How Regions Bank Reimagined Talent Acquisition While Keeping Culture Front and Center

As talent acquisition teams are increasingly expected to operate as strategic partners to the business, many organizations struggle to move beyond operational metrics. In financial services, the challenge is amplified by regulatory complexity, risk considerations, and the need to preserve a strong culture while innovating with AI.

When Ryan King, EVP, Head of Talent Acquisition at Regions Bank, joined the organization in May 2017, talent acquisition (TA) didn’t exist. Eight years later, he presents annually to Regions’ board of directors about TA innovation, with zero slides about jobs filled or time-to-fill metrics. That evolution from a nonexistent function to a board-level innovation story happened through planning, honest communication, and a willingness to become the company’s AI pioneers in a highly regulated industry.

During Financial Services Day at Phenom Industry Week, King shared how Regions navigated this shift, evolving TA into a strategic, board-level function centered on innovation, candidate experience, and culture.

Watch the full session here, or continue reading for highlights!

What does it take to build a strategic talent acquisition function from the ground up?

Starting a TA function with no existing infrastructure, no team, and no established processes sounds daunting, but it's increasingly common as organizations centralize HR. The key isn't rushing to implement technology or chasing quick wins. It's about building the right foundation first.

"Talent acquisition did not exist at Regions prior to 2017," King shared. His first move wasn't buying software or setting up processes; it was hiring excellent recruiters. "We can't do any of this stuff if we don't have competent and excellent recruiters on the team," King noted. The people come first, always.

King's approach was deliberate. His team immediately created a strategic plan and roadmap covering the next several years, with clearly defined objectives, priorities, and sequencing. 

After 18 months of building the team and executing that roadmap, a critical gap became obvious. "We quickly realized that we've got an incredible culture here at Regions, an incredible brand to sell. We are in awesome markets, but we did not have the vehicle to get that message from the four walls of Regions out into the candidate universe," King recalled. That realization became the catalyst for partnering with Phenom to build the technology infrastructure that would transform TA into a strategic function.

How do you secure executive buy-in for TA technology investments?

Securing executive support for talent technology investments is one of the most challenging aspects of TA leadership. Many leaders make the mistake of either overselling capabilities they're unsure about or hiding uncertainty behind overly confident proposals. The most effective approach is radically different: honesty combined with a clear business case.

King's approach at Regions centered on three foundational elements. First, he was completely transparent about what he didn't know. "I was extremely upfront and honest with leadership here that I had no idea what I was going to find when I went out to the market. I knew what I needed. I had created a business case for the problem I was trying to solve. And I was going to go out to market, attempting to find a solution for that problem," King explained. What’s critical is that he wasn't even looking for an AI solution at the time; he was looking for a way to extend Regions' culture beyond their four walls. The Applied AI technology emerged from the business problem, not the other way around.

Second, King brought executive leadership into the conversation before making any market decisions. "I didn't just go out to market looking for something. I went out to the market with executive partnership, understanding what we were wanting and trying to do," King said. This created alignment — not necessarily agreement on every detail, but directional alignment on problems worth solving and latitude to explore solutions. The distinction between alignment and agreement matters: you don't need everyone to agree with your approach, but you do need everyone rowing in the same general direction.

Third, King earned trust incrementally through continuous results communication. "It's amazing what happens when you can show results. Results certainly change public perception anytime and every day," he noted. He didn't ask for indefinite trust, instead he demonstrated outcomes consistently. 

How do you implement AI for recruiting in a highly regulated industry?

Implementing AI for TA in highly regulated industries presents unique challenges that go beyond typical change management. Financial services companies face stringent compliance requirements, information security protocols, and risk management frameworks that can make innovation feel impossible. The key is treating compliance as a partnership opportunity rather than an obstacle.

Regions encountered a particularly challenging situation: they were implementing what was almost certainly the company's first AI technology in any department. "We were 99% certain this was the first piece of AI technology that was put in action here at the company," King confirmed. That meant no established governance frameworks, no precedents for working with compliance teams, and no organizational muscle memory for evaluating AI risks.

"We had to become the subject-matter experts,” King shared. “Because if we didn't understand what was happening, how in the world could we create governance documents, or get Compliance to feel good, or make Technology understand, or make InfoSec feel secure?" King explained. Instead of outsourcing this understanding to vendors or consultants, they needed to own AI completely to answer detailed questions with confidence and specificity.

The second critical element was bringing risk and compliance partners into the process from the very beginning. "Making sure that you're bringing in the control functions on the front end and you're not attempting to work with them on the backend," King emphasized. For their upcoming implementation, their sixth with Phenom, they're bringing legal, information security, model validation, communications, and compliance into the conversation from day one. "I want to make sure that they understand on the very front end how impactful this change is going to be."

