Vizzy, the UK-based startup on a mission to reimagine the CV for modern hiring, was crowned the winner of the UNLEASH Startup Award during UNLEASH World 2025.

Since that victory, Vizzy has expanded its platform with an AI tool in response to need from its enterprise clients – including Tiffany & Co., Virgin Group and Louis Vuitton – that are experiencing high volumes of applications.

Vizzy CEO and Co-Founder, Chris Woodward-Jones, tells UNLEASH the tool sits “within the armory of talent acquisition teams to ultimately spot patterns and markers in applications from candidates.”

“it’s a partner for HR and hiring teams to take a little bit more control, to dig deeper into applications, particularly for those with mass volume.”

UNLEASH sat down with Woodward-Jones for an in-depth look at the talent acquisition space in 2026, touching on the role of the CV, personalizing hiring at scale, and how AI can be used responsibly.

UNLEASH: From your perspective, what is the biggest challenge HR teams leaders face in the talent acquisition world in 2026?

Chris Woodward-Jones: The obvious one is the volume of applications and AI is playing a huge part on both sides.

Organizations are armoring themselves with AI to help get through the volume and on the other side, candidates are also turning to AI to help with a process, which is causing strains from multiple angles.

There’s an authenticity challenge on both sides and I think that’s a significant challenge. How do HR leaders and businesses want to turn up in a very crowded and competitive market? It’s harder now than ever to stand out on the business side, so how do they promote a process and an approach which is taking steps to being more human?

AI has such a big part to play in our future, but it has to be looked at correctly. I’m a fundamental believer that in HR and talent acquisition the focus is on people, and how they bring the most to their businesses.

The problem at the moment is finding them in the first place, because the ease of which people are able to apply at pace, at volume, is causing untenable volumes for HR teams to deal with.

But it’s also broader than that; what is the blend that we want within our businesses between people and AI? The businesses that will succeed in the future are those that continue to focus on people, enabling instead of replacing with technology.

So I think the biggest challenge for HR leaders is how to blend people and AI.

U: How should HR and talent leaders be looking to address the juxtaposition of personalization and scale in recruiting?

CWJ: It comes down to what we refer to as delivering a personal touch at scale. Whether it’s in hiring, or in any other walk of life, you can very quickly tell when you are talking to a bot or are part of a generic process that has been put in front of you for efficiency.

The key focus has to be how organizations take steps to be more human, or at least appear more human, and use technology to tap into that.

How organizations want to turn up in the market comes down to perception. What do you want people to feel when they see your marketing for roles and when they click on your Apply button? Does the excitement continue? Is this the place they want to go and work?

It’s something that a lot of big, trailblazing brands get quite right, but many of them are still getting it wrong. It’s almost as a team or as a HR function, put yourself in the shoes of the applicant, whether they’re early careers or otherwise; what’s the process that you’re really going to be engaged by? Who’s the business that you’re going to be impressed by?

Creating a sense of personification for the brand, developing something that feels personal and interested in the individual is the biggest step change.

Simply taking it back to first principles of people in businesses – looking for good people to join their organization – is key. There is smart tech out there to help with this, it’s just got to be used in the right way.

Establishing the tone of voice and the importance of people in the business’s future will transcend and play out through that space.

Chris Woodward-Jones, CEO and Co-Founder at Vizzy

U: What should the CV, or its successor, look like in 2026?

CWJ: Where CVs and many hiring processes have fallen down, and continue to worsen, is the lack of signals that they provide to businesses for relevant and meaningful decision-making.

We fundamentally believe there is a shift required to take us from a world where businesses are asking for these signals.

What both sides should be doing is operating in a space where candidates can give off the signals they want to and are proud of, that give an authentic view, with organizations enabled with the tools to interpret those signals. It sounds simple, but it’s not. It’s not a dynamic that’s been adopted by many people and it’s certainly not what the CV was designed for.

The CV of 2026 is different things to different people. If you are 10-20 years into your career, the traditional CV is probably something that holds value and relevance to you.

Our focus at Vizzy is the early career space predominantly, although it is used throughout the hierarchy in businesses. It moves hiring towards integrating how people express themselves in other walks of life – Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat – the digital expression that we all go through, in particular that 18-30s bracket, which is going to be a hugely influential wave on the workforce.

We’ve moved forward a lot and the CV needs to still be relevant and useful in a professional capacity. This isn’t a case of turning to just hiring from social media. It still needs context. It still needs roots in what people can do, but also what they’d like to do.

It’s very much centered on that convergence piece, so it will be different for different people. This is where the CV has a challenge. We’ve always tried to pigeonhole things, but there is a versatility that’s required for the future of professional expression.

It’s not a simple answer, but whatever the medium is it must reflect the individual’s personality, their passions and their potential, and it predominantly needs to be forward looking, because what businesses are hiring for is future potential.

U: What does responsible AI in hiring look like in practice to you?

CWJ: It’s a clear delineation of where AI can add significant value and be responsibly used. For me, that’s addressing ‘busy work’ – how much time highly skilled and trained TA professionals actually spend on mundane scheduling, note-taking and bringing those things together. There’s a significant need to drive good return on investment in that space.

Where AI absolutely doesn’t belong is the decision-making process.

AI needs to be helping teams operate more efficiently, so they can get back to candidates at greater speed, in greater volume and with clarity.

It also needs to free up the time of trained professionals to spot signals and push candidates through towards assessment, interview and beyond.

It has to absolutely be about efficiency, process optimization and giving time back to the professionals to do what they’re there to do. The decision-making piece is key and categorically not to be done by AI.

U What one decision do HR and talent leaders need to make this year to improve quality of hiring?

CWJ: I’m a big fan of the question: how much could be achieved by a person with AI in this role? That’s the decision that a lot of people will need to make. It shouldn’t be a question of if you’re replacing people with AI, it’s more about hiring people with the ability to use AI and how much they can achieve.

IBM is now tripling its early career hiring to go after this generation who are going to be incredibly AI savvy. They’re growing up around it and putting the right tools in front of more of them is going to really push things forward.

Leaders are going to have to decide what’s the most important thing to the future business? Is it having the best tech but potentially less people? Or is it having the best people empowered by the best tech? I’d definitely be going with the latter.