break, while our Southeast Asian clients look ahead to Lunar New Year and the Year of the Fire Horse, which ushers in a period of rapid change.

A new year often provides an opportunity to pause, reflect, and consider what we want to achieve in the months ahead. At Salt, one of our priorities this year is to double down on the importance of human connection. As the founder of a digital talent solutions partner, I am, of course, passionate about technology – especially emerging technologies that can make our organisation, and me personally, more efficient and more effective. However, in the world of recruitment, people remain at the centre of everything we do and, during interactions with candidates and client partners, I am increasingly hearing that the desire for human connection is greater than ever.

When efficiency becomes the goal

The widespread adoption of AI across the recruitment process risks creating a race to the bottom. While candidates are using AI to generate CVs perfectly matched to job descriptions developed by AI, organisations are using AI to create job descriptions without critically assessing whether they accurately reflect the roles they’re recruiting for. While candidates are leveraging bots to apply to thousands of jobs on their behalf, the volume of applications for limited roles has reached a point where relying on AI has become, for many recruiters and hiring managers, a necessity rather than a choice. And this is all happening before the critical interview stage – where some organisations are already using AI agents to interview candidates who, justifiably, are interviewing through their own AI agents.

The results? Candidates match the role perfectly on paper, but the individual doesn’t match in person. At the same time, capable and experienced applicants with transferable skills are being automatically rejected or ghosted, without a human ever seeing their CV or interviewing them. Meanwhile, recruiters and hiring managers are facing huge volumes of job applications, yet no viable candidates and no hires.

There are no winners here.

Technology should support people

Those following the news from Davos 2026, the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), will be aware that AI remains one of the most keenly debated topics among world leaders and, despite years of debate, predictions about AI’s impact on productivity vary widely. One of the most valuable Davos sessions I watched was a panel discussion on preventing jobless growth, chaired by Erik Brynjolfsson, Director of Stanford’s Digital Economy Lab. Brynjolfsson’s belief that when “AI is focused on augmenting humans rather than mimicking them, humans retain the power to insist on a share of the value created” is one that I subscribe to. If you’re curious about why keeping humans at the heart of AI should be a key priority for all of us, I recommend taking some time to watch the session on the World Economic Forum’s website.

Human connection matters

I speak to people every day – it’s both my job and something I’m passionate about – and I know that people crave connection. On both sides of the recruitment equation, this means that people want to share their story and feel heard. This takes human connection and expertise.

Ultimately, technology should help us work more efficiently, but it should never come at the expense of empathy, trust, or genuine human connection. As AI continues to reshape the way we work, the organisations that achieve the best outcomes will be those that use technology to support people – not replace them.