Inside Oracle’s New Career Coach: How AI Is Rewriting Recruiting

In this episode we talk about generative AI, talent acquisition, candidate experience, workflow design, and how Oracle is pushing recruiting into the next era. Nagaraj Nadendala, SVP/GM Product Development breaks down the thinking behind Career Coach, why the industry needed a reset, and what it means for recruiters who are nervous about AI. This one hits on memory, scale, model choices, and the messy reality of matching people to work. What we discussed: AI is shifting from “extra help” to the core workflow for candidates and recruiters. Career Coach is built to mimic the real multi-turn discovery recruiters used to do manually. Memory is the unlock, allowing consistent candidate experience from first touch to interview. Recruiters don’t hate AI. They hate dealing with 1,000 unqualified applicants. Scale is the real bottleneck and AI finally cracks it. Good recruiters stay relevant by coming prepared and using AI as an amplifier. Customers want control over their models based on compliance and governance. Different models give different experiences, so Oracle lets customers choose. Candidate frustration and recruiter frustration both fed into the creation of Career Coach. Adoption is the real metric to watch in 2025. The real blockers inside companies aren’t recruiters. They’re governance committees. AI helps recruiters focus on the conversations that actually matter. This episode was recorded live at ⁠Oracle AI World 2025⁠ as part of a leadership series defining the world of work and AI Chapters: 00:00 Live at Oracle AI World 00:27 Event energy and why this year feels different 01:34 Introducing Nagaraj 02:00 His role and connection to Taleo 03:51 Why Career Coach exists 04:40 Memory and candidate interaction 06:00 What good recruiters actually do 06:30 Candidate and recruiter frustration 07:38 Building challenges and model selection 08:58 Handling drift and customer-chosen models 09:55 How recruiters should think about AI 10:52 The horse-and-buggy moment 11:56 What success looks like in 2026 12:59 The reality of internal adoption hurdles Guest Info: Nagaraj Nadendla, SVP/GM Product Development Oracle LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nagarajnadendla/ Connect with us William Tincup LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tincup/ Ryan Leary LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanleary/ Connect with WRKdefined Site: http://www.wrkdefined.com TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wrkdefined LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wrkdefined Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WRKdefined/ Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/WRKdefined Substack: https://wrkdefined.substack.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices