This series was recorded live at HR Tech 2025 inside the HR Executive studios on the expo floor in partnership with the WRKdefined Podcast Network. Make sure you’re subscribed to the full series and visit HRExecutive.com for the news, analysis, and insights shaping the future of work.

AI gets loud, fast, and overpromised. This conversation cuts through the noise. When the entire talent lifecycle sits on fragmented systems, AI becomes guesswork. When the data is unified, you unlock precision, prediction, and real outcomes. Rebecca and Dan lay out why SmartRecruiters and SAP SuccessFactors fit together, what Winston can actually do in the flow of work, and how the TA ecosystem changes when recruiting, HR, learning, contingent labor, and analytics all live on one plane.

In this episode we speak with Rebecca Carr and Dan Beck about AI trust, cross-lifecycle data, workforce planning, agentic systems, shared incentives, and the future of TA inside the world’s largest enterprise HR suite.

Key Takeaways

AI is only as good as the data foundation it sits on
Recruiting data alone can’t deliver lifecycle intelligence
Unifying HR, learning, finance, and contingent labor unlocks new predictions
Winston works because it stays in the flow of work and builds trust slowly
Shared incentives between TA and TM matter more than ownership
Agentic AI needs clean inputs, not shortcuts
Workforce planning becomes work planning when analytics are unified

Chapters

00:15 Why SAP chose SmartRecruiters

00:32 Autonomy, agents, and better data

01:04 Live from HR Tech 2025

01:22 Rebecca’s background

01:54 Dan’s background

02:36 Innovation and why the partnership made sense

03:03 What brought the companies together

03:57 Why SmartRecruiters was the pick

04:21 AI’s power with end-to-end data

04:49 What the acquisition unlocks

05:11 Product and cultural alignment

05:55 Customer-obsessed DNA

06:05 Why lifecycle visibility changes everything

06:46 Shared incentives across TA and TM

07:16 Early integration conversations

07:31 Workforce planning meets recruiting

08:13 Data loops inside SAP’s platform

08:26 Building an AI-first data plane

08:58 How better data drives autonomous agents

09:15 Finance, HR, and contingent labor convergence

10:30 The extended workforce lens

11:07 Non-employee analytics and certification

12:07 Winston’s role inside SuccessFactors

12:46 Why Winston boosts engagement and data quality

13:59 How SAP plans to anchor TA around this roadmap

14:35 AI literacy and readiness across teams

15:01 Why “just automate it” doesn’t build trust

16:06 Winston’s one-job-at-a-time model

17:02 How trust becomes experimentation

17:27 Designing rollout journeys with customers

18:17 Real-world enterprise AI adoption

18:53 Why Winston accelerates AI maturity

Guest Info

Rebecca Carr, CEO SmartRecruiters

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccajcarr/

Dan Beck, General Manager and Chief Produc Officer, SmartRecruiters

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-beck/

Host

Bob Holver, Elevate Your AiQ Podcast

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bobpulver

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AI Only Works When the Data Does with Rebecca Carr and Dan Beck, SmartRecruiters