Healthcare leaders are facing the perfect storm: workforce shortages, rising patient demand, cost pressures, and longer hiring cycles. Hospitals and aged care providers are being asked to do the impossible — fill critical roles faster, without sacrificing the quality of care or the humanity of the hiring experience. And the pressure isn’t easing anytime soon. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the Department of Health and Aged Care, nursing and aged care workforce shortages are expected to worsen over the next decade.
Gartner’s Top Trends Shaping Talent Acquisition Strategy in 2026 outline broad, cross-industry shifts in talent acquisition. Here, we explore their relevance for healthcare, a sector that must scale hiring without losing the human touch.
These trends are already unfolding in healthcare organisations across Australia and the world. Hospitals, aged care facilities and community health providers are using digitisation, automation and AI-enabled processes to rebuild workforce capacity, streamline hiring, and improve candidate experience.
1: AI takes the first shift in high-volume hiring
Gartner describes frontline and high-volume roles as “ideal for AI-first hiring.” They are also referring to low complexity roles, but in part this does apply to healthcare’s ongoing shortage of nurses, aged care staff and allied health professionals. These roles need to be filled with speed and consistency. But let’s not forget that the roles themselves require soft skills like compassion alongside training and expertise. That means technology must support, not replace, the human touch in hiring.
Aged care provider KinCare faced a dual challenge: how to recruit thousands of in-home carers more efficiently across over 70 offices nationwide, while maintaining a positive candidate experience. One of their first steps was to simplify the application process so candidates could apply in under five minutes instead of 17. The team also digitised early-stage screening and interview scheduling.
“From their phones, candidates can now schedule interviews, communicate with recruiters, receive notifications about background and reference checks, and submit proof of documentation,” said Ben Rynja, Head of Talent Acquisition, KinCare. “Candidates can receive offer letters and sign them digitally.”
Time to fill a role decreased from 40 to 18 days, candidate drop-off fell by 60 per cent, and employee surveys rated the recruitment and onboarding experience above 90 per cent satisfaction.
AI-enabled automation made those improvements possible, but we’re seeing organisations use AI to handle scale while prioritising human connection where it matters. We’re seeing AI as the co-pilot for recruiters, not a replacement. AI works best when it helps recruiters move faster and hire smarter; never replacing their judgment, only amplifying it.
It’s a practical evolution, and it’s already improving healthcare hiring today.
2: Recruiters step up as strategic advisors
According to SmartRecruiters’ 2025 Benchmark Report, recruiters using advanced AI and automation tools saw average time-to-hire reductions of more than 25 per cent, with measurable improvements in recruiter productivity. These data points support Gartner’s observation that automation frees recruiters to expand toward advisory and analytical functions. In healthcare, that shift is already taking shape.
Recruitment teams are no longer simply “filling shifts.” They’re analysing data to forecast workforce gaps, advising leaders on market conditions and collaborating with hiring managers to redesign roles for flexibility and retention.
At organisations such as Asbury Communities, a senior living network employing nearly 3,000 staff, centralising digital hiring operations freed recruiters to spend more time in the field building relationships with schools and training providers.
As one talent leader put it, “We finally have time to attend career fairs and grow our talent pipeline instead of chasing paperwork.” That’s the essence of Gartner’s recruiter elevation trend: less admin, more strategy.
At Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect), recruiters experienced a similar shift. “Our talent sourcing team have a lot more time to do proactive sourcing, which we struggled to do before,” said David Dunne, Senior Manager, Workforce Services & Systems, Aspect.
He also noted that since the team can now easily access recruitment data and identify what’s working and what isn’t, Aspect reduced its reliance on paid advertising and agencies, unlocking meaningful cost efficiencies for the organisation.
3: Early-career pathways become the new pipeline
Gartner forecasts that by 2030, half of enterprises will face irreversible skill shortages in critical roles unless they redesign early-career programs
The SmartRecruiters Healthcare Benchmark Recruiting Metrics 2025 report highlights the healthcare industry is leading in internal mobility, reflecting a growing focus on building skills from within. Recruiters are using AI-assisted insights to identify transferable skills and internal mobility opportunities. In practical terms, that can support things like retraining orderlies into clinical support roles or mapping pathways for community carers into allied health positions. By reimagining entry-level programs as long-term capability investments rather than cost centres, healthcare organisations can build resilience for the future.
Predictive analytics will help model where shortages will occur, giving talent teams a head start. It’s a shift from reactive hiring to proactive workforce design, which is vital in a sector where every unfilled role affects patient care.
4: Human judgment stays in the loop
Gartner predicts by 2027, 75 per cent of hiring processes will include some form of AI proficiency testing. That’s not surprising given candidates themselves are beginning to use AI to draft applications and simulate interviews.
For healthcare, the implications are significant. Recruiters must ensure fairness, compliance and transparency while still using AI tools that help surface qualified candidates efficiently. The answer lies in hybrid assessment, combining algorithmic matching with human judgment. Human recruiters are still needed to assess empathy, teamwork and alignment with care values.
There are four key decision points where humans must remain firmly in the loop: defining the job, choosing who to engage, sealing the deal, and defining what success looks like once the person is hired. These are the moments that require context, conversation and trust, that is, the things AI can inform but not replace. They also play a key role in explaining where and how AI is used, which builds trust among candidates who may feel uneasy about automation in healthcare hiring in these early days.
The reality: AI in healthcare hiring is already here
These trends will certainly guide and impact healthcare recruitment in 2026, but the future of hiring isn’t on the horizon. It’s here. AI has begun to transform recruiting with new speed, precision, and experience. This is a once-in-a-generation chance to redesign hiring, what it takes to move from experimentation to execution, and how AI sets a new standard for talent acquisition impact. For healthcare, that means faster, fairer and more human-centred hiring that helps hospitals, aged care and community providers strengthen their teams and, ultimately, improve patient outcomes.
