Roderick Smyth

They call this 'manual data integration with a coffee habit' and frame it as an architecture problem created by the tech stack, not a discipline problem caused by recruiters. The proposed fix is to put applicant-tracking functions inside the tools recruiters already use, so searches, texts and screening from a spreadsheet write back to the ATS automatically.

In 'Stop paying humans to be middleware,' a recruiter copies a candidate's name from the ATS into an email, switches to Teams to check whether the hiring manager replied, returns to the ATS to log the call, opens a spreadsheet to track who has been contacted, then updates the ATS again. Smyth supports the case with two figures from their own product context: recruiters spend about 75% of the day in Outlook and Teams and under 10% in the ATS.

A shorter companion post, 'What recruiters call multitasking is usually just manual integration,' makes the same argument: copy-pasting is an architecture problem, not a habit recruiters need to break.

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Stop making it the source of work.' They reject the common advice that recruiters should simply get better at using the ATS. Every gap between the ATS, email, Teams, texts and job boards, they argue, has to be bridged by a person—and that person is the firm's most expensive asset.

The line appears in the middleware post and again in the multitasking post, closing each with a product claim. In the Avionte CONNECT post, the same position appears in the description of GLYDE Unity: it reads from and writes back to the firm's existing ATS rather than asking the firm to switch platforms.

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Smyth recounts an Avionte customer at the Avionte CONNECT event using ChatGPT to evaluate the vendors present, then quotes its answer, which places GLYDE Unity 'near the top of your list' as an AI layer over Avionte rather than a recruiting platform.

• This is a third-party AI answer, not product documentation.
• It describes recruiters staying in Outlook, natural-language questions replacing Boolean search, Copilot and Teams prompts pulling recruiting data, and Power Automate running multi-step workflows.
• A later post describes the ambition in Smyth's own words: a unified platform that merges a firm's existing tech stack into 'an integrated Omnipresent Recruiting AI with autonomous agents integrated into Microsoft365.'

The posts use two different registers: a modest 'layer on top of what you own' in the Avionte customer anecdote and a much larger platform-vision claim in the four-billion-tokens post. Both point in the same direction, but the scale differs.

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Smyth calls Microsoft integration the point of difference and describes the payoff through concrete queries and automated sequences, not general AI capability.

The Avionte post lists tasks recruiters could run in Copilot and Teams, such as showing open jobs, summarising the day's interviews and drafting emails to top candidates.

• It also sketches plain-language searches of the candidate database—for example, finding every senior accountant contacted in the last three years with manufacturing experience, or surfacing people who interviewed for a controller role but were not placed.
• The Power Automate example chains a new job entering the ATS, an AI search of the database, personalised emails to top candidates, a Teams notification to the recruiter and an automatic follow-up.

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Responding to an AI startup's idea that not posting a job improves candidate experience and reduces text blasting, they argue the behaviour is neither new nor an AI problem: it began when recruiters got bulk texting.

• The answer, in Smyth's view, is empathy in product design—not AI personalisation indistinguishable from a human message.
• Recruiters chase the one perfect candidate at the cost of missing all of them.

The post points to Smyth's work on TempBuddy ten years earlier, which they say improved response rates and speed because it took a little empathy to design. It closes by inviting readers to see GLYDE at StaffingWorld 2026, booth 316.

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The priority is operational history in staffing technology, not novelty in AI.

The four-billion-tokens post reports Smyth's own usage for a single month, claims the equivalent output would have taken six people a year five years ago, and presents the result as a platform others in the industry had not thought of.

• It ends with a link to glydeunity.com.
• The StaffingWorld post makes a similar move, contrasting an inexperienced startup with a solution Smyth says existed a decade ago.

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The middleware metaphor and two percentages deliver the argument in one sitting; the companion post offers a quick second pass.

Smyth's clearest statement of the problem GLYDE Unity exists to solve.

• The post walks through a recruiter's day: copy a candidate's name out of the applicant tracking system, paste it into an email, switch to Teams to see whether the hiring manager replied, jump back to the ATS to log the finished call, open a spreadsheet to track who has been contacted, then update the ATS again.
• They call that "manual data integration with a coffee habit," not recruiting.
• The post supplies two numbers to support the case: recruiters spend about 75% of the day in Outlook and Teams, and under 10% in the ATS.
• The proposed fix is to put ATS functions inside those tools so that searches, texts and screening from a spreadsheet write back to the ATS automatically, keeping the ATS as the record of truth without making it the place where work happens.
• A shorter companion post, "What recruiters call multitasking is usually just manual integration," makes the same argument and adds that copy-paste is an architecture problem created by the stack, not a habit recruiters need to break.

