“Tech Connects,” Dice’s podcast, digs into the tech hiring, recruiting, and career topics that matter to you. Subscribe on Acast, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Amazon Podcasts, and YouTube!
Our next guest on Tech Connects is Mahe Bayireddi, CEO of Phenom — an applied AI company with a simple mission: help a billion people find the right work. Phenom focuses specifically on the HR domain, building intelligent tools across talent acquisition, onboarding, and employee growth. Mahe joined host Paul Farnsworth to break down how AI agents are transforming every stage of the hiring process — and what that means for HR leaders, recruiters, and candidates alike.
Here are the key takeaways from this conversation for tech professionals, HR leaders, and anyone navigating the future of work.
The Standardized Hiring Workflow Is on Its Way Out
The one-size-fits-all hiring workflow that ATS platforms locked in over the last 30 years is breaking down. How a retail company hires frontline workers looks nothing like how a fintech firm sources financial analysts. How you recruit in North America differs from Europe, which differs from Southeast Asia. Mahe’s point: dynamic, intelligent workflows built for specific industries, job levels, and geographies are the future. Companies that adapt will hire faster, retain more effectively, and grow talent from within.
Full Automation Isn’t the Goal
AI agents can handle significant portions of the recruiting process, but Phenom’s approach is deliberate: identify where automation adds value, where it supports human judgment, and where human interaction is non-negotiable. For high-volume frontline roles, automation can cover up to 80% of the hiring workflow — Thermo Fisher’s manufacturing units are a real example, where recruiters shifted into relationship manager roles focused on onboarding and the final mile of hiring. For executive and knowledge worker roles, the calculus changes. Assessing mental models, leadership alignment, and cultural fit isn’t something an agent replaces.
AI Fraud Is a Real Risk
Generative AI has created a new problem: candidates who interview as one person and start work as another. Mahe confirmed it’s increasing across tech, financial services, insurance, and pharma, and it varies by geography. Phenom’s approach is to build identity profiles specific to each company and job — tracking consistency across voice, appearance, credentials, and behavior throughout the process — and flag anomalies for human review. The tool surfaces the signal; a person makes the call.
Data Quality Is HR’s Biggest Unsolved Proble
HR generates three to five times more data than any other department — resumes, conversations, assessments, onboarding records, performance data — and it’s chronically underfunded on tech infrastructure. Most HR data is unstructured and low quality, which makes AI predictions unreliable. Phenom’s acquisition of Applied AI was aimed at solving this: building people analytics capabilities that can transform raw HR data, including unstructured behavioral and conversational signals, into actionable workforce intelligence. Until the data quality problem gets solved, prediction and automation hit a ceiling.
Work Itself Is Getting Redesigned
Mahe’s biggest prediction is a structural shift. AI will create more jobs than it eliminates, but learning agility will determine who thrives. HR leaders need to approach this year with one question: which parts of your workflow can be automated or augmented, and how does your team restructure around that? Phenom calls it work redesign, and they see it as the top priority for every HR leader operating right now.
There was a lot more in that conversation, so give it another listen if you’re so inclined. And remember — Dice is your best resource to find the tech talent you need to fill your open roles, and for tech professionals, the best place to grow your tech career.
