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As CEO of Udder, I lead a team of experts committed to transforming HR through technology…
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Alan Walker shared thisI spent a small fortune on woodworking tools during Covid. I am not a woodworker. I've used AI to build software prototypes. I am not a software engineer. In both cases, the results are best described as "characterful." New article on vibe coding, engineering judgement, and why my workbench could probably survive a nuclear event. Full of my usual clunky analogies and metaphors. You'll love it.
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Alan Walker shared thisWharton researchers gave people an AI assistant that was wrong half the time. 80% of people followed the wrong answers anyway. Their confidence went UP. They performed worse than if they'd had no AI at all. Meanwhile, every AI vendor in HR tech is out here saying "don't worry, the human reviews it." The human does review it. The human reviews it, nods, approves it, and goes to lunch feeling extremely productive. The researchers call it Cognitive Surrender. Not laziness. Not stupidity (despite my title - I explain in the post). A neurological default. Your brain recodes the AI's answer as your own judgment and moves on. You don't even notice it happened. I've written this opinion piece unpacking what this means for anyone implementing AI in people and talent. What the research actually found, why "human in the loop" is a sieve not a safety net, and why the most important question you can ask an HR tech vendor right now is "what did you choose not to build with AI, and why?" Because it is easy to ship AI features. It is not easy to ship good ones.Cognitive Surrender: What Happens When AI Automates Stupidity?Cognitive Surrender: What Happens When AI Automates Stupidity?
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Alan Walker shared thisBig news.Alan Walker shared thisIntroducing our VIP Partner...Udder 🌟🐮 We’ve thrilled to announce that we have partnered with Udder - the specialist HR technology advisory firm that helps Talent Acquisition and People teams make better decisions about the systems they use! They'll be hosting the Showcase Stage & VIP Area at RecFest UK, bringing practical guidance and challenge into the moments that matter, helping TA leaders make better tech decisions, with more confidence. 😌 🎟️ Want to meet Udder in the field? You've got to book your tickets first...https://lnkd.in/ebvUM4nd 🎪 Want to showcase your brand? With only a few slots remaining, enquire for sponsorship today: https://lnkd.in/eiJ5KEP8 #RecFestUK #RecFest26 #Udder #HR #HRTech #Talent #TalentAcquisiton #Festival #Conference #Sponsor
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Alan Walker shared thisA new chapter begins. Since 2019, I’ve had the privilege of serving as Head Judge of the IHR Awards. Over that time, I’ve had a front-row seat to some of the very best work happening in in-house recruitment. Year after year, the entries have shown just how much creativity, resilience, care, and innovation exists across our profession. The awards have always meant a great deal to me because they do more than recognise success. They shine a light on the people and teams raising standards, pushing the industry forward, and doing brilliant work behind the scenes. After a lot of thought, I’ve decided that now is the right time for me to step down and pass on the baton. It has been a genuine honour to play a part in this journey. I’m hugely grateful to the IHR team, my fellow judges, and everyone who has entered over the years. Thank you for the trust, the commitment, and the energy you’ve brought to the awards and to the profession more broadly. A special thank you as well to Natasha, who has been a rock throughout the process, and to Mark, who brought me in at the very beginning. And of course a big thanks to the judges - you have been many and I can’t mention all of you, but there have been constants. Gary Manning, Fernanda Pellegrini, Jacob Kimber, Adrian Wightman, Rebecca Martin-Cortez and Paul Thornton - if I recall correctly - you were all there for my both my first and my last years. I applaud your tolerance of me. 😆 I’m excited to see the awards continue to go from strength to strength, and I look forward to cheering on the next chapter from the sidelines. Thank you, IHR, for the opportunity, the trust, and the memories. It’s been a pleasure. And finally thanks to my colleagues at Udder, who it sometimes felt like gave me permission to take a brief sabbatical in the late summer and autumn to focus on the awards. The pictures attached are of a few of you enjoying the awards evening over the years.
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Alan Walker shared thisBig news for Udder today 🚀. We’ve just announced a major strategic partnership with The Recruitment Events Co., the team behind RecFest and the Resourcing Leaders community. Across 2026, we’ll be embedded throughout TREC’s full portfolio. That includes headline sponsorship of Talent Tech Rising, branded partnership at RecFest UK at Knebworth Park, participation in the Resourcing Leaders Exchange retreats, a presence across the RL Summit series, and hosting the Showcase Stage at RecFest. For us, this is about being where Talent Acquisition leaders are having the real conversations about technology. The TA landscape is shifting fast. Leaders are being asked to adopt more technology, move more quickly, and build genuine capability in their teams. At the same time, the vendor landscape is more complex than ever. Independent, expert guidance has never mattered more. TREC has built one of the most authentic and trusted communities in the industry. From the intimacy of RL100 through to the scale and energy of RecFest, it is a space built on meaningful connection rather than transactional interaction. That philosophy aligns perfectly with how we operate at Udder. In 2026, we will be contributing directly to the room. Not just as sponsors, but as practitioners and delivery partners. We help TA leaders select the right technology, implement it properly, optimise it once it is live, and provide ongoing management where needed. As people who care deeply about helping TA leaders make better technology decisions with confidence, and then turning those decisions into real, working outcomes inside their organisations. Personally, I am incredibly excited about what this unlocks for both organisations and, more importantly, for the community we both serve. If you’re part of RL, heading to RecFest, or simply thinking about your TA tech strategy this year, we’d love to continue the conversation.
