8 Key Takeaways from IAMPHENOM Europe 2025

November 6 marked a milestone moment as we brought IAMPHENOM to Europe for the first time, welcoming hundreds of HR professionals for a transformative day focused on applying AI and automation in HR. 

Our inaugural European conference drew a powerhouse lineup of leaders from organizations including Straumann Group, Bouygues, Capgemini, HelloFresh, and Serco, sharing how they're moving beyond AI experimentation to adoption at scale. The message was clear: HR teams are ready to stop talking about AI and agents and start actualizing them across talent acquisition and management.

Throughout the day, we tackled the biggest themes shaping our industry: deploying AI and automation for smarter hiring, developing talent with precision, and retaining employees through intelligent workforce strategies. From live demonstrations of 25+ use-case specific AI agents to candid discussions about navigating European regulations while maintaining compliance, attendees experienced firsthand how applied AI is revolutionizing every aspect of the talent lifecycle. 

Read on for key highlights from IAMPHENOM Europe, including AI innovations announced during our opening keynotes, customer success stories, and practical takeaways for implementing AI in your own organization.

1. The future of HR is Applied AI

Opening IAMPHENOM Europe during the welcome keynote, our CEO & co-founder Mahe Bayireddi led with a powerful historical parallel that reframed how we think about AI disruption. Just as X-rays transformed medicine, creating entirely new specialties like radiology rather than replacing doctors, AI is evolving HR roles, not eliminating them. The lesson from healthcare is clear: technology amplifies human capability when it addresses the irreplaceable gaps of context, communication, and accountability. Radiologists are now in higher demand than ever because these human elements remain essential, even as AI handles the technical analysis.

The urgency for HR transformation is similar: organizations are at a critical inflection point where they can either embrace AI and steer their workforces forward, or fail to compete. With business strategies and talent alignment lagging by 12-18 months, it’s clear this isn't just an HR problem; it's an existential business threat. When talent doesn't align with strategy, companies fail. Phenom is empowering every enterprise to gain a competitive advantage, and addressing this by connecting business strategy to HR operating models in real-time to understand every individual's context — whether they're a candidate, recruiter, or executive. By applying AI to combine structured and unstructured data across the entire workforce, we're eliminating the lag that kills companies.

“What we do at Phenom is different. We don’t just build AI. We apply it to the real world,” said Bayireddi.

As the only applied AI company focused exclusively on HR, with a decade of building fundamental infrastructure that never existed in this industry before, we’re future-proofing organizations as they transition to an AI-augmented workforce. 

“HR is shifting from doing work to directing work at scale, constantly refining and doing multiple things to execute. It’s not just manual. It’s agentic in nature,” said Bayireddi. Experience Agents and Persona Agents help and empower people to work more effectively — and we’re bringing these agents to exactly where they’re needed in the talent lifecycle. And this is called the Orchestration of Intelligence. This represents a fundamental shift in how HR operates, from "doing work to directing work at scale." 

“What will happen to jobs? It’s about reallocating your resources — but you have to commit to a new path of HR,” Bayireddi added. 

The path forward requires commitment: organizations ready for optimization through automation must reallocate human resources toward what matters most, making the human experience more meaningful. HR professionals won't be replaced; they'll be elevated to direct intelligent systems while focusing their uniquely human talents on empathy, strategy, and connection. This is Applied AI in action: not just building technology, but applying it to solve real-world HR challenges today.

2. AI is transforming the strategic function of HR 

AI is transforming HR from a support function into a strategic driver of business success. Conversations with global HR leaders showed that HR is no longer just adopting AI, it’s leading enterprise-wide change by managing the human factors that determine success. With access to a goldmine of workforce data, HR now enables smarter business planning, from tracking skills and motivation to predicting reskilling needs and retirements. 

At one global manufacturing company, for example, the People & Culture team leads the company’s AI transformation effort, proving that HR’s strength in cultural change and leadership development makes it uniquely positioned to orchestrate collaboration between humans and AI.

This evolution demands a complete rethinking of HR’s operating model and leadership role. Organizations are building AI transformation teams, forging partnerships with IT and Finance, and embracing experimentation while staying true to a human-led, tech-enabled philosophy. 

