This series was recorded live at HR Tech 2025 inside the HR Executive studios on the expo floor in partnership with the WRKdefined Podcast Network. Make sure you’re subscribed to the full series and visit HRExecutive.com for the news, analysis, and insights shaping the future of work. AI promises magic, but data is still the fuel and most teams are running on fumes. Ike Benion breaks down why TA keeps hitting walls, why fragmented stacks kill insight, and how agentic AI is about to raise both the stakes and the expectations for recruiters. This one is for anyone drowning in tools, noise, and hype. In this episode we speak with Ike Bennion, VP of Product at Visier about data integrity, people analytics, predictive modeling, agentic AI, TA workflow fragmentation, and how organizations can build smarter, cleaner systems. Key Takeaways Data is the fuel for AI and most TA teams are feeding engines garbage Fragmented stacks and weak data collection crush predictive analytics People analytics teams hold the keys to real hiring insight More data reduces false positives and sharpens talent signals Agentic AI raises expectations but exposes messy foundations Most teams regret not collecting critical fields six months earlier Contextualization matters more than prompts for high impact AI work LLMs accelerate research but can’t fix broken processes AI washing is everywhere and buyers need sharper questions You can’t skip the hard part of making data work together Chapters 00:00 Why companies still don’t understand the data problem 01:00 What Ike is building at Visier 01:20 Helping managers make better decisions 01:49 How TA and people analytics should partner 02:30 Unlocking predictive hiring with cleaner data 03:03 What company-level data can reveal about candidates 03:38 Why more data scrapes out false positives 04:09 The chaos of 10+ tools in TA stacks 04:46 What data teams wish TA understood 05:14 Why data construction determines future insight 06:06 How AI accelerates recruiters but can’t erase history 06:25 The power of contextualizing AI for better decisions 06:42 Where agentic AI fits in recruiting 07:07 Do you say please and thank you to your AI 07:26 The environmental side of AI usage 07:37 Why fragmented stacks make AI risky 07:47 The rise of AI washing 08:07 Why bad data breaks every AI promise 08:57 The hype cycle and why we’re not in enlightenment 09:21 Why expectations have snapped back 09:43 Agents vs basic LLMs 10:37 Why organizations will feel the bubble pop 11:02 The promise and limits of predictive people analytics 12:12 Why analytic reasoning is now the top skill 12:34 What buyers should ask to avoid AI washing 13:03 The two biggest forms of AI washing 14:08 What future of work questions buyers should ask 14:30 Why we need to rethink work itself 15:02 How AI should transform processes 15:08 How to stay connected with Ike Guest Info Ike Benion, VP of Product, Visier Website: https://www.visier.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ikebennion/ Host Brandon Jeffs, Host of the Rebel TA Podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandohires/ Connect with WRKdefined Site: http://www.wrkdefined.com TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wrkdefined LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wrkdefined Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WRKdefined Twitter: https://twitter.com/WRKdefined Substack: https://wrkdefined.substack.com/