AI is a game changer for how companies attract, engage and hire talent, bringing speed, efficiency and personalization to the recruitment process. But with automation comes a new conundrum: candidate experience risks becoming beige and transactional. In a crowded market, companies may find themselves struggling to distinguish themselves and connect with top talent in meaningful ways.  

That’s why Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and talent leaders—from Chief HR Officers (CHROs) to recruitment managers—must join forces like never before. By pooling their expertise, they can use AI strategically while preserving the storytelling, culture and emotional depth that make employer brands truly stand out. The result is not just stronger talent pipelines, but the kind of differentiation and momentum that fuels what we at Prophet call Uncommon Growth. 

Here are three ways that brand, marketing and HR functions can come together to create recognizable, distinct and relevant employer brands in the age of AI.  

Keep Your Talent Pipeline “Always-On” 

In consumer marketing, brands rarely switch off their awareness efforts, and recruitment should be no different. Pausing employer branding between hiring cycles risks letting your talent pipeline go cold, making it harder to reignite interest later.  

AI is now helping talent acquisition teams stay “always-on” in smarter, more scalable ways. This can range from personalized content and predictive hiring signals to automated, multi-channel messaging that keeps your employer brand front of mind. 

For example, in early careers recruitment, AI-powered social listening tools can now track trending topics and draft content tailored to 16- to 22-year-olds, to help build talent communities amongst students. For hard-to-fill roles, regular customized content relevant to their niche, such as insider stories and professional development, can be used to keep pre-qualified candidates engaged and reduce time-to-hire when specialist roles eventually open up. In executive talent, AI tools can monitor leadership movements in competitor companies and industry news. This prompts recruitment teams to send tailored messages, making executive searches faster and smoother.  

This ability to target, drive awareness and build relationships with talent gives companies a decisive edge, making every hiring cycle faster, smoother and more impactful. 

Adopt a “Shopping-for-Jobs” Approach  

CMOs are now increasingly using AI to intelligently promote their products or services at different stages of the marketing funnel, from awareness to consideration, conversion to loyalty. Smart tools are advancing at an astonishing rate, helping marketing leaders align brand strategy across multiple touchpoints to build emotional and functional connections and assess buyer readiness.  

In a similar way, talent leaders can benefit from using AI to map candidate interaction points and apply AI marketing tactics to tailor messaging based on where candidates are in their career journey: who they are, what they value and where to reach them.  

Prophet’s research shows that 74% of users now turn to AI tools instead of Google for information. The same rules apply in the context of candidates “shopping for jobs”. When competing for talent, employer brands need to stay visible in this new landscape. They must go beyond traditional tactics to understand how their employer brands are ranked and cited by AI engines, and as a result, perceived by potential employees. 

AI is already playing a meaningful, though not yet dominant role in talent acquisition. Many teams use AI-powered tools daily to save time, improve sourcing productivity and reduce costs. However, when it comes to content creation and personalization, most organizations still rely on human strategy and creativity to make their employer brands compelling and distinctive. As AI becomes more widespread and companies focus on building AI literacy and fluency in their own teams, employers will need to strike a balance between efficiency and authenticity. 

Remember: Employer Branding is for Humans, by Humans 

Soon, it will be hard to remember a time when AI wasn’t deeply embedded in our daily work. But as it grows more influential, another major risk emerges: over-reliance. Blind dependence on AI can lead to bland, generic outputs. When everything is optimized by algorithms, human nuance can get lost in a “sea of sameness.” 

To avoid losing authenticity, AI tools must be balanced with human-centric branding. People still crave originality, real voices, empathy, not mere transactional exchanges. Even if recruitment processes are increasingly powered by AI, talent leaders and CMOs must collaborate closely to ensure their brands continue to inject personality, purpose and emotional intelligence. 

This means embedding the organization’s values and culture authentically into every touchpoint, communicating who you are beyond the role. It’s what transforms a candidate’s journey from a pitch into a meaningful invitation to belong—and that’s a powerful hallmark. 

So, how can you build human connection in a highly automated recruitment world? Replace abstract, boilerplate descriptions with storytelling that resonates, featuring employee journeys, cultural moments, or purpose-driven narratives. Use AI for initial touchpoints but always follow up with personalized messages or callbacks from human recruiters to show that a real person cares. And even in AI-led interview processes, include regular human check-ins or “culture conversations” where alignment with core values drives hiring decisions, not just what’s on a CV.  

