In her May 18, 2025 WSJ article “The ‘Great Hesitation’ That’s Making It Harder to Get a Tech Job“, Katherine Bindley addresses the recent slowdown in hiring. The combination of economic uncertainty and the anticipated disruptions by AI in the workplace has leaders hedging their bets, and not moving forward with many hiring decisions, let alone recruiting efforts. It is sober reading.

Ironically, it was not that long ago we were facing the ‘Great Resignation,’ the ultimate employee environment. Folks that could have their pick of jobs and employers now find themselves in prolonged job searches, even when they are highly qualified applicants. Boards, the C-Suite, and team leaders really have no idea how AI will ultimately impact their organizations, and so rather than risk redundant hires they are taking a wait and see approach.

In my career I have experienced most of the hype curves: ERP, CRM, Cloud, social enterprise, AI, generative AI, blockchain, IoT, digital twins, etc. With AI and LLMs, we have rapidly advanced to the peak of inflated expectations, and are now staring into the abyss, aka the trough of disillusionment. Whether or not we actually get to the slope of enlightenment, there is a single truth that remains: work still needs to get done.

Employers can only wait so long, and then they have to make a decision to move forward on their large enterprise implementations and integrations before their competitors gain an advantage. There will be pockets where LLMs can certainly contribute to knowledge work, productivity, software development, customer support automation, and some aspects of content generation. And even with generative AI tools in these areas, you still need a knowledgeable human being to make judgments and call out the hallucinations and noise.

There are soft skills that simply cannot be replaced, and if an organization is going to become a complex hybrid of knowledgeable human talent and LLMs, it will still need a team that can help navigate the change and the new realities. The roles that may be augmented but cannot be replaced by AI are those that require high touch, sound judgement, and high reliability. Delaying those types of hires will put you at a competitive disadvantage.

For those organizations hesitant to commit, there is a middle ground, however. OLÉ was conceived for exactly this situation: the need to get things done in an environment of uncertainty.  We help organizations immediately deploy capabilities by sourcing and managing teams of seasoned professionals with specialized expertise and experience. We select, train, and manage our employees so that they can provide our clients the critical capabilities they need now, and de-risk the addition of human capital and provide greater resourcing flexibility. If you haven’t made up your mind, you can still have a team to get things done until you do.

This was written by a human: me.