HeyMilo AI at The ACSESS Staffing and Recruiting Conference

The HeyMilo team is back from beautiful Montréal—and wow, what a week at ACSESS 2025! After spending three fantastic days chatting with staffing leaders at Booth #6 (right next to our friends at Avionté), it was refreshing to see familiar faces and new connections beyond our usual remote screens. The keynotes about leading through uncertainty and shifting toward skill-based hiring matched the kinds of goals and challenges teams brought to us at our booth.

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Why Resilience (and Trust) Still Win

How we show up for our teams and clients through change was echoed right from the opening keynote. Olympic coach and performance expert Dominick Gauthier reminded us that adaptability and resilience are what get people through high-pressure moments—and that in some way, we’re all coaches. It’s on us to guide and support one another, especially when the pace doesn’t slow down. That really spoke to the reality of recruiters managing high volume sourcing/screening, client demands, and shifting goals all at once. At HeyMilo, it’s what drives us to build tools that give teams more time for the decisions only humans can make.

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A Shift Toward Skills, Not Just Roles

The future of work is skills-based, and staffing firms are on the front lines. Panelists from Randstad, Agilus, and others stressed the urgency in a skills-first future. To stay competitive, recruiters need to not only identify top talent faster but also coach clients on evolving hiring needs. That also means upskilling internally, and leaning into platforms that can surface those skills at scale.

It's a two-way street, right? We need to find those top folks quickly, but also be there to support clients as they figure out what their teams even need next.

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What We Heard, Loud and Clear

Across three days of panels and hallway conversations, we were reminded again and again that there’s no playbook for what staffing teams are navigating right now. The economic outlook is shifting. Clients are adjusting priorities. “Recruiters are asked to do more with less” - Noah Yasif, Chief Economist, American Staffing Association.

And while some leaders shared that they’re still exploring what AI recruiting agents could look like in their workflows, others are already leaning in, experimenting with AI for interviews, and rethinking what a modern recruiting team should look like. It was rewarding to speak with both ends of that spectrum, and everyone in between.

Because when recruiters are buried in calls, chasing scheduling, or fielding the same screening questions over and over, they’re not getting the chance to focus on what they do best. Conversations at our booth circled back to—how do we support recruiters in doing more of the work that drives relationships, placements, and trust?

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Until Next Time!

We left ACSESS 2025 with a lot to think about, and a lot to be grateful for. The conversations were thoughtful. The speakers brought sharp insight and clarity. And connecting in person with so many brilliant, mission-driven people across the Canadian staffing industry reminded us why we do this work in the first place.

To everyone who stopped by the booth, asked great questions, shared your hiring challenges, or just said hi: thank you. We’re better for it.

Thanks to the ACSESS organizers for giving us the space to connect, reflect, and look ahead. Montréal, you were the perfect host.

Next up: Avionté CONNECT in Minneapolis this August and SIA’s Collaboration in the Gig Economy in Dallas this September. If you're curious how AI in recruitment can help your team achieve an even more efficient candidate screening process, let’s keep the conversation going.

See you soon!