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Alan Walker shared this5 things the breakup of Take That can teach us about HR technology implementation risks and key-person dependency. 30 years ago today, Take That announced they were splitting up, and the nation was so devastated that the Samaritans had to set up a dedicated helpline. I bring this up not because I'm still processing it (I am, but that's beside the point), but because there are totally unlinked, unprofound lessons here for anyone managing a complex HR technology implementation. First: key person dependency. Take That functioned, just about, as a five-piece unit, but the moment one critical resource departed, in this case Robbie Williams, who was essentially the senior functional consultant everyone relied on even though he kept missing standups and turning up in questionable shape, the whole programme collapsed within months. This is exactly what happens when your implementation hinges on one person who holds all the configuration knowledge in their head and has never documented a single thing. They leave, and suddenly nobody knows why there's a custom approval workflow with nine conditional branches and a hard-coded reference to a cost centre that was decommissioned in 2019. Second: the internal tensions. Gary Barlow apparently controlled the creative direction so tightly that other members felt stifled. If you've ever been in a requirements gathering workshop where one stakeholder talks for 90 minutes straight and everyone else just stares at their laptops in quiet resignation, you've lived this. Third: Nah, I'm stopping. now. I was going to make a third point about the Samaritans helpline being analogous to post-go-live support, the idea that your rollout can cause such widespread emotional distress that you need a dedicated team just to handle the fallout, but honestly, some analogies you abandon out of dignity, even the ones that are a parody. What I will say, in all seriousness, is that key person dependency is genuinely one of the most common and least discussed risks in HR tech implementations. People focus on the technology, the configuration, the integrations, and then their internal project manager leaves, or their process owner decides there are more interesting things to be doing, and suddenly a programme that was ticking along nicely is adrift with no documentation and a go-live date that isn't moving. If that sounds familiar, or if you're mid-implementation and starting to get that sinking feeling that too much knowledge lives in one person's head, drop me a message. We help prevent exactly these kinds of situations, and we do it without requiring a dedicated helpline afterwards. Usually. I've attached a photo of the band, which I've (sorry, AI has) doctored to include my own face. I genuinely cannot tell you whether I've replaced Jason Orange or Howard Donald, and I suspect neither can most of you.
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Alan Walker shared thisHR tech consulting has entered peak self-crown season. Especially now, everyone is chasing a slice of the SmartRecruiters+SAP pie. “Most experienced” “Most trusted” “World leading” All bold statements. Mostly totally made up, and definitely unofficial. I get it, though. It's marketing. And some of the folk doing this are genuinely good at their work. And perhaps I'm just bad at marketing, and I'm definitely too honest. In the spirit of not changing a habit of a lifetime (honesty), here are some less bold facts about Udder and our position as premium SmartRecruiters partners. All 100% true: - Over 200 SmartRecruiters implementation projects delivered - Next closest specialist is around 100 - Another well-known player has around 75 - We became an SAP partner listed on PartnerEdge 6 weeks ago - Udder's CEO is an overweight bald man - We have the joint highest SR marketplace rating - Second-highest number of reviews globally The only organisation with more reviews than Udder has over 8,600 employees listed on this platform. They've also delivered more than 200 implementations and have been doing so for much longer than we have. They are ahead by two reviews. We have a team of 32. I quite like that ratio, and I'd put our team up against theirs any day of the week. We're proud of all the above, but I'm not going to anoint us as "world's best/favourite/trusted/leading/most experienced" based on my opinion. I did win HR Tech Rear of the Year in 2023*, though. Since these things seem to be doing well, here's an arty photo of me with my dog sitting on my shoulder. *This is another "mistruth". I was 3rd.
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Alan Walker shared thisThis is a great training opportunity for anyone in the food industry in Staffordshire. I admittedly have no clue how many folk in my network are a) from Staffordshire and b) in the food industry, but when Mrs W tells me to do something, I do it.Alan Walker shared thisSix local food businesses are now Carbon Literate! 🎓🌱 Following our free Carbon Literacy Training in Burton last November, six local food business professionals have achieved their nationally recognised certificates and pledged real climate action. Restaurant owners, caterers, and food producers spent the day learning practical ways to reduce their carbon footprint - and they're now putting that knowledge into action. Want to join them? We have TWO more free sessions available: 📍 In-person: Newcastle-under-Lyme - Tuesday 17th February Keele in Town | 09.00 am - 04.30 pm | In-person 🖥️ Online (NEW!) - Monday 10th March Via Microsoft Teams | 09.00 am - 04.30 pm Both sessions are completely FREE, delivered by expert facilitator Tom Guilbert-Newell, and you'll gain a nationally recognised Carbon Literacy certificate. ✅ One day of training ✅ Practical carbon reduction strategies ✅ Recognised certification ✅ FREE Limited spaces - Register: https://orlo.uk/X6597 Learn more: https://orlo.uk/XHAcf #CarbonLiteracy #SustainableBusiness #FoodBusiness #EastStaffordshire #NewcastleUnderLyme #ClimateAction #NetZero #BusinessSupport #Staffordshire The food sector has enormous potential to drive positive change. This training equips you with the knowledge to make it happen.
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Alan Walker shared thisWe are drowning in AI labels and not enough people are asking the only question that counts: does it work - safely - in the real world? You can call something an agent, agentic or autonomous. None of it matters if the thing cannot deliver a measurable outcome without creating new headaches. HR teams are not short of demos or labels. They are short of technology that improves timescales, accuracy and workload while staying on the right side of employment law and data protection. Many of the so called agents in the market or homebrewed fail the basics. They rely on brittle inputs, they break when volume or complexity spikes and they quietly introduce bias because nobody has mapped how the model behaves across different groups. The compliance risk alone can outweigh any promised efficiency. So flip the conversation. Ignore the label and test the substance… - Can it complete tasks end-to-end with little-to-no human nudge? - Can you prove the speed, quality or cost gain with real data, not a demo story? - Has the vendor demonstrated serious bias testing? - Is there a clear governance model with audit trails and fallbacks when things go wrong? ….and most importantly, has your legal, privacy and security team signed off on how it collects, stores and uses data? Do not take that last element on as an HR side project. Spread the risk of making the wrong choices and use the people who have spent years worrying about this type of thing to advise. If a product cannot answer those questions, it does not matter what it calls itself. It can even call itself Dave. Outcomes, compliance and fairness are the only things worth caring about. PS - Thought I'd go retro with my AI-slop image this time.
Alan Walker commented on a post
4d
I'll stick to the RecFest-branded spaghetti tree, thanks.
Alan Walker replied to a comment
1w
Stanislaw Wasowicz - your analogy fails at the word “expert” when directing the robots. The person directing them isn’t an expert in building software, and the robots are only experts in one element of building software - coding.
And when I was talking about compliance, I was more referring to things like ISO27001, SOC2 etc.
I don’t need showing or telling what’s possible. I’ve been using these tools since they came out - building stuff for us internally and for myself for fun. So I have both the past experience of being actually able to code (way back when) and the current experience of building stuff using coding assistants.
Rest assured - I’m as excited as you about this stuff. It’s allowed me to get back to what I do best - building stuff. I’m genuinely blown away by it.
But I know their limitations as well.
Coding assistants haven’t lowered the bar to developing software that actually works (and is safe, scalable etc), it’s encouraged more people to try to jump over it.
In the hands of engineers they are incredible. In the hands of enthusiastic amateurs, equally incredible - but for different reason. Creating proofs of concept, ideation, experimentation - internal tools - all amazing.
Alan Walker commented on a post
1w
Thanks for the share Adriano Herdman. Claude already has web search access, and can already cite sources - what does hooking it up to Perplexity give it in addition to this?
Feel free to talk technical in your reply.
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Alan Walker liked thisAlan Walker what a brilliant post - Anyone who is looking at implementing HR / Recruitment Technology using AI - Read this - Then read it againCognitive Surrender: What Happens When AI Automates Stupidity?Cognitive Surrender: What Happens When AI Automates Stupidity?
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Alan Walker liked thisLinked the Wharton study for anyone else interested in further reading. Very intriguing! https://lnkd.in/ethmuKPvCognitive Surrender: What Happens When AI Automates Stupidity?Cognitive Surrender: What Happens When AI Automates Stupidity?
Experience & Education
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Udder
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Volunteer Experience
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Program Mentor
Workplace Accelerator
- Present 4 years 10 months
Science and Technology
The Workplace Accelerator is the only global HR Tech & Work Tech dedicated programme focused on shaping how the world works.
With regional programmes focused on APAC, US, UK & EU they provide specific geographic and operational expertise and support for each of their participants.
They focus on Work tech as defined as Talent Acquisition tools, Talent Management Tools, Collaboration and Productivity tools, HR & Admin tools and Workforce Management tools.
Publications
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ChatTalent
ChatTalent
See publicationThis is a publication, right? Launching ChatTalent.com and getting to over 2,000 subscribers after just two weeks is one of my biggest achievements.
Going strong, getting better- and soon to launch our own ChatTalent community app. #winning
Courses
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Diploma in Recruitment Practice Recruitment
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Languages
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English
Native or bilingual proficiency
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