LinkedIn’s vision for Talent Solutions innovation

"Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas." Lisa Molan, LinkedIn Product Marketing Director, opened with this Marie Curie quote to frame a practical exploration of how organisations are navigating immense pressure today. Talent and learning teams must move faster, spend less and adopt new technologies effectively. To uncover how this looks in practice, Molan sat down with Craig Wilson, Talent Acquisition Manager EMEA at The Weir Group, and Thea Fineren, Chief People Officer at Advania.

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Molan framed the conversation with LinkedIn data illustrating the current realities for talent acquisition and learning leaders. Recruiters are feeling the squeeze, with 42 percent reporting more pressure to hire faster while over half face a severe lack of talent. It is no surprise that 93 percent plan to increase their AI usage in 2026. The data shows this is a smart move. Recruiters using these tools hire 17 percent more in-demand talent, and companies that hire quality talent grow their revenue two times faster.

Craig Wilson shared how The Weir Group actively embeds intelligent tools into its hiring workflows. Following the acquisition of three AI companies, the organisation adopted a mandate to integrate these capabilities deeply. Wilson noted that this adoption has shifted their recruiters away from administrative tasks and toward meaningful candidate engagement. He shared a striking example of a sales recruiter who initially resisted using Hiring Assistant to manage pipelines. Once the recruiter adopted the tool to personalise outreach, his candidate response rate jumped from between 10 and 12 percent to over 30 percent. Wilson stressed that these concrete outcomes improve both hiring speed and team morale. 

Thea Fineren explained how Advania addresses learning and development challenges through targeted adoption. Rather than forcing a blanket rollout, her team focuses on solving specific business problems for employees to build comfort and confidence. To gamify learning and drive engagement, Advania introduced a unique AI endorsement icon initiative. Employees who complete specific learning pathways earn an icon to display on their internal profiles. Fineren noted that this approach fosters healthy competition and empowers employees to take control of their own career trajectories. By partnering with LinkedIn over the past five to six years, her team continuously drives internal mobility and prioritises crucial future skills. As they continue to scale these efforts, tools like the LinkedIn Career Hub offer an ideal infrastructure to support this kind of self-guided employee growth. 

Molan connected these practitioner experiences directly to LinkedIn's product capabilities. Hiring Assistant supports teams like The Weir Group in automating the administrative work that slows recruiters down, freeing them to focus on meaningful candidate engagement. Career Hub gives employees the tools to map their own development and surface internal opportunities — the foundation of the approach Advania has built its learning strategy around. 

Molan closed the session with another Marie Curie thought. "Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood." Fineren echoed this sentiment, warning that inertia is the biggest threat facing leaders today. Doing nothing carries far more risk than starting small. Wilson offered a final piece of practical advice for navigating this shift. "It's not going anywhere. Just embrace it and learn from each other. We're not alone. Give it a go."

Ready to explore what this could look like for your organisation? Speak to a LinkedIn specialist.