For brands planning a campaign

This is the passage to quote if a staffing-software partner wants the argument in its strongest form. It also sets the bar any competing pitch has to clear: the claim is that the gap between stack tools, not the absence of a dashboard, is the problem worth paying to fix.

If the first post convinces you the middleware problem is real, this one shows the shape of the answer Smyth is selling, down to individual process steps and the Microsoft tools involved.

Smyth recounts an Avionté customer at the Avionté CONNECT event using ChatGPT to evaluate the vendors present, and quotes the response, which puts GLYDE Unity "near the top" as an AI layer that sits on top of Avionté and integrates with Microsoft 365 rather than replacing the recruiting platform.

• The quoted answer is specific about what that means: recruiters stay in Outlook for search, record updates, email drafts and activity logging; natural-language questions such as "Find every Senior Accountant we've spoken with in the last three years who has manufacturing experience" replace Boolean search; Copilot and Teams prompts pull recruiting data; and Power Automate runs workflows such as a new job entering Avionté, AI searching the database, the top 20 candidates getting personalised emails, the recruiter being notified in Teams and a follow-up being scheduled.
• The post frames the use case around two priorities the customer named: winning more business and filling jobs faster from the existing database.
• Ask for product documentation to verify the capabilities described in the third-party AI answer.

For brands planning a campaign

A candidate example of a process narrative a partner could adapt for a webinar or case-study format, and a read on Smyth's marketing approach: a customer anecdote routed through an AI's vendor evaluation. Ask for product documentation to verify the feature list.

Read together, they show the range between marketing register and operational detail.

A short, high-temperature post in which Smyth says the four billion tokens were their own consumption in a single month, claims the equivalent work would have taken six people a year five years ago, and describes the output as a unified AI-driven platform that merges a full existing tech stack into "an integrated Omnipresent Recruiting AI with autonomous agents integrated into Microsoft365."

• The post ends with a link to glydeunity.com.
• Ask for evidence of the usage figures and documentation of the shipped features behind the platform description.

For brands planning a campaign

Useful for judging the tone and claims a partner would be co-signing at an event or in co-marketing. Ask for evidence before using the self-reported usage numbers as verified metrics in promotional material.

Useful context for placing their views in the wider debate about AI in recruiting.

Smyth criticises an AI startup that treats not posting a job as a way to improve candidate experience and reduce text-message overload.

• The post argues the behaviour is not new and not an AI problem: bulk texting produced the same pattern as soon as recruiters had the tool, and ten years earlier, with TempBuddy, a solution existed that improved response rates and speed because, in their framing, it took a little empathy to design.
• The closing argument is that recruiters assume more and faster will win the race, but that is wrong; even when shown the solution, fear of missing the one perfect candidate keeps them chasing them all.
• The post ends by inviting people to see GLYDE at StaffingWorld 2026, booth 316.

For brands planning a campaign

The most obvious starting point for a panel, talk or point-of-view piece about AI-driven outreach, since it takes a clear side against a common industry practice. It is also the post with an explicit event and booth call to action, which matters if a partner is planning around a specific conference.

Smyth walks through the routine: copy a candidate's name out of the ATS, paste it into an email, check Teams for the hiring manager's reply, go back to the ATS to log the call, open a spreadsheet to track outreach. Their framing is blunt — "that's not recruiting, that's manual data integration with a coffee habit" — and they pair it with a figure cited from their own product context: recruiters spend about 75% of the day in Outlook and Teams and under 10% in the ATS.

Smyth usually opens with a one-line provocation, then reenacts a specific recruiter routine step by step before naming the fix. The posts read as product marketing built on a workflow diagnosis, not a feature list.

