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Re-shaping the Future of Recruiting

  • Royal Orchid Hotel, Domlur, Bengaluru
  • February 12th, 2026

re:Imagine ’26 brought together talent leaders, practitioners, and builders to explore how AI is reshaping hiring — from sourcing and screening to candidate experience and onboarding. The event combined strategic keynotes, industry panels, and solution-driven Thinkathon presentations into a focused conversation on the future of talent.

Highlights

Future of Talent Tech Starts with a re:Imagination

50+ industry leaders, innovators and talent professionals came together for a day of bold ideas, hands-on collaboration and meaningful connections.

re: Learn

You contribute and walk away with impactful learnings from industry pioneers

re: Connect

With peers through working sessions, co-creating solutions and networking sessions.

re: Discover

The latest in AI advancement from thinkers, startup innovators and transformation leaders

re: Charge

Unwind and recharge with your peers and catch up on some fun, entertainment and music

What re:Imagine ’26 made clear

The Next Era of Hiring Is Already Here

Across sessions, one message stood out clearly: Hiring is no longer just an operational HR function. It is becoming a strategic capability shaped by AI, candidate expectations, and business priorities. Conversations across the event highlighted the need to redesign workflows, strengthen human judgment, improve candidate journeys, and build more predictable onboarding experiences with AI.

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Keynotes
Panel Discussions
HyreoLabs Thinkathon

Big ideas that framed the day

India’s Goldilocks Opportunity

Avantika Susan Nigam

A powerful opening keynote on why India is in a uniquely strong position to lead the next phase of talent and AI transformation — with the right mix of scale, workforce potential, and digital readiness.

AI as Your Next Colleague

Prasanna Krishnamurthy

A forward-looking session on how AI is moving beyond automation and becoming an active participant in the workplace. The focus was not on replacement, but on how AI can multiply human output and reshape the way organizations operate.

The Great Recruiting Paradox

Arun Satyan

This keynote by Hyreo Founder unpacked why recruiters face more candidate data than ever, yet still struggle to make faster, better decisions. He showed why the answer lies in smarter orchestration, not more manual effort.

AI Governance and Compliance

Sunu Engineer

This session focused on building AI on a foundation of trust, transparency, and accountability from day one. It underscored why governance and compliance are critical to scaling AI responsibly in the enterprise

Watch the Keynote Sessions

Real Conversations on What Talent Teams Must Solve Next

Boardroom Expectations from Talent Functions

Rajesh Mishra, Balaji Mahalingam, Magesh Sambhashivan, Raja Vasudevan

Boardroom expectations from talent teams are moving beyond hiring speed alone. The discussion highlighted stronger focus on capability building, ROI, productivity, and business readiness. It also explored balancing quality, experience, and responsible technology adoption.

Beyond Hype: Implementing AI in Enterprise Talent Functions

Mohit Sharma, Saurav Lenka, Vikas Baghel , Anupam Shrivastava 

This panel moved the AI conversation from experimentation to enterprise execution. The discussion centered on what it really takes to implement AI at scale in talent functions—responsibly, compliantly, and with measurable value instead of hype.

GCCs Scaling with Domain-Centric Talent

Vishwanadh Raju, Prem Kumar, Aneelkumar Savalagi, Usha Murthy 

This discussion explored how GCCs are moving beyond scale to depth—building specialized, domain-driven talent that creates long-term business value. The conversation covered how GCCs can attract, develop, and scale niche capabilities while staying aligned to global business priorities.

Watch the panel discussions

Where Industry Challenges Turned into Working Ideas

Before the main conference, the HyreoLabs Thinkathon brought together four cohorts of curated participants to work on structured hiring challenges across the talent lifecycle. The solution frameworks developed there were later presented during the event, helping move the conversation from ideas to applied models.

Candidate Sourcing: Challenges & Opportunities

Led by Balaji Kamaraj 

It addressed sourcing challenges such as hidden talent, unclear intent, resume overload, and weak keyword-based matching. The focus was on moving toward smarter, signal-led sourcing approaches.

Next-Gen Talent Shortlisting & Interviewing Models

Led by Vishwanadh Raju

This session tackled a new reality in hiring: AI-generated fraud, weaker talent signals, recruiter burnout, and the growing need for ethical, explainable decision-making.

Candidate Experience for Today’s Talent

Led by Vinoo Kaimal 

This presentation explored how candidate experience must be designed across every stage — from outreach and interviews to offer and onboarding.

Seamless Onboarding for Predictable Success

Led by Pushpa Latha 

It focused on the gap between offer acceptance and successful integration into the organization. The key themes were clear ownership, pre-joining engagement, Day 1 readiness, and structured onboarding.

The Thinkathon presentations were evaluated by seasoned talent leaders Sangeeta Nanamanda Ponnappa and Balaji Mahalingam Srinivasan who reflected on the relevance and quality of the discussions across all four themes. 

Watch the Thinkathon Presentations
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Moments Captured

Moments from re:Imagine ’26

What They Said

re:Imagine: Experience & Key Takeaways

Attendees reflect on their experience at re:Imagine ’26 and the insights they’re taking back.

Kritika Srinivasan, Hexaware

"re:Imagine reaffirmed the fact that HR and TA teams are navigating similar challenges. Finding the right talent and keeping them engaged until they join. It also made me realise the importance of AI adoption along with a strong personal human connection. A lot to learn and adapt."

Swarupa Paul, Guidewire Software

"My major takeaway from re:Imagine '26 is that we need to adapt to AI, and we need to make AI our assistant in our work so that we can definitely do much better at what we do. AI is definitely not going to replace us. It's more about how we need to upskill along with AI."

Usha Murthy, Google

"It's a group of like-minded people coming together to solve how great talent can change the landscape of GCCs today. This is especially relevant as India becomes the new epicentre of GCCs, and I love that we are taking this challenge head-on and focusing on what makes a GCC a truly capable centre rather than just a back office."

Rajesh Mishra, KPMG

"I was part of the entire event from start to end and really appreciate how well the lineup was architected. The layering of the keynote, independent sessions, and panel discussions was excellent, with topics well distributed and speakers bringing strong knowledge from different segments of life and business."

The conversation continues…

re:Imagine ’26 was built to help talent leaders rethink hiring for a more intelligent, responsive, and human future. From keynote insights to Thinkathon models, the event surfaced one common thread: the future of recruiting will belong to organizations that combine AI, clarity, and execution with intent.

Explore the ideas from re:Imagine ’26

Revisit the themes, presentations, and perspectives that shaped this year’s event.

Watch Event Videos
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