Ultimately, AI empowers HR to answer new strategic questions by linking talent actions directly to business goals. Whether managing millions of applications or driving workforce planning across thousands of leaders, HR’s command of data and culture makes it indispensable to creating an AI-augmented future where culture remains the decisive force behind strategy.

3. All about agents: The future of Agentic AI is here

Agents purpose-built to solve HR’s biggest talent challenges were on full display at IAMPHENOM Europe.

During a main stage panel with HR industry analyst Fosway Group, the reality became clear: as agentic innovations continue to emerge, a critical gap exists between many vendor promises and actual outcomes. Key challenges include poor data hygiene, underfunded change management, and the fact that most organizations haven't yet deployed AI copilots. Research from Fosway shows talent acquisition teams are leading AI adoption with the fastest ROI, but success requires fixing fundamental issues first: cleaning data taxonomies, establishing governance frameworks, and running purposeful pilots with measurable outcomes.

This is where Phenom is setting itself apart from the rest, distinguishing itself as an AI and automation leader with proven live customer delivery and advanced AI roadmap maturity. The position separates us from many vendors still focused on hyperbole rather than tangible results, according to the Fosway AI Market Assessment for Talent Acquisition.

During our Product Innovation Keynote, attendees experienced a comprehensive suite of AI agents in action that are revolutionizing how organizations attract, hire, develop, and retain talent. These agents aren't just automation tools: they represent a fundamental shift toward intelligent, adaptive systems that work alongside HR professionals to deliver hyper-personalized experiences at scale. From initial candidate engagement through employee development and succession planning, our agentic AI creates a seamless ecosystem where human judgment and machine intelligence combine to drive unprecedented efficiency.

We also unveiled three innovations that enhance how companies connect business strategy to talent execution: Enterprise Talent Optimization & Work Redesign, Frontline Workforce Lifecycle & Shift Scheduling, and Unified Orchestration Engine. By expanding our AI and automation, companies are empowered to rethink how work is designed, talent is mobilized, and operations are orchestrated across the full talent lifecycle. Built on Phenom X+ Ontologies, these products adapt to industry nuances, regulatory requirements, and the distinct needs of knowledge workers and frontline teams.

• Phenom Enterprise Talent Optimization & Work Redesign connects business strategy directly to talent action. Managers can launch any strategic initiative, from a department project to opening a new store or expanding into new markets, and AI instantly maps the workforce implications: identifying required skills, affected roles, and tasks that can be automated or AI-augmented.

• Frontline Workforce Lifecycle & Shift Scheduling transforms the essential workforce experience with AI agents that help frontline employees and managers coordinate scheduling and career development, while ensuring it is personalized at every step. 

• Unified Orchestration Engine introduces adaptive intelligence that handles exceptions in real time, allowing AI agents to participate directly in workflows, identify bottlenecks, create alternative pathways when rules don't fit, and ensure every action is policy-compliant and explainable.

Read the official announcement > 

Transforming Talent Acquisition Through Intelligent Automation

The talent acquisition demonstrations showcased game-changing capabilities in candidate engagement and recruiter productivity. 

• Experience Agents conduct hyper-personalized outreach, remembering past interactions and tailoring communications to individual candidates' situations (e.g., reaching out to someone who previously couldn't work night shifts when a day shift becomes available)

• Intake Agent revolutionizes job requisition creation by autonomously conducting hiring manager interviews, asking intelligent follow up questions, and generating customized job descriptions based on historical data and company ontologies

• Sourcing Agent manages entire campaigns independently, enriching profiles, creating segmented outreach strategies in multiple languages, and reporting back with results 

Revolutionizing High-Volume and Frontline Hiring

Attendees also experienced the Voice Agent demonstration for frontline hiring, where an AI superhuman conducted a live screening interview in multiple languages, completely removing the scheduling constraints that typically bottleneck high-volume recruiting. This agent doesn't just ask scripted questions: it evaluates responses in real-time, identifies top candidates, and escalates them to hiring managers with detailed summaries. 

