ICIMS and Kyle & Co.’s 2026 Talent Transformation Yearbook surveys 500 HR and talent leaders and 1,000 U.S. job seekers, finding that talent teams that do the homework and put AI to work lead on time to hire, quality of hire and retention 

ICIMS customers earn yearbook superlatives for results including nearly $2 million in first-year savings, a tripled candidate pipeline and doubled retention for high-volume roles

HOLMDEL, N.J., Oct. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — ICIMS, the Intelligent Hiring Platform, today released the 2026 Talent Transformation Yearbook: AI Progress Report, new research in partnership with Kyle & Co. The report surveyed 500 HR and talent leaders and 1,000 U.S. job seekers and revealed a clear divide between organizations making AI work for their hiring teams and those still figuring out the assignment. While 45% of HR and talent leaders rated their AI implementation highly successful, the average organization puts only about half of its purchased AI capabilities into production. The report indicates the top performers are doing their homework, putting more AI to work across hiring workflows and building the foundations to turn their investments into measurable business results.

Presented as a school yearbook, the report examines AI adoption, candidate experiences and hiring performance in 2026, recognizing standout organizations and offering guidance for talent acquisition leaders planning for 2027.

“This report is a to-do list for every talent leader heading into 2027,” said Trent Cotton, head of talent insights, ICIMS. “The value of AI shows up when it is trusted, running across hiring workflows and transparent to every candidate. By automating routine tasks, AI gives recruiters time back to build relationships, engage with the strongest talent and help hiring managers make better hiring decisions. That is how organizations improve hiring outcomes and deliver measurable business results.”

The Wide Shot: What Happened to Hiring in 2026

ICIMS surveyed 1,000 U.S. job seekers to understand how they encountered AI during their job searches. The findings reveal an opportunity for employers to expand the use of AI across the hiring process while communicating clearly with candidates about where and how it is used.

AI screening remains uncommon for many job seekers. 44% never encountered AI screening during their job search in 2026, while another 17% encountered it only once. Just 32% encountered it several times or in most applications.Candidates who noticed AI often viewed it positively. 45% of job seekers who noticed AI described its effect as positive.AI transparency and fairness remain concerns. Among candidates who believed AI evaluated their applications, only 32% said employers clearly disclosed its use, while 41% suspected AI was used without being told. 42% were confident automated screening evaluated them fairly.

The Class Photo: What Sets High-Performing AI Hiring Teams Apart

ICIMS grouped 500 HR and talent leaders by self-reported performance across six outcomes: time to hire, cost per hire, quality of hire, new hire retention, hiring manager satisfaction and contribution to business outcomes. Upper Classmen (37% of respondents) rated their organizations above average across all six outcomes and Freshmen (34% of respondents) rated their organizations above average on three or fewer.

AI success is rising, but adoption lags. 45% rated their AI implementation highly successful, compared with 17% in a 2025 SHRM survey. Yet organizations put only about half of their purchased AI capabilities into production.Foundational readiness separates top performers. Upper Classmen were more likely than Freshmen to have completed five foundational practices: AI literacy training, data ownership, AI contract terms, manager enablement and redeployment. Completion rates ranged from 51% to 62% among Upper Classmen, versus 17% to 24% among Freshmen.Top teams deploy more AI. Upper Classmen ran an average of six of seven AI hiring capabilities, compared with two and a half among Freshmen. Capabilities included resume screening and ranking, candidate chatbots, interview scheduling, AI-led assessments, agentic AI, AI-assisted writing and skills matching.Agentic AI adoption is concentrated among top performers. About one-quarter of respondents had deployed agentic AI across multistep hiring workflows at full scale, including 42% of Upper Classmen and 9% of Freshmen. 35% said AI enables recruiters and hiring managers to complete common applicant tracking system (ATS) actions within the tools they already use.High-volume hiring is a leading priority for 2027. 28% identified high-volume and frontline hiring capacity as a top priority, followed by skills-based hiring or internal mobility (27%) and scaling AI (24%). Yet 46% described their approach to high-volume hiring as mostly reactive. 42% of Upper Classmen build proactive talent pipelines, compared with 25% of Freshmen.Candidate experience remains a top concern. Delivering a strong candidate experience was the top hiring concern for 2027 (30%), followed by maintaining human judgment (29%) and responsible, accurate and compliant AI use (28%). 

