Ep 809: The Data Foundation For AI In Hiring

Agentic AI is only as useful as the data it can access, and getting that foundation right is proving to be the harder half of the work. Years of mergers, acquisitions, and local decision-making have left many talent operations running on data and processes that were never meant to work together, and no amount of AI on top will fix what lies beneath. Some organizations are now rethinking their technology strategy in light of that problem.

So what does getting AI-ready actually involve, and what does it change about the decisions you make?

My guest this week is Lia Manafova, Talent Technology Strategy Lead at Sanofi, a global pharmaceutical company hiring at scale across more than 70 countries. In our conversation, Lia explains why the data foundation must come first, what an anchor product strategy looks like in practice, and what she has learned about making technology stick.

In the interview, we discuss:

• Why AI readiness starts with data, not AI

• Building a bridge between the business and the digital team

• The challenge of constant transformation and change fatigue

• What is an anchor product strategy?

• How the Workday, Paradox and HiredScore acquisitions changed the options

• Best-of-breed or a single source of truth?

• Keeping recruiters in one system rather than three

• Piloting with the people who will use it every day

• The case for keeping the semi-automated option

• Building an ROI story the business understands

• What does the future look like?