The agent’s capabilities also include fraud detection that can identify when candidates might be using AI assistance during interviews, while simultaneously verifying candidate identity across multiple touchpoints. For logistics and retail positions, the agent helps candidates find nearby openings based on their availability and preferences, enabling them to apply in under five minutes through natural conversation.

Voice Agent in Action

When one security company faced the daunting task of hiring 21,000 security experts from over 1 million applications, their recruiting teams were at a breaking point. French recruiters alone were spending 1-2 hours daily manually screening candidates, yet only 10% were advancing to interviews. 

Enter Phenom Voice Agents that completely reimagined their approach. These automated agents began making outbound screening calls beyond traditional business hours, connecting with candidates when they were actually available. The impact was immediate: 85% screening call completion rate, 41% finished within just one hour of being contacted, and the system automatically filtered out 31% of unqualified applicants before recruiters ever saw them.

Now, as the company expands the technology to new roles and markets, adding features like SMS invites and voicemail interactions, they've learned a crucial lesson: success comes from partnering closely with local recruiting teams from day one. Their story proves that when understaffed teams embrace voice AI as a strategic partner rather than just another tool, they can achieve what once seemed impossible: exceptional hiring results at unprecedented scale.

Empowering Employee Development and Workforce Intelligence

The talent management demonstrations revealed equally transformative capabilities for existing employees: 

• Career Coach Agent proactively identifies skill gaps based on new company initiatives, creates personalized development plans, and even schedules learning sessions during open calendar slots. 

• Gig Agent conducts skills validation interviews with hundreds of employees to match them with internal projects.

• Succession Planning Agent analyzes comprehensive data across the organization to identify ready-now successors for any role.

• Skills Governance Agent continuously monitors emerging skill trends, automatically updating job architectures and notifying stakeholders when new capabilities are needed, ensuring organizations stay ahead of skill requirements.

Experience AI agents and automation in action: Visit the AI & Automation Lab >

4. Building on a foundation of responsible AI

Underpinning all these capabilities is an HR tech’s commitment to responsible AI governance. 

During a main stage fireside chat, one analyst shared how the EU AI Act presents both challenges and opportunities. Many European organizations are unprepared for compliance, despite having policies in place. Major gaps include risk classification systems, AI impact assessments, and vendor oversight mechanisms. This creates a stark contrast between regions: EU/EMEA organizations prioritize governance, privacy, and explainability while demanding multilingual capabilities, whereas US/NA companies favor rapid experimentation and accept greater model opacity for strong results. The Act will likely slow EU adoption initially, but ultimately build greater trust through transparency.

The path forward requires treating AI as a business transformation rather than a technology implementation. Organizations must think long-term (2030-ready), fix data quality first ("no data, no automation"), build governance early, and invest in change management as heavily as a product launch. Success markers include published AI playbooks, obsession with measurable outcomes, and recognition that AI fluency is now a daily requirement for HR professionals. The key message: AI transformation is inevitable, but sustainable value creation demands balancing innovation with governance, focusing on clear business problems, and building a culture of continuous learning and experimentation within proper compliance frameworks.

At Phenom, we’ve taken many steps to ensure European customers can leverage the power of AI while maintaining compliance, including completing our EU AI Act conformity assessment and implementing comprehensive bias auditing, transparency measures, and human-in-the-loop controls throughout our platform. Our ontology framework ensures that every agent decision is traceable and grounded in company-specific context, while allowing organizations to maintain control over how AI makes decisions. 

This isn't about replacing human judgment, it's about augmenting human capabilities with intelligent systems that handle repetitive tasks, surface insights, and enable HR professionals to focus on strategic, high-value work that truly impacts their organizations and the people they serve.

5. Breaking down silos: How unified talent systems drive real results

When a multinational engineering organization struggled to connect 200,000+ employees to internal opportunities across multiple ATS systems, and a manufacturing company couldn't coordinate hiring across 100+ offices in 80 countries, both discovered the transformative power of eliminating data silos. Their journeys prove that unifying fragmented talent systems doesn't just improve efficiency, it fundamentally changes what's possible for organizations and their people.

By consolidating their technology stack with SAP SuccessFactors and Phenom, the engineering company created something revolutionary: employees could finally discover opportunities across all business segments, with inter-business moves expected to quadruple from 150 to 600 annually. Their AI-orchestrated skills framework helps workers uncover capabilities they didn't know they had. 