This approach required patience and a genuine partnership mentality. "We've had several hurdles and challenges along the way, just like everybody else has. And I don't want to tell you that we refuse to accept no as an answer, because sometimes no is the answer, unfortunately," King acknowledged. "But we have been able to work together, not fight through, every control function, and we've overcome those to date." By pioneering this path, Regions' TA team didn't just enable their own innovation — they created the governance template that other departments could use for their own AI initiatives.

Related: The Complete Guide to Financial Services Recruitment

How do you get recruiters to adopt new AI tools?

Technology adoption by recruiting teams often determines whether transformation initiatives succeed or fail. Even the most powerful platforms can’t deliver value if recruiters don't use them effectively. The challenge isn't just training people on features, it's managing the psychological and cultural shift that comes with fundamentally new ways of working.

"My biggest fear when we stepped into this partnership initially really wasn't even about executive leadership. My biggest fear was adoption. And that I wouldn't be able to get the team to understand the direction and the change that we were going to have to take," King admitted. The concern was legitimate: recruiters would need to learn entirely new workflows, adopt unfamiliar technologies, and navigate inevitable challenges.

His approach centered on radical honesty about the journey ahead. King didn't sugarcoat the challenges or pretend the transition would be smooth. "Being honest with the team but also being honest with myself that every day is not going to be sunshine and butterflies. It's hard work, but that commitment is what gets you over the ledge," he explained. Setting realistic expectations prevented disillusionment when challenges inevitably appeared.

Communication was tailored to different audiences. For example, leadership received high-level direction and progress updates that were quick, focused, and outcome-oriented. But tactical teams received substantially more detail about how changes would affect their day-to-day work and how they'd be involved in the process. The same core message was designed differently based on who was receiving it.

The results exceeded King's expectations. "The recruiters of today are just so much more upskilled than they ever were before. And they've adopted the technology to a degree that I didn't think was possible," he said. The team became so proficient that King often doesn't need to be in implementation or troubleshooting conversations. They've taken complete ownership of the technology, the strategy, and the continuous improvement process in ways that transformed them from order-takers to strategic enablers.

Can you measure the shift from operational to strategic talent acquisition?

Most TA functions are trapped in operational mode. They’re measured by traditional talent acquisition metrics like requisition fill rates, time-to-hire metrics, and cost-per-hire calculations. While these metrics matter operationally, they don't position TA as a strategic business function. This shift requires changing not just what you do, but what conversations you're having with organizational leadership.

The clearest indicator of Regions' transformation appears in King's annual board presentations. "I go to the board of directors for our company once a year, and I present to them about talent acquisition innovation. There's not one slide in my deck that has anything to do with how many jobs we've filled, what our time to fill is, or where we're filling jobs from," King explained. Instead, board members want to understand how the team continues to evolve, how the function serves as a bridge between the bank's culture and candidate populations, and what innovations are enabling competitive advantages in the talent market.

This represents a fundamental redefinition of talent acquisition's value proposition. "People in the company, executives, non-executives are talking about talent acquisition in a completely different way today than they did before," King noted. The conversation shifted from "Did you fill the requisition?" to "How are we showing up in the market?" ”How are candidates perceiving us?”“What does their experience feel like?” ”How does Regions compare to competitors?” 

Before 2020, King couldn't answer those questions with specificity. Today, he can provide detailed, data-informed answers about candidate experience, market positioning, and competitive differentiation. "The talent acquisition culture has done a complete 180," he said. "The definition of talent acquisition has definitely changed. And I believe that to be a culture shift in and of itself." 

Will AI replace recruiters or elevate them? 

Understanding AI's practical impact on recruiting work is essential for both leaders considering implementation and recruiters concerned about their roles. The transformation isn't about replacing human recruiters; it's about eliminating administrative work that prevents recruiters from doing what they do best: building relationships and making talent decisions.

The most dramatic change at Regions shows up in what recruiters think about and discuss during their work day."We're talking about things like AI, and we're talking about things like automations, and we are talking about CRM functionality. We're talking insights," King revealed. Five years ago, these weren't part of the vocabulary. Conversations centered on tactical execution: Did you fill the job yesterday? Did you fill it within 40 days?

That shift happened because AI and automation made it possible. "We have processes and systems in place now that are making the recruiter so much more efficient and bringing so much time into their day so that they can go out and source talent that didn't apply for the job," King noted. The technology handles candidate engagement, automated communications, and pipeline nurturing — essentially, all of the repetitive work that used to consume entire days. That recovered time gets redirected toward high-value activities that require human judgment, relationship-building, and strategic thinking.

"Through that first meeting, into meetings with Mahe and others, and seeing demos — we saw how we could change the way talent acquisition is positioned at Regions and with our candidates and clients. And here we are, five years later, bigger and better than we ever imagined."

Get a complimentary High-Volume Hiring Audit to discover how AI can help your recruiters shift from administrative tasks to strategic advisory.