Welcome to 2026: Raymond Pennie's AI Predictions

Every candidate gets the attention they deserve

Here's something we've all struggled with, keeping every candidate in the loop. Raymond believes 2026 is the year we finally crack this. AI isn't just screening anymore, it's having proper conversations, scheduling interviews, and making sure no one falls through the cracks. 

Gartner's research suggests three-quarters of candidates will interact with AI during their application process this year, and surprisingly, many of them prefer it. There's something refreshing about getting instant answers instead of waiting days for a callback.  

The end of data entry (finally!)

If you're still manually typing up notes from candidate calls, Raymond has news for you… you're about to get your evenings back. AI is getting scary good at listening to conversations and automatically updating your CRM with everything that matters. 

From Bullhorn Amplify to Kyloe AI NoteTaker, the tools are now there to enrich your data from within, scanning through resumes and calls to keep candidate records fresh without anyone lifting a finger. Imagine having more time to actually talk to people, rather than typing about talking to people. 

Clean data is your secret weapon

This one's less exciting but absolutely crucial. Raymond keeps hammering home that messy data will kill your AI dreams. If your database is full of blank fields and duplicate records, even the smartest AI can't work miracles. 

Raymond shared some sobering stats on LinkedIn recently: companies spend 71% of their AI implementation time just trying to connect and clean their data. The agencies getting ahead are the ones who sorted this out first. As one recent industry report put it, first-party data is becoming the new competitive moat.