Something strange is happening in recruitment right now.

AI has made it easier than ever to apply for roles. Which sounds like a good thing, until you realise it's also made it easier than ever to get lost, ignored, and ghosted.

Candidates are applying to more roles. Hiring teams are drowning in volume. And somewhere in the middle, the actual human is getting filtered out by a system that can read a CV but can't judge the person behind it.

The more efficient the process becomes, the more impersonal it feels. We've been thinking about this a lot at Liberty Hive as we mark our fifth year.

AI isn't going away. We're using it ourselves, to move faster, surface better matches, reduce admin. We think that's right. But we also think there's a version of AI-driven recruitment that makes everyone's experience worse, and a version that makes it better.

The difference is whether the human layer stays in the loop.

That means something specific to us. Every level of candidate, from someone just starting out in marketing to a seasoned CMO, deserves real advice, honest feedback, and an actual person to talk to. Not an automated holding message. Not silence. We don't always get the timing perfect. We're human. But we always try, and we think that matters more than ever right now.

Our community of marketing and creative professionals isn't a database. It's built on relationships, on knowing who's actually ready to move and who's the right fit for a brief, not just on paper, but in practice. No algorithm has that context. Not yet.

As the industry accelerates, we think the recruiters who thrive won't be the ones who automate everything. They'll be the ones who use technology to do more of the right things, faster, while protecting the parts of this work that only humans can do well.

Human led. Tech enabled.

That's where we're heading. Curious where others in the industry land on this, drop us an email. Laura@libertyhive.com

Laura Braithwaite, Co Founder

13th April 2026