Q&A Spotlight: Get to Know Our Guests
Will R. is CTO at TalentSelect AI, where we’ve had the pleasure of working with him on projects involving, you guessed it, AI. Will is an occasional podcast host and perennial bibliophile: his zoom background is a beautiful, real swath of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.
What's a misconception people have about the use of AI in your field?
Much of my professional focus over the past few years has been in HR Tech, specifically building AI-powered tools for talent assessment and hiring. I think one misconception people have is the assumption that the 'wild west' nature of AI adoption, which we’re seeing across many other industries, also applies to new hiring technologies, which couldn't be further from the truth.
Because hiring decisions directly affect people’s livelihoods, this industry operates within strict guidelines. First, there is existing employment law, including federal regulations such as Title VII, the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, and the EEOC's recent AI guidance, which all require that any selection tools – whether algorithmic or not – demonstrate job-related validity and avoid adverse impact. Some jurisdictions are adding even more oversight, such as New York City’s Local Law 144 bias-audit requirement.
Second, our industry has decades of professional standards from the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP). These standards spell out how to collect data, build and validate assessments, and monitor them over time. In practice, that means an AI solution like the products I've been involved with go through validation studies, legal defensibility reviews, and third-party bias audits long before a recruiter ever logs in.
What’s a tool, book, or resource you’ve found invaluable recently?
This answer might not sound like any fun, but I’ve been investing a lot of my personal and professional development energies as of late on law, policy, and compliance education. This is more important and relevant in some industries than others, but as it relates to my areas of interest (such as AI, cybersecurity, and HR), fluency with legal and compliance issues is becoming increasingly important. And this is something I frequently advise other technology and product leaders to invest in as well. At the moment, the resource I've been finding especially interesting and helpful is a book called Cybersecurity Law by Jeff Kosseff.
What’s something people might not know about you?
I’m a bit of a book nerd in my personal life and even produce a weekend radio show about books and writers, which airs out of an NRP station in Texas. I was actually an English major as an undergraduate and only fell into tech by accident when I landed a job as a documentation writer for a data center company in my mid-twenties. I feel blessed for that accident and love what I do, but I still keep a foot in the literary world.
Tim Gill is a SEO powerhouse that we’ve known since the ‘10’s, when we all worked at Shopbop/Amazon. Nowadays, we are thrilled to have him helping us provide SEO services to our clients. Read our short interview with him for SEO tips and AI tools to try.
What’s a mistake you commonly see people make in SEO?
E-commerce SEO can be tricky, and many businesses make mistakes that hinder their website's visibility and performance. Focusing solely on high-volume keywords without considering what users are actually looking for (their search intent) can lead to irrelevant traffic and low conversion rates. Long-tail keywords (more specific phrases) often have lower competition and higher conversion rates. Neglecting these can limit your reach to a narrower audience. Too often people ignore internal linking. Internal links help search engines understand your website's structure and distribute authority among pages.
What’s a tool, book, or resource you’ve found invaluable recently?
I have really been diving into the application of AI in marketing and trying out new tools. Some are really fun and others are incredible productivity tools. Some of my favorites right now include NotebookLM, uberduck.ai, and napkin.ai, and Adobe Firefly. My kids have gotten a kick out of cloning my voice and making me say ridiculous things.
What’s something people might not know about you?
I really enjoy languages and words that move across cultures. When I was a teenager I would fall asleep listening to listen-and-learn language cassettes from the library. I can speak Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian and tinker in German and Mandarin. My family does Duolingo in the car for fun. One of my current favorite tiktokers is @superangrygerman who explains German words in a very angry tone.