HR Tech 2025: why trust, expertise, and human-centered AI are reshaping HR
The theme of HR Tech 2025? Hirevue customer, Mary Valdez, Senior Manager of Talent Technology at HEB, said it perfectly.
“The key themes are two letters: AI. How to implement it, how to talk to the business about change, and change management. Every session was about AI.”
This year, sessions with Hirevue customers WTW, Johnson & Johnson, and Deloitte, alongside insights from Keurig Dr Pepper and HEB, revealed a clear truth: the future of HR technology isn’t just about speed or efficiency. It’s about trust, expertise, and personalization at scale.
Together, these discussions highlighted how HR leaders must critically evaluate AI, embrace validated assessments, and rethink change management in a world where transformation is constant.
From productivity to expert intelligence
WTW’s session, “How Smart is Your AI? Why Expert Intelligence is Key,” cautioned HR leaders against settling for AI tools that only deliver surface-level productivity gains. Drafting documents or summarizing policies may save time, but it doesn’t solve the deeper challenges of compliance, regulation, or strategic HR planning.
WTW challenged attendees to ask:
- Does this AI rely on verified, trusted data or just polished guesses?
- Can its outputs be confidently presented to leadership?
- Does it align with our organizational context and goals?
This demand for expert intelligence mirrors Hirevue’s approach. By combining IO psychology, data science, and transparent AI frameworks, Hirevue ensures our AI-driven technology isn’t just about automating tasks but also helping HR teams deliver insights they can trust at the highest levels of the organization.
The responsibility of assessments
In “Leveraging the Power of Assessments,” Johnson & Johnson’s Christinia Norris-Watts, Head of Assessment and People Practices, emphasized that assessments shape who gets hired, promoted, and developed, making them one of the most powerful tools in HR. And that power comes with responsibility.
The session reinforced three essentials for assessments:
- Validation: Every assessment must be tied directly to job-related performance.
- Compliance: With new regulations like the EU AI Act and Illinois’ AI law (2026), assessments must be legally defensible.
- Consistency: Every candidate must be measured fairly, every time.
Hirevue’s science-backed assessments are built for this reality. With rigorous validation studies and transparent documentation, Hirevue helps Johnson & Johnson and other global enterprises build scalable, compliant, and more equitable hiring practices.
Take a self-guided tour of our assessments here.
Trust as the new leadership currency
While WTW and Johnson & Johnson highlighted the “what” of smarter AI and assessments, Deloitte tackled the “how” of transformation in its session on the pace of change. The message was simple but urgent: change is no longer an initiative, because it’s always on.
Key insights included:
- Trust is the new leadership currency: It enables experimentation, fuels commitment, and makes adoption possible.
- Change is personal: Organizations must treat the workforce as individuals, creating hyper-personalized experiences rather than one-size-fits-all programs.
- Change is surround sound: Immersive, ongoing engagement builds alignment and accelerates adoption.
- AI powers change: By doing the heavy lifting, AI frees humans to play their most important role: adoption agents who drive alignment and trust after go-live.
By ensuring AI is transparent, explainable, and grounded in science, Hirevue gives organizations the trust foundation they need to confidently adopt new technologies and manage change at scale.
Read our industry-first AI Explainability Statement here.
How AI empowers skills-based hiring
While last year’s show leaned heavily on skills-based hiring, discussions this year elevated that conversation. As Paul Tang, Senior Director of TA at KDP, discussed, the future of HR isn’t just about skills but rather how we leverage AI responsibly to efficiently match candidates to jobs based on their skills.
That means using AI not to replace human judgment but to empower recruiters and hiring managers with sharper insights, more accurate matching, and better workforce outcomes.
Hirevue’s AI-driven assessments are backed by science, ensuring that hiring decisions are both data-driven and fair. Video Job TryoutsⓇ (VJTs) provide data around career stability, drop-offs, and workforce success, enabling organizations to identify candidates who are more likely to thrive and remain longer in their roles.
Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, Tang asks the question that should be at the center of every vendor discussion: How do you supply and deploy AI responsibly?
At Hirevue, we believe AI is a tool to enhance human decision-making, not replace it. By focusing on ethical deployment and responsible innovation, Hirevue ensures technology supports people and empowers companies to hire smarter without losing the human element.
The common thread: trust + human-centered AI
Across all sessions, one theme stood out.
Trust is non-negotiable.
Whether it’s trusting AI to provide expert intelligence, trusting assessments to be fair and validated, or trusting leaders to guide people through change, trust is the engine that drives adoption and business value.
At Hirevue, we believe the future of HR tech lies at this intersection:
- Expert intelligence that moves beyond productivity to strategic impact
- Validated assessments that ensure fairness, compliance, and predictive power
- Human-centered AI that empowers people, builds trust, and makes change sustainable
For HEB, Hirevue has already proven transformative, helping them hire faster and smarter while staying true to their core. And looking ahead, Valdez predicts case studies on the data AI will provide for workforce efficiency and bottom line metrics.
The pace of change is only accelerating. With trusted AI and validated science, HR leaders have the tools to not just keep up but to lead.
Ready to see more? Request a demo or a take self-guided product tour.