The findings suggest that stronger hiring outcomes are associated with deploying the right AI across hiring workflows and establishing the data, skills and governance needed to support it. The ICIMS Intelligent Hiring Platform brings together hiring technology and trusted, responsible AI to help organizations apply intelligence across the hiring process and turn AI investments into measurable business value.

“The gap is not simply between organizations that have AI and those that do not. It is between buying capabilities and building the skills, data ownership and operating practices to put them to work,” said Kyle Lagunas, founder and principal analyst, Kyle & Co. “The teams reporting stronger hiring outcomes are further along on both readiness and deployment. That gives talent leaders a practical place to focus their 2027 plans.”

Meet the Class Superlatives

Most Likely to Succeed: ATI Physical Therapy grew its candidate pool 3x over two years without adding recruiting headcount.Most Adventurous: Xanterra Travel Collection kept hiring moving through floods, seasonal peaks and changing workforce needs, boosting applicants per opening 50%.Most Popular: EchoStar made candidate experience a team effort and won the CandE Benchmark two years in a row.Most School Spirit: Covenant HealthCare’s team of five recruiters and one sourcer made approximately 800 hires from more than 18,000 applications. Time to apply fell from 20 minutes to two and a half minutes.Teacher’s Pet: Esler Companies built a 45-person talent acquisition team from scratch.Best Personality: Enterprise Mobility maintained human interaction throughout the candidate journey and doubled retention in high-volume roles.Most Resourceful: ATCC’s two-person recruiting team saved nearly $2 million in its first year.Most Likely to Run the World: Signature HealthCARE makes ~6,000 hires annually across 67 locations.

Download the 2026 Talent Transformation Yearbook: AI Progress Report to see how your organization compares with the Class of 2026, explore the research findings and identify opportunities to turn AI investments into business value in 2027.

About ICIMS, Inc.

ICIMS is the talent acquisition platform built to help organizations hire at enterprise scale. Powered by billions of hiring interactions and more than 25 years of expertise, ICIMS combines trusted AI with end-to-end hiring technology to help recruiting teams hire smarter, faster and with greater confidence across corporate, high-volume and frontline roles.

Trusted by thousands of organizations worldwide, ICIMS continuously innovates with responsible AI and a highly extensible platform designed to help customers adapt quickly to changing workforce needs, scale globally and turn talent acquisition into a strategic business advantage. For more information, visit ICIMS.com.

Contact:

Will DeMuria

Corporate Communications

will.demuria@ICIMS.com

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SOURCE iCIMS, Inc.

NEW YORK, Oct. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — BetaNXT, a leading provider of wealth management technology solutions with real-time data capabilities and advanced AI innovation, today announced a strategic partnership with Pave Finance, a wealth management technology company. Pave’s portfolio management software gives RIAs and wealth management firms control over how every client portfolio is built, customized, and managed at scale. Through the partnership, BetaNXT will offer Pave Finance’s portfolio management software to its clients, expanding its reach among financial advisors and registered investment advisors (RIAs) while enhancing its wealth management suite with advanced portfolio construction, personalization, and optimization capabilities.

The collaboration unites BetaNXT’s scale and market presence with Pave’s portfolio management and optimization capabilities. The companies are joining forces to help firms deliver more personalized investment experiences while improving the technology and workflows advisors use to construct and manage client portfolios.

“Portfolio planning is increasingly important as advisors look to provide more customized investment solutions while operating efficiently and at scale,” said Tim Rutka, President of Trading and Settlement at BetaNXT. “Our partnership with Pave expands the offerings available to our clients, giving them access to sophisticated technology that can help advisors seamlessly address investors’ individual needs.”

Pave’s technology enables wealth management firms to construct portfolios around client goals, risk parameters, tax considerations, existing holdings, investment restrictions and preferences.

“BetaNXT’s extensive presence across the wealth management ecosystem creates an exciting opportunity to bring Pave’s portfolio management software to more firms and advisors – strengthening their optimization, personalization, transition management and tax-aware portfolio management capabilities across their client rosters,” said Edward Tedeschi, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Pave. “Together, we can help firms deliver highly personalized portfolios while giving advisors a platform that makes sophisticated portfolio management more scalable.”

The partnership represents another step in BetaNXT’s strategy to provide wealth management firms with an integrated ecosystem of technology and solutions spanning the investment and client lifecycle.

