- 53% of Dutch recruiters found it harder to find the right talents last year
- 12% feel sufficiently prepared for the labor market of 2026
- AI is changing the recruitment process and helping companies attract hidden gems faster (although Dutch companies are notably more cautious than the international trend)
LinkedIn surveyed 500 Dutch recruitment professionals about their future expectations. The past year was already a difficult year: 53% found it harder to attract the right talents, globally that was 66%. 2026 promises to be even more challenging: only 12% of recruitment professionals feel completely prepared for 2026. More than half (53 percent) fear that it will be harder to recruit the right talent this year. IT companies and small businesses feel the pressure the most. The talent war in the IT sector has been raging fiercely for a few years, while smaller companies have to compete with limited resources against the larger players. The biggest challenges identified by recruiters are:
- The increasing pressure to quickly bring in talent (37%)
- Hiring more selectively to find hidden talent is seen as a major challenge by 36%
- Attracting candidates who are sufficiently AI literate (35%)
'The labor market is at a crossroads,' says Jan Devos, Talent Solutions lead Benelux at LinkedIn. 'The pressure was already high, and many recruitment professionals see it only increasing in 2026. The research shows that especially filling niche roles, combined with ever-higher organizational expectations, increases the pressure on recruiters.
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AI to relieve the pressure?
Artificial intelligence has penetrated deeply into the hiring strategy of companies over the past year. 66% of Dutch recruiters indicate that AI has changed the recruitment process in their organization, and for 33%, AI has become indispensable in a short time. Half notice that AI speeds up their recruitment and makes it easier to spot the white ravens. However, not everyone is convinced: a quarter of respondents see AI more as a delaying factor in attracting talent.
'Dutch companies are notably cautious about using AI for their recruitment,' says Jan Devos, Talent Solutions lead Benelux at LinkedIn. 'Globally, over 90% of recruitment professionals say their employer will invest in AI in 2026 to reach talent, screen candidates, schedule applications, and support recruitment decisions. In the Netherlands, that share fluctuates between 50 and 60% per component. Is that typical Dutch pragmatism? Companies are convinced of the added value of AI, yet some prefer to wait and see.'
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AI tools for recruitment show measurable effects on a larger scale
The research results align with a broader development in the labor market, where AI is increasingly being used to make recruitment and selection more efficient. LinkedIn is also experimenting with AI-driven applications that support recruiters in finding, approaching, and selecting talent.
AI is being used, among other things, to speed up recruitment processes, better focus on relevant profiles, and reduce the administrative burden for recruiters. In practice, this means that recruiters get a quicker view of suitable candidates and have more room for personal contact and substantive considerations. This partly explains why the research points to increasing expectations, time pressure, and changing role profiles within recruitment.
International applications show that AI support can shorten the initial stage of recruitment, such as searching, matching, and pre-selecting candidates. At the same time, the emphasis in the process is increasingly shifting towards human assessment, context, and interaction, which aligns with the need for qualitatively better matches in a tight labor market.
Additionally, there is Hiring Assistant, the only AI assistant for recruiters that operates on 'the world's largest talent network. Large companies like AMD, Expedia Group, Fabletics, Insite, Jacobs, Siemens, and Wipro are already using the tool to discover talent that would otherwise go unnoticed. Early adopters save more than four hours per vacancy, view 62% fewer profiles, and see their InMail acceptance increase by 69%. Hiring Assistant is available worldwide in English.
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