For the global manufacturer, unifying their HR tech stack transformed recruiters from order-takers to strategic C-suite advisors, automating 42,833 status updates and saving 603 hours in the process. But the real breakthrough came from what unified data enabled: AI that could identify patterns and opportunities invisible in fragmented systems, creating equitable access to growth regardless of location or role.

The lesson from both transformations is clear: tearing down system walls doesn't just streamline operations, it unlocks human potential at unprecedented scale.  

6. Scaling the human touch: Revolutionizing early talent recruiting with AI

When a leading global professional services firm faced the challenge of identifying 2,000 exceptional graduates from over 100,000 annual applications, they discovered that AI could do more than just process volume: it could enhance the personal connection crucial for attracting Gen Z talent. 

By implementing intelligent screening technology to rapidly identify top candidates, the firm freed recruiters from administrative burden to focus on what matters most: building strategic relationships, campus engagement, and meaningful career counseling. They redesigned the entire graduate journey with personalized touchpoints and self-service tools that meet digital-native expectations while maintaining their premium brand standards.

Data-driven insights revealed what attracts top graduates and which channels perform best, enabling continuous optimization at every stage. In the end, they proved that winning organizations don't use technology to replace human connection; they use it to amplify recruiters' ability to deliver meaningful interactions at unprecedented scale.

7. Rewiring recruitment: How global giants master high-volume hiring with AI

When a technology transformation leader struggled to manage talent acquisition for 340,000 employees across 50+ countries, and an international organization faced hiring 40,000 seasonal workers in just 8 weeks, both discovered that AI could transform their recruitment from overwhelming chaos into strategic advantage. Their journeys reveal how intelligent automation handles high-volume hiring at scale. 

The technology company’s transformation attacked every pain point in their fragmented system: AI fit score reduced screening time to nearly zero, seamless SAP SuccessFactors integration created bi-directional data flow, and conversational chatbots handled everything from job matching to interview scheduling. The results were staggering: 88,080 hours saved annually, screening time reduced to nearly zero, and 50% improvement in shortlisting. 

Meanwhile, the international organization revolutionized seasonal hiring by cutting application time by 88% (from 30 minutes to under 4 minutes) and deploying their chatbot "Penny" for 24/7 candidate support. Their differentiated approach (heavy automation for frontline mail sorters, personalized intelligence for executives) delivered a 79% application conversion rate and successfully filled 40,000 positions within their critical 8-week window.

Both transformations prove a crucial point: high-volume hiring no longer requires choosing between speed and quality.

8. Leading through transformation: How human-first change management drives success

When leaders from two global organizations shared their talent transformation journeys, they exposed a critical truth: successful change isn't driven by technology. It's enabled by leadership that puts people first: Sustainable transformation requires balancing innovation with stability, data with empathy, and automation with human connection.

They emphasized that resistance to change wasn't overcome through force but through listening, understanding the "why" behind hesitation, and building psychological safety. Their approach, which centered around creating clarity for teams while empowering experimentation, showed how AI strengthens rather than replaces human relationships.

The lesson is unmistakable: organizations that lead with emotional intelligence, invest in cultural foundations before technology, and use AI to amplify rather than replace human judgment don't just survive transformation, they emerge stronger. 

Preparing for 2026 & beyond

IAMPHENOM Europe 2025 made one thing clear: the age of theoretical AI in HR is over. Across every session, HR leaders proved that the conversation has shifted from exploring possibilities to unlocking measurable impact through intelligent automation and data-driven strategy. From talent ecosystem transformation to human-led, tech-enabled leadership, the collective message was one of momentum. European organizations are not waiting; they are building the future of work today.

Success in the AI era is powered by people. The most advanced technology delivers value only when guided by human insight, empathy, and ethical responsibility. The stories shared on stage demonstrated that HR owns this intersection where culture, capability, and innovation meet. With our inaugural IAMPHENOM European setting a powerful precedent, the movement is only accelerating, and the question for every HR leader now is not whether to adopt AI, but how fast they can scale it.

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