My HR Tech Predictions for 2026
Alright, welcome everyone to my last post of 2025, and this one is going to be about predictions in the HR Tech space!
I love predictions, but I rarely have time to sit down and write them.
This time, I had a reminder already in October, so without further ado, I am excited to share what I think is coming in 2026.
1. Stepstone's IPO isn't happening (again)
Stepstone has been talking about an IPO since 2023. It did not happen back then. It was supposed to happen in 2024 but … not really.
It's not happening in 2026 either.
Why is this important?
Recruiting in Germany is weak. Economic growth is off the table unless something unexpected happens. These are terrible conditions for taking one of the country's largest job boards public.
The timing just isn't there, and unfortunately, I don’t see when it will be a good time again.
2. Programmatic job advertising will consolidate
Recruitics, Appcast, Joveo, Jobiqo Air, Aimwel. What is next for the Big 5 of programmatic job advertising?
We have too many vendors doing the same thing with no real competitive advantage. The market is retracting because hiring demand is down.
I don't see how current conditions can support multiple players offering identical services.
It's time for M&A.
In my vision of 2026, there are three major players left.
3. AI in recruitng will cause compliance trouble
AI usage in recruiting has been increasing. So has the demand for jobs and the average duration of finding a new job.
We're going to see new legal cases around discrimination in online recruiting and hiring.
The Workday case was the first where someone sued a company for algorithmic bias. It won't be the last.
In tough labour markets, technology becomes an easy target. And with more vendors pushing "AI-powered screening" products, this scenario is becoming increasingly realistic.
4. More job board acquisitions
This year we saw some legendary brand names change hands—Monster, CareerBuilder, Jobs.de. There were a lot of acquisitions.
This will continue. Smaller niche job boards will be acquired by larger ones, especially local market leaders that sit in organic positions 3-5.
Why? Winning in traditional SEO is getting harder with AI Overviews eating into traffic. Acquiring competitors becomes a smart way to increase market coverage without fighting Google.
Some of these local players have been bleeding cash over the past two years. Selling is quite a viable option for them.
I can also see career service vendors starting to acquire job boards to jump-start their traffic acquisition.
5. Hiring will pick up (Yes, Really)
Everyone's doom-scrolling about AI taking jobs. LinkedIn is full of "prepare for the workforce apocalypse" posts. I'm calling BS.
Most of the AI-powered automation promised hasn't materialized. AI pilots are failing in the corporate world—not because AI doesn't work, but because implementing AI in a business quickly is hard. The gap between a demo and production deployment is massive, and most companies are stuck somewhere in the middle.
Yes, LLMs are also not the silver bullet for corporates worldwide.
Meanwhile, the work hasn't gone anywhere. Teams are stretched thin. Burnout is real. At some point, companies will have no choice but to restart hiring, because the alternative is to watch their existing employees walk out.
The US will lead. Other markets will follow.
6. A data leak from a vibe-coded recruitment app
I'm 95% confident on this one.
It may be an internal tool or a large vendor. But it will happen.
Next year, we'll see a significant data leak from a vibe-coded recruitment app handling personal data. I don't know which vendor or when, but with this level of market saturation and the speed at which people are shipping code they don't fully understand, something will break.
There's no way around it.
7. Google will plug jobs into AI Search / Gemini
Google is the only player with access to millions of live-indexed jobs. They've built a system that motivates employers, job boards, and aggregators to submit fresh listings via the indexing API.
Yes, I am talking about Google Jobs.
The logical next step is plugging it into Gemini or the various UX implementations of AI-powered search.
The only thing slowing them down in Europe is the risk of a monopoly case. The EU would not be happy. But the US is a different story.
My prediction: this launches in the US first, with a European rollout following later—if regulators allow it.
I'll check back in December 2026 and see how many of these I got wrong. Feel free to hold me accountable or comment on LinkedIn!
Have a nice, peaceful end to 2025 and a solid start to 2026!