Oscillating between extremes is a familiar pattern for organizations and the concept of the cultural pendulum illustrates how workplace values shift over time. These shifts often swing between opposing ends before eventually finding a balanced middle ground. In recent years, however, disruptions like the pandemic, technological acceleration, social movements and evolving work expectations have significantly amplified these swings. We’ve witnessed organizations shift from hierarchical to flat structures, traditional workplaces to fully remote setups, hustle culture to well-being focus, uniformity to hyper-personalization and stability to relentless innovation.   

Cultural oscillations don’t just disrupt workflows. They drive disengagement and attrition. Reports indicate that 90% of UK employees feel disengaged, with many opting for ‘quiet quitting’ a term used to describe doing only the bare minimum at work in order to prioritize life outside of it. Global turnover climbed to 20% in 2024, while the average tenure has dropped to 4.2 years.   

While change is inevitable, constant pendulum swings are exhausting, disruptive and rarely optimize the return on human capital investments. For organizations to achieve sustainable success, cultural balance is essential, leveraging the best of extremes while aligning with internal and external factors. This is not just a CHRO concern, but a critical agenda for CEOs and business leaders striving for uncommon growth. By fostering stable and resilient cultures organizations create the conditions for innovation, engagement and long-term competitive advantage.   

What Companies are Getting Wrong   

As the cultural pendulum swings again, organizations must take heed of the extremes shaping today’s workplace. 2025 presents a pivotal opportunity to find equilibrium and thrive, but the examples we’re seeing from major companies serve as cautionary tales. 

The Cost of Retreating from DEI   

Recent headlines have revealed unsettling shifts. Companies like Ford, Walmart and McDonald’s have scaled back their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) commitments, a move criticized for prioritizing short-term savings over long-term growth, equity and engagement. These retrenchments risk derailing progress and eroding trust.   

Action is critical: Rather than retreating from these crucial values, focus on ways to embed inclusivity at every level, from recruitment to performance management and leadership development. If you can no longer set goals for achieving diversity at senior levels, review consistency of career development plans, promotions and performance ratings across diverse groups as well as attrition rates. Equip your leaders with these insights to ensure DEI is at the core of all decisions to deepen engagement and create an environment where diverse voices shape the future of the business.  

The Return to Office Dilemma   

Another tension point is the resistance to strict in-office mandates being enforced by Amazon, JPMorgan, PwC and others. After years of remote work, many employees expect flexibility, yet in-person collaboration remains vital for building trust and sparking creativity.   

Here’s the way forward: Rather than forcing employees back into full-time office environments, listen to your employees’ perspective on when and how they feel most productive layered on top of the needs of teams, functions and ultimately the business. There’s not a one-size-fits-all as there may be cyclical needs for teams to come together in person. Employees who are just starting off their careers, or those new to a business, may feel a greater need to spend more time amongst colleagues in-person learning how things work. Flexibility often in the shape of a hybrid-first approach balances autonomy with intentional in-person interactions is increasingly a requirement top talent are looking for from employers. Thoughtfully designed on-site events, such as brainstorming sessions and team-building activities, can create meaningful connections while preserving the flexibility employees value.   

Breaking the Cycle of Cultural Extremes   

The pendulum effect isn’t new. It impacts multiple facets of organizational culture.  Decision-making for instance, often swings between rigid top-down control to decentralized autonomy or vice-versa, sometimes losing clear direction in the process. Uber’s shift from centralized to decentralized, and then back again, illustrates the risks of extremes.   

The key to a balanced culture lies in anchoring your organization in its core values. Values-led organizations are uniquely equipped to navigate change, maintain consistency and are perceived more authentically even in the most turbulent times. The results speak for themselves. Costco’s unwavering commitment to its values has led to industry-leading retention rates, while IKEA’s steady growth is fuelled by value-driven decisions in areas like product innovation and sustainable supply chains. By prioritizing long-term impact over reactive trends, these organizations demonstrate the power of living their values.  

Unfortunately, for many organizations, values remain little more than words on a page. That’s why we work hand-in-hand with our clients to ensure values are not just defined but embedded into the fabric of the organization, influencing everyday behaviors, rituals and processes. Using our Human-Centered Transformation Model, we align every aspect of an organization with its core values, helping clients like Chick-fil-A and Encompass Health turn their values into actionable practices that drive sustainable growth and engagement.

