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What you missed at Engage Sydney 2025
Engage Sydney 2025 was its biggest year yet, with 470 attendees coming together over the course of one day at the WINX Stand at Royal Randwick Racecourse. Between keynotes, breakout sessions, and networking opportunities in a new exhibit area, recruitment professionals from around the APAC region swapped ideas, best practices, and proven playbooks on how to amplify the power of their workforce.
Read on for a recap of the jam-packed day, starting with a keynote address delivered by Jeff Neumann, Senior Vice President of Product Marketing at Bullhorn, and Nathan Green, Principal Solutions Consultant, and including an inspirational speech from Matt Church, Founder & Creator, Thought Leaders.
Reimagining recruitment with AI infused everywhere
Jeff Neumann’s opening keynote set the stage for a transformative conversation on the future of recruitment, emphasising the critical role of AI and automation in overcoming industry challenges. Neumann highlighted the paradox of today’s job market—while global job data suggests an abundance of open roles, both recruiters and candidates are struggling to make successful matches. Fueled by “ghost jobs” and lengthy hiring processes, this disconnect has made candidate engagement and job placement more complex than ever. With job seekers taking an average of four to six months to secure a role, the need for recruitment agencies to rethink their approach has never been more urgent.
A key theme of the keynote was the necessity of leveraging AI to optimise recruiter productivity and improve hiring outcomes. With recruiters spending an average of 14.6 hours per week searching for candidates, Neumann emphasised the importance of shifting this time toward relationship-building and strategic conversations. Bullhorn’s investment in AI-powered search and match solutions, along with automation-driven outreach and engagement, is designed to streamline recruitment workflows and enable teams to work more efficiently. These tools not only enhance candidate sourcing but also create a more personalised and responsive recruitment experience, ultimately improving conversion rates.
Looking ahead, Bullhorn is doubling down on AI-driven innovation, integrating AI assistants, matching models, and intelligent automation throughout the recruitment lifecycle. Neumann unveiled Data Hub, a new capability that consolidates recruitment data from various sources into a single platform, offering agencies deeper insights for better decision-making. With these advancements, recruitment agencies can move beyond traditional methods and harness AI to drive both operational efficiency and business growth. As AI reshapes the industry, agencies that embrace these technologies will gain a decisive edge—transforming challenges into opportunities in an increasingly competitive market.
Amplifying your workforce with AI agents and assistants
Nathan Green joined Neumann onstage to showcase how AI assistants and agents handle actions like sourcing, screening, and data enrichment. With AI agents and assistants streamlining recruiter workflows, recruiters can concentrate on high-value interactions while improving speed and accuracy.
One example: AI-driven market intelligence through Bullhorn’s MarketIQ. With over 380 million historical job records and 20 million live postings sourced directly from company websites, the platform empowers recruiters to identify hiring trends, emerging skill demands, and competitive opportunities. By integrating AI-powered insights with automation, recruiters can proactively target business development opportunities and optimise talent placement strategies. The emphasis was clear—data-driven recruitment decisions lead to faster, more precise talent matches, reducing time-to-fill and boosting revenue potential.
Looking ahead, Green and Neumann took a look at AI-driven matching, virtual screening, and dynamic outreach tools demonstrating how recruiters can cut administrative workload while maintaining a human-centered approach to hiring. Together they underscored a crucial takeaway: AI and automation are now indispensable for scaling recruitment operations efficiently. Agencies that strategically embed AI into their processes will gain a decisive edge, driving growth through smarter, faster, and more informed hiring decisions.
Thoughts about tomorrow you can talk about today
Halfway through the day, Matt Church led a session that challenged recruitment leaders to rethink their approach in the age of AI. He emphasised that while technology and automation are transforming the industry, the true differentiator remains human leadership. Church drew a distinction between complexity and complication—AI and automation can streamline processes, but the ability to lead, connect, and create meaningful relationships is what will set top recruiters apart. “If you can increase your presence at any moment,” he said, “you’ll increase your impact.”
Through engaging stories, he illustrated how psychological safety, active listening, and genuine presence can elevate a recruitment agency’s culture and impact. In a world increasingly dominated by AI, the ability to foster trust and connection will be an agency’s biggest competitive advantage. His message was clear: the future of recruitment isn’t just about adopting technology; it’s about using it to free up space for deeper, more impactful human connections.
Missed out on other sessions from Engage Sydney 2025? Stay tuned for our Content Hub for more recaps, event videos, and key takeaways.