About Pave Finance, Inc.
Pave Finance, Inc. is a leading AI-powered portfolio management platform for financial advisors that enables investment advisors to customize, personalize, and automate portfolio construction and management. Pave Finance’s business units include: (i) Pave Labs, LLC, provides Pave Pro, the portfolio management software platform; (ii) Pave Securities, LLC, which is a fully-disclosed introducing broker-dealer; and (iii) Pave Investment Advisors, LLC, which is an SEC-registered investment adviser. All subsidiaries are wholly owned by Pave Finance, Inc. Pave Finance’s business model derives three primary streams of revenue: (i) software licensing revenue, which is priced using a SaaS licensing model with users paying a monthly license fee; (ii) broker-dealer revenues including, trading, securities lending, and spreads on credit and debit balances; and (iii) investment advisory fees for the automated management of assets on a discretionary and non-discretionary basis. Pave Finance was founded in 2021 and is based in New York, New York.

About BetaNXT
BetaNXT is a leading provider of frictionless wealth management enterprise solutions, powered by real-time data capabilities. We support key stakeholders across the financial services ecosystem – including broker-dealers, advisors, wealth managers, issuers and asset managers.

Our integrated approach empowers clients with scalable trading and settlement services, robust asset servicing capabilities, regulatory-compliant investor communications, and advanced data management and analytics. BetaNXT’s solutions streamline operations, enhance productivity, strengthen compliance and reduce enterprise cost, helping clients excel in the digital age. By investing in platforms, products and partnerships, we transform our clients’ platforms into strategic differentiators that drive efficiency, performance and growth. For more information, visit betanxt.com.

Media Contacts For BetaNXT:

Media Contacts for Pave:

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SOURCE BetaNXT

The joint webinar will demonstrate how organizations can combine contract lifecycle management technology with legal managed services to drive significantly more business value.

PRINCETON, N.J., Oct. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — CobbleStone Software, a recognized leader in contract lifecycle management (CLM) and contract artificial intelligence, has partnered with Aeren LPO to host an upcoming educational webinar, “Maximizing CLM ROI via Hybrid Legal Ops,” taking place on November 3, 2026, from 1:00 PM to 1:30 PM ET. The webinar will explore how organizations can maximize their return on CLM investments by combining enterprise technology with experienced legal operations support.

Many organizations invest heavily in contract lifecycle management software but struggle to realize the full value of their technology due to a lack of specialized legal expertise. Indeed, CLM platforms provide automation and visibility. However, successful legal operations require skilled professionals who can effectively manage the full contract lifecycle.

During this exclusive joint webinar, experts from CobbleStone Software and Aeren LPO will discuss how a hybrid legal operations model can help organizations:

Maximize the value of their CLM technology investments.Streamline contract lifecycle management processes.Enhance operational efficiency across legal and business teams.Leverage managed legal services alongside enterprise CLM technology for improved outcomes.

The webinar is designed for legal, procurement, contract management, and operational professionals seeking practical ways to increase efficiency and ROI from their contract management initiatives. Attendees will gain actionable insights into how technology and legal expertise can work together to improve contract governance and performance.

Click here to register today!

“Technology alone doesn’t transform legal operations; organizations need the right people and processes to unlock its full potential,” said Mark Nastasi, CEO & Founder of CobbleStone Software.

“This webinar highlights how a hybrid legal ops approach can help organizations maximize the value of their CLM investment while strengthening contract oversight and performance.”

Book a free demo to see CobbleStone in action today!

For more information, email Sales@CobbleStoneSoftware.com or call 866-330-0056.

About CobbleStone Software:

CobbleStone Software is a celebrated leader in contract management software solutions whose flagship CLM software solution – CobbleStone Contract Insight® – expedites contract management, vendor management, eProcurement, and eSourcing processes while offering an agentic AI-powered experience, seamless integrations, ease-of-use, and high scalability. CobbleStone provides more intelligent contracts with VISDOM® artificial intelligence, agentic chatbot, machine learning, simplified contract and vendor tracking, highly configurable email alerts, user-friendly calendar notifications, intelligent contract workflow automation, highly robust security options, streamlined authoring of contract templates with dynamic clauses, centralized revenue/cost management, detailed text indexing and searching, future-minded vendor/client ratings, robust document version control, custom contract management reports, speedy IntelliSign® electronic signatures, and more.

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To stay up to date on contract lifecycle management industry trends and news, subscribe to CobbleStone’s Contract Insights blog.

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SOURCE CobbleStone Software