How could there be 23 AI vendors in staffing?

I'm writing this on Monday, March 23 while en route to Austin for the 2026 Staffing Industry Analyst Executive Forum.

In case you are not familiar with the Exec Forum, it's one of the premier events in the staffing industry. This one is geared a little more towards larger staffing organizations, but there is still plenty to learn for staffing companies of all sizes.

While in the airport, I opened up the SIA app to check out who's coming. Of course, most of the usual suspects will be there -- the ATS solutions, funding companies, insurance providers, consultants, and ONE marketing company -- Haley Marketing!

And then there was a new category on the vendor list: AI/Chatbot. And I was shocked to discover a whopping 23 vendors! That's more than double the number of ATS companies!

There are AI vendors for sourcing, screening, scheduling, voice + video interviewing, matching, compliance + verification, onboarding, billing verification, job advertising, VMS management, payroll processing, billing, business analytics, business intelligence, and end-to-end hiring platforms (um, isn't that what staffing companies do???).

Oh yeah, and there's one company offering an AI marketing operating system (yeah, that's us and our new RogIQ solution...it's amazing, but that's not the point of this SMART IDEA).

Actually, this story isn't about the Executive Forum either. No, this SMART IDEA is about the implications of all this AI tech.

Do we need all this AI?

The short answer is a resounding...YES.

Love it or hate it, AI technology (when implemented correctly) creates massive productivity gains. If your company wants to compete in the years ahead (or even the months ahead), you will be forced to drive massive improvements in speed and efficiency.

And AI is the only way to achieve these types of gains.

But what's the impact on people?

That's a much tougher question.

Every AI company seems to have the same pitch:

What do you think? Is this our future reality?

As you eliminate the task work associated with recruiting and service delivery, will your people spend more time talking with clients and talent?

And if you can get people to make the calls, will the clients and talent want to have these conversations?

I've been watching a lot of AI vendors, inside and outside of the staffing industry, and the message is clear: AI can do most of the work that us lowly humans can do...and in most cases, better than an average human!

Sure, AI can make mistakes...so can humans.

AI can hallucinate and make things up...so can humans.

AI can suffer from bias or have other performance issues. And yes, so can humans.

Today, AI won't replace an A-player on your team. But it can already replace the C-players.

And that's today. What happens in two years or even six months? AI capabilities are doubling every seven months. Six months = just about one double. Two years = nearly three doubles or 8x today's capabilities.

AI can't build relationships, can it?

Good question.

We are currently being told that AI will handle transactional work so humans can focus on relationships and other higher-level work that requires more experience, nuance, and empathy.

AI surely can't replace that, can it?

Not so fast. A quick Google search (okay an AI search) showed me that a recent Cognitive FX survey found 38% of people now use AI chatbots for emotional support and therapeutic purposes. And a study by Sentio University found that ChatGPT is now the largest provider of mental health in the United States.

Here are a few interesting findings from that report:

• 49% of LLM users who self-report an ongoing mental health condition use LLMs for mental health support.

• 73% use LLMs for anxiety management, 63% for personal advice, 60% for depression support, 58% for emotional insight, 56% for mood improvement, 36% to practice communication skills and 35% to feel less lonely.

• 63% of users report that LLMs improved their mental health, with 87% rating an LLM's practical advice as helpful or very helpful.

• 90% cite accessibility and 70% cite affordability as primary motivations for using LLMs for mental health support.

• 39% rate LLMs as equally helpful to human therapy, while 36% find LLMs more helpful than human therapists.

So, if people will use AI as a personal therapist, won't they use it to build business relationships?

And then what happens to us?

Now, I'll try not to get all dystopian about AI and job loss. I do see a real opportunity for people at all levels to reimagine and reinvent how they work.

My thought is that in the not-too-distant future, we won't do the work...we'll orchestrate it.

Humans have an incredible ability to identify problems and spot opportunities for improvement. We have an entrepreneurial ability to invent new solutions (that's how we got AI in the first place).

My hope is that this ability will lead to new and incredibly fulfilling roles. Let me share a couple of examples I've recently witnessed on our team.

My Co-CEO, Victoria Kenward, needed to have our leadership team update their role profiles. Rather than handing them the Word docs and asking them to edit, she jumped into Claude Code and created a system to automate the creation of A-Player role profiles.

Our CTO, Rick Bush, had been struggling to build a platform to aggregate all the software tools our organization uses. It was a massive task, and we simply didn't have the resources to get it done. Then he starts using Cursor + Claude Code to build the integrations, and like magic our Align platform was born.

Our Chief AI & Platform Officer, Jeff Gipson, was frustrated with the struggles we've had working with two external chatbot companies. So, in just three hours he builds a chatbot prototype that has all the functionality of these other vendors...without their failures. Now we have our own software.

Our Director of Creative Services, Becca Searns, incorporated AI into her UX design talents, and is now designing and building websites with no coding. And what use to take months can now be done in days (and most of that time is for human feedback!).

I share these examples not to brag about what we've done (although I am incredibly lucky to be able to work with these four people), but to illustrate the changing nature of work and the speed at which things can be done.

The big opportunity I see

AI may be taking over the tasks we do. It may get good at communication and relationship building. But right now, and probably for at least a couple of years, there is a huge opportunity for us (the humans) to become better problem solvers.

From solution implementor to solution architect

Our new role is to move from solution implementor to solution architect. We will spot the problems. Define the solutions. And orchestrate how the work gets done.

Our skill is not in doing the work, it's in anticipating the issues. Thinking through the solution paths (yes, AI can help with this). And then guiding the AI tools and agents to create the systems we need.

From prompt engineer to spec writer

The evolution I am seeing is in elevating the human role from prompting the AI to creating the detailed specifications that will enable the AI to create the outcome we need.

Some people are already dabbling with this by vibe coding -- using tools like Lovable, Replit, and N8N to create applications.

In 2026 (and hopefully beyond), the human in the loop will be an expert solution architect. Someone who:

• Understands the business need

• Can define the outcome to be achieved

• Anticipates problems to be addressed

• Creates the detailed solution specifications

• And can work with the AI to bring these concepts to life

While the 2026 Staffing Industry Analysts Executive Forum has 23 AI vendors, there is (thankfully) still a very valuable role we humans can play...as long as we are willing to adapt.