The world of AI technologies wants companies to adopt their solutions faster and with more enthusiasm, opening their arms wide to autonomous AI agents. Observing collective fatigue, Charles Parent, Director of Customer Experience at recruitment firm Sourcinc, sees 2026 rather under the sign of “consolidation.”
When consulting 2026 trends in HR tech, market analysts announce (or hope for?) a surge in adoption toward agentic autonomous AI (Deloitte), capable of performing tasks by itself, coupled with a strategic shift toward AI (Nexar RH), where companies would finally understand the nature of this new technology.
Charles Parent has a different reading of the market: he sees rather companies at the end of their rope, “overwhelmed” by the flow of new AI tools:
“2025 was a year of discovery. There have been so many articles about AI. I think all professionals were a bit overwhelmed by all these new tools. The mindset was to try everything. I have the impression that 2026 is going to be a year of consolidation, then focus. That is, organizations will say: ‘OK, pause, we’re going to invest in one tool or feature instead of trying a bunch of things at the same time.'”
Gemini 3.0 as a turning point
According to him, the pivotal moment of this consolidation movement is the launch of Gemini 3.0 in December, with “incredible” performance that surprised everyone.
“Companies are going to use what’s already in their work environment. SMEs and startups that are already in the Google environment will migrate to Gemini, which will become the central tool. For large organizations that are in the Microsoft environment, they will focus on adopting Copilot, rather than trying other LLMs, like ChatGPT, Claude and so on,” he estimates.
The Director of Sourcinc notes that traditional platforms are themselves adding new AI features. Consequently, companies will concentrate their efforts on properly leveraging AI features already present in their tools.
“Software firms that develop CRMs or ATSs are developing features in-house. Instead of trying another tool or taking another subscription, companies will use the features directly in their existing tools.”
Paying attention to existing tools
Companies are spoiled for choice. In 2025, consulting firm Nexar RH was already announcing a consolidation movement within existing solutions in the HR tech industry.
“Large HCM providers and regional HR Tech leaders are acquiring specialized solutions in order to expand their capabilities and protect their market share,” one explained last year in a Nexar RH article. This consolidation redefines competitive dynamics and favors the emergence of broader, integrated platforms, reducing fragmentation and accelerating innovation cycles.”
In the recruitment sector alone, Charles Parent notes that a new feature like “voice to text” is today very easy for companies to adopt.
“It’s the ‘low hanging fruit.’ It’s the most concrete use case I see on the market. Voice-to-text transcription applications are increasingly being used, whether in needs assessment, between the recruiter and their internal or external client. They make it possible to quickly consult the contents of interviews in a recruitment and candidate identification context. I believe this tool will become mainstream in 2026.”
Conclusion: before thinking about adopting “agentic” AI, companies have a wide range of HR solutions to progressively integrate into their workflow.
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