What’s Trending: 5 Talent Acquisition Software Trends HR Leaders Should Watch

In the ’80s, it was shoulder pads. In the ’90s, it was boy bands. 

Today, TA trends come and go faster than a candidate can hit “quick apply”—leaving many TA pros with the difficult task of figuring out which trends are here to stay, and which are simply passing fads. 

And nowhere is that more apparent than in the talent acquisition software landscape. As software continues to evolve and expand, recruiters are faced with the ultimate question: what’s in, what’s out, and what’s worth investing in long term? 

To help separate fast fads from forever finds, we’ve pulled together five trends that are poised to have a lasting impact on talent acquisition—and your hiring practices—through 2026 and beyond. 

Trend 1: AI & Automation 

Today, you can’t open an (online) newspaper, log into social media, or clean out your inbox without encountering a new take on AI and automation. 

This saturation signals a clear shift: AI has moved from experimental hype to expected in the TA landscape. 

And for good reason. As pressure mounts to hire faster without sacrificing quality, teams are turning to AI to increase speed, consistency, and capacity. 

According to Employ’s 2025 Recruiter Nation Report, 43% of recruiting teams are leveraging AI. How, you ask? The applications are as varied as the technology itself, with teams stating they use AI in areas like: 

• Communicating information to candidates or new hires 

• Chatbots and intelligent candidate messaging 

• Job description recommendations 

• Candidate matching 

Notably absent from this list is AI-driven decision-making. And that omission is telling. The prevailing sentiment across TA teams is clear: while AI can remove friction and manual work, hiring decisions must remain human-led. 

As this trend accelerates, so does scrutiny. The same report shows that adoption is increasingly shaped by trust and governance concerns. Among HR decision-makers, 59% cite data privacy and security as the top factor when evaluating AI tools, followed closely by human oversight (58%), explainability (50%), regulatory compliance (45%), and bias reduction (36%). 

This signals a broader evolution in the market. AI in TA is no longer about proving value—it’s about proving responsibility. 

Looking ahead, the conversation is shifting decisively—from should teams use AI to how they can use it well. The next phase of AI in talent acquisition software will be defined by maturity: AI embedded intentionally across workflows, governed by clear guardrails, supported by human oversight, and integrated into a broader, connected hiring ecosystem. 

The takeaway: AI and automation are reshaping talent acquisition—but the winning teams aren’t chasing novelty. They’re investing in AI that reduces busy work, protects trust, and keeps humans firmly in the driver’s seat. 

Trend 2: Enhanced Candidate Experience 

For many candidates, the application and interview process are no longer just operational steps—they’re the first, most visible signals of what working at a company is really like. And should that experience fall short?  The impact doesn’t stay private. Job review sites, social platforms, and Reddit threads have turned candidate experience into a public, brand-shaping force. 

This shift has made candidate experience a defining talent trend—not just a recruiting concern. 

So where does the market stand today? According to Employ’s Benchmarks Report, the average candidate experience score sits at 2.9 out of 5—unchanged from 2024.  

As competition for qualified talent remains high, the gap between companies that deliver a clear, engaging experience and those that don’t is widening. Candidate experience is increasingly the difference between building a sustainable talent pipeline and constantly reopening the same roles. 

What’s driving this trend is not a single moment in the process, but how consistently candidates feel informed, respected, and supported—from application through onboarding. Across the market, technology is playing a larger role at every stage: 

• Attract & Engage: Application friction is becoming less acceptable, pushing teams toward mobile-friendly, streamlined experiences that respect candidates’ time without sacrificing quality. 

• Screen: Prolonged silence is now a reputational risk. Automated updates are increasingly used to maintain transparency and reduce candidate drop-off. 

• Interview: Interview companion tools are shifting focus back to human conversation by handling notes and surfacing insights after the fact. 

• Select: Data-supported decisions are helping teams move faster and close the loop more reliably—reducing the “left on read” experience candidates increasingly call out. 

• Onboard: Automated onboarding is emerging as a continuation of candidate experience, not a handoff—setting the tone for day one and beyond. 

Looking ahead, candidate experience will be shaped by how well talent acquisition software balances automation with empathy. The trend isn’t toward removing humans from hiring—it’s toward using technology to create clarity, consistency, and momentum while preserving the personal touch candidates expect. 

The takeaway: Candidate experience remains deeply human—but in 2026 and beyond, the market is signaling that thoughtful technology adoption is essential to delivering it at scale. Teams that get this balance right won’t just improve scores—they’ll strengthen trust, employer brand, and long-term hiring outcomes. 

Trend 3: Remote & Global Hiring Capabilities 

The word remote used to be most closely associated with turning on the TV. Since 2020, it’s come to mean something entirely different—and that shift has permanently reshaped how organizations hire. 

Remote work has expanded organizations’ ability to access talent far beyond geographic boundaries. As a result, global hiring is no longer a niche strategy—it’s an increasingly common operating model. Supporting it successfully, however, requires the right talent acquisition software.  

Where pre-2020 interview processes often centered on in-person conversations, today’s hiring journeys look markedly different. TA teams now rely on fully virtual channels to communicate, evaluate, and collaborate with candidates—often across time zones, regions, and borders. 

And this isn’t a temporary adjustment. According to the 2025 Job Seeker Nation Report, when asked why they’re actively looking for a new role—beyond higher compensation—46% of job seekers cited the need for more flexibility or remote work options. 

As remote and global hiring becomes standard, teams are increasingly turning to technology to support consistency and scale, including tools that help them: 

• Surface qualified talent worldwide by using AI to post in the right places and maximize existing talent pools 

• Keep processes and interviews structured and fair across recruiters and hiring teams 

• Provide clear, comparable signals of candidate fit through scorecards, tech-enabled notes, and interview clips 

Looking ahead, global hiring will continue to push talent acquisition software to evolve. The focus will be on enabling scale without sacrificing fairness—delivering structured, consistent experiences regardless of where candidates or hiring teams are located. 

The takeaway: A qualified candidate pool is no longer defined by proximity to headquarters. As remote and global hiring solidify as long-term trends, TA teams will need technology that delivers reach, consistency, and efficiency at scale. 

Trend 4: Advanced Analytics & Insights 

“Can you pull a report on that?” 

Today, almost nothing in talent acquisition moves forward without data to back it up. But across the market, a growing gap is emerging between what recruiting teams measure and what actually drives hiring outcomes. 

According to the 2025 Recruiter Nation Report, recruiters most often pull reports related to candidate experience (56%), hiring costs (55%), time to hire (55%), and recruiter activity (48%). Yet when asked which metrics matter most, HR decision-makers pointed to retention rate of hire (30%), followed by source of hire, hiring manager satisfaction, quality of hire, candidate satisfaction, and recruiter satisfaction. 

Compounding this challenge, many recruiters are still tracking metrics across fragmented systems and endless Excel spreadsheets—making it difficult to connect performance data to strategic decisions. 

This signals a broader trend shift in talent acquisition: teams are beginning to move away from static, backward-looking reports and toward ongoing measurement and forward-looking analytics. Increasingly, talent acquisition software is expected not just to report on the past, but to surface patterns, trends, and signals that guide smarter decisions. 

Here’s how that shift is taking shape across TA teams: 

• Moving away from backward-looking reports and prioritizing insights that inform strategy 

• Transitioning from spreadsheets to centralized platforms with built-in analytics 

• Closing the gap between efficiency metrics and outcome-based measures like quality of hire and retention 

• Investing in AI-powered tools that surface real-time insights  

• Building data fluency across recruiters and hiring managers 

Looking ahead, the expectation is clear: measurement alone is no longer enough. The value lies in understanding what the data means—and acting on it. 

The takeaway: Talent acquisition is moving beyond measurement for measurement’s sake. The trend is toward tracking metrics that truly move the needle—and using analytics with confidence to drive better hiring outcomes. 

Trend 5: Integration Ecosystems 

Remember when a tech stack meant just one or two systems? Today, that number is significantly higher—and still growing. 

According to the 2025 Recruiter Nation Report, recruiting teams are now juggling a patchwork of tools: background checks (67%), recruitment marketing platforms (58%), video interviewing tools (51%), scheduling software (49%), and CRMs (47%). Rather than driving speed and simplicity, this growing fragmentation is creating siloed workflows that slow teams down and introduce risk. 

This marks a clear shift in the TA technology landscape. As stacks expand, the challenge is no longer access to tools—it’s how well those tools work together. 

The answer? Integration. 

Looking ahead, the success of talent acquisition software will depend less on how many tools teams use—and more on how well those tools work together. Integration will become a strategic requirement, not a nice-to-have. 

As teams move into the next phase of technology advancement (hello, AI), prioritizing integration will be key to keeping systems functional and future ready. 

Across the market, the payoff of integration is showing up in tangible ways: 

• Reduced duplicate data entry and fewer manual handoffs 

• Clear visibility across the hiring journey, from first touch through onboarding 

• Easier expansion into new regions or workflows without rebuilding processes 

• Stronger alignment between recruiters, hiring managers, and HR leaders 

• Greater flexibility to evolve the tech stack as needs change 

The takeaway: Investment in talent acquisition software doesn’t stop at implementation. Integration is the connective tissue that allows hiring technology to scale, adapt, and deliver long-term value. 

How Lever Supports These Trends 

While fast fads may dominate headlines, enduring trends are what truly reshape how TA teams work—and work together. As the talent acquisition landscape continues to evolve, focusing on technology that strengthens workflows, candidate experience, and team efficiency will be essential. 

Lever’s AI-powered recruitment platform—with capabilities to support sourcing, tracking, and relationship building, responsibly—helps teams meet today’s hiring demands while preparing for what’s next.  

Download the full Recruiter Nation Report to explore the trends shaping hiring strategies today—and schedule a demo to see how your peers are leveling up their hiring processes for tomorrow.