Make 2025 Your Year of Culture Balance   

A balanced approach to culture creates stability and a much-needed foundation for businesses, especially those navigating change, growth and transformation. Let’s face it, this is something most businesses are grappling with most of the time. Creating a clearly understood and communicated view brings greater trust, tolerance and engagement that supports business performance during the most turbulent times.    

Here are our top 5 strategies to support cultural balance for the long term:  

1. Keep culture front and center on the executive agenda: Being intentional about measuring employee sentiment, both internally and externally, is critical for understanding emerging expectations and how to respond to them. By making culture a regular agenda item, you’re more likely to make ongoing adjustments, reducing the need for major overhauls.  
2. Stay anchored in values: Use your core values as a guide for decision-making and clearly communicate how they impact decisions that are taken. Consistently integrate these values across the employee eco-system from attraction and recruitment and performance management to rewards, recognition, promotions and development.     
3. Prioritize employee listening: Regularly seek and act on employee feedback to create policies that reflect their evolving needs and expectations. A culture of listening builds trust, strengthens engagement and ensures employees feel valued and connected.  
4. Develop leadership for balance: Equip leaders with the tools and skills to navigate tensions, balance autonomy with collaboration and adaptability with accountability. Strong, values-aligned leadership is the foundation for stability and engagement.   
5. Make incremental changes: Introduce small, manageable adjustments to build change resilience and ensure long-term impact, rather than relying on one-off initiatives. This measured approach ensures resilience, reduces resistance and drives sustained impact.   

When COVID struck over a year ago, many organizations were already gearing up for a new future of work – they just thought they might get there through evolution, not necessarily by “forced” revolution. The pandemic triggered experimentation – as organizations found themselves leaning into ways to reassure, support and connect with their employees that they had not attempted before, learning “on the go” and demanding new efforts from leaders too as they played their part.

Now as we try and take the best from the COVID experience, many of those leading strategy developments for employee communications and engagement are reshaping their approaches. Yes, we are still not free from the pandemic, but there’s been a firm shift from reacting and maintaining to reimagining. In the midst of this, and as we yearn for interpersonal contact, one theme keeps bubbling to the top: that the human touch – virtually applied for many months – needs to be brought front and center as we go forward.

“Technologies will play an even more important role in personalizing communications and curating fit-for-purpose interactive experiences.”

Of course, for employee engagement exciting new technologies will play their part – they are already for many organizations. But even those declaring a “digital-first” future are realizing success remains “human-first” on that journey. In fact, technologies will play an even more important role in personalizing communications and curating fit-for-purpose interactive experiences.

Driving this are some clear employee expectations and needs around the content as well as the engagement experience. Employees expect employers to provide:

• Increased transparency and accessibility – something that many organizations did more of in the face of COVID-19.
• More flexibility and support – as the line between work and non-work lives continues to blur.
• Commitment to shaping a better world – employees want to be confident that their employer is not just dealing with “the business,” but rather continuing to do what matters in the world – focusing on impact beyond outcomes.
• Foresight around what lies ahead – employees want more insight and direction on the “future of work.” It’s not easy to look ahead but even without all the answers, employees want to understand the options which are under consideration and what they might mean for them.

How Should Employee Communication and Engagement Strategies Be Developed?

Already we have called out “humanity” – and this is at the center of Prophet’s Human-Centered Transformation Model.

Using this model, we can see some areas of focus for business leaders when it comes to employee engagement and the need to interconnect these areas to take a truly holistic approach to the organizational ecosystem.

How To Use Prophet’s Human-Centered Transformation Model To Enhance Employee Engagement

• DNA: Take care of the ‘whole’ person. Be aware of what people are going through – at work and at home – and find ways to engage beyond work topics. Design a holistic approach that truly enables employees to bring their best selves to work.
• SOUL: Become the heartbeat of the organization. Inspire dialogue, demonstrate empathy and provide the channels and mechanisms to create a compelling rhythm of engagement as well as constant feedback loops. Build connections and create links between individual action and collective impact.
• MIND: Get the organization fit for ongoing change. Guide the learning agenda, setting expectations and allowing for agility and curiosity. Lay the groundwork for continuous re-skilling and up-skilling, open sharing and rapid learning.
• BODY: Be where your people are. Keep up with the latest needs, expectations and digital tools being used. Tailor what, how and when you communicate and engage to increase relevance and make it stick.