For brands planning a campaign

A collaboration built only around AI capability will miss how Smyth argues. They keep returning to the workflow gap between the ATS and Microsoft 365, so campaign plans, webinar topics, or demo content built around that friction will match their existing voice; anything that starts from model benchmarks will feel off-key.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

Stop making it the source of work." They treat the gaps between the ATS, email, Teams, texts, and job boards as an architecture problem the stack created, not a discipline problem recruiters caused — and reject the advice that recruiters should simply "get better at the ATS."

For brands planning a campaign

Smyth is unlikely to align with messaging that positions a new system as the center of a recruiter's day. Partnership or speaking content that explicitly preserves the buyer's existing ATS and adds a layer on top is consistent with their stated position.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

They also promote GLYDE Unity directly as a unified platform that merges a firm's existing tech stack into one recruiting AI. Across the posts, the pitch is additive: read from and write back to the ATS the firm already owns.

The distinction matters because the framing is explicitly positioned against products that "try to become your recruiting platform," ruling out some integration narratives a partner might otherwise propose.

For brands planning a campaign

For a staffing software company evaluating Smyth as a partner, the natural fit is complementary integration — ATS vendors, Microsoft 365 tooling, or workflow layers — rather than a competitive placement against GLYDE Unity.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3

The Avionté CONNECT post lists example interactions recruiters could run inside Copilot and Teams — showing open jobs, summarizing interviews, drafting candidate emails — and calls the Microsoft integration the point of difference.

For brands planning a campaign

Content, co-marketing, or event sessions that demonstrate recruiting workflows inside Microsoft 365 will read as continuous with Smyth's own material. A pitch that asks recruiters to adopt a new standalone interface runs against their stated approach.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3

It also sketches automated sequences in Power Automate: a new job enters the ATS, AI searches the database, top candidates are identified, personalized emails go out, the recruiter is notified in Teams, and follow-up is scheduled. A later post describes the same idea as autonomous agents integrated into Microsoft 365.

For brands planning a campaign

Concrete, demoable examples of database search and multi-step automation are the language Smyth uses.

• A partner proposal that includes a worked workflow example — trigger, search, outreach, follow-up — fits their format better than an abstract capability statement.
• Much of this detail appears in a customer's evaluation Smyth relays, so ask for a documented deployment example if that matters to your decision.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

Smyth argues the behavior is not new or AI-specific — it started the moment recruiters got bulk texting — and that recruiters keep assuming more and faster outreach will win. They cite earlier work on a product that improved response rates and speed, and say the fix is empathy in product design, not indistinguishable AI personalization designed to pass as human.

This is the clearest place where Smyth pushes back on a trend other recruiting-AI voices celebrate, making it useful for judging where they will and will not lend their name.

For brands planning a campaign

Smyth is a poor fit for campaigns built on outreach volume, blast performance, or AI that disguises itself as a human message. A candidate-experience or response-quality angle is more consistent with what they argue publicly.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

Several posts tag named industry contacts, and the format is consistent: a short hook, plain-language argument, occasional bulleted workflow examples, and a closing line that turns the argument into a product claim.

For brands planning a campaign

Sponsorship, booth, or conference-session collaborations are a natural format match, since this is where Smyth already concentrates publishing. An event-timed collaboration will look like their normal output rather than an interruption.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3

In a later post, they claim a month of their own output matched what would have taken six people a year five years earlier, and describe building a platform others in the industry had not attempted.

For brands planning a campaign

Smyth's credibility pitch rests on time spent inside staffing technology rather than on AI novelty.

• Introductions that treat them as a builder with a track record — not as an AI commentator — match how they present themself.
• Ask for supporting evidence if their track record is material to your decision.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

In one post they say they created a unified recruiting-AI platform that merges an existing tech stack, and link to glydeunity.com.

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The post describes a product integration with Avionté. For a campaign, ask Smyth to confirm whether a formal partnership agreement exists and what their role with Avionté is.

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The posts describe GLYDE Unity integrating with Microsoft 365.

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The post shows past involvement with TempBuddy; ask them to clarify whether that involved employment, ownership or client work.

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Jain's posts describe searching an agency's existing candidate database, widening searches for niche roles, and using AI to rank candidates and start outreach; Smyth similarly moves from database search and automated sequences to Microsoft 365 integration.

Jain's examples center on niche-role sourcing and market mapping for agencies, including Fabric's expansion from interviews and screening into a fuller hiring platform. Smyth's focus is the ATS-to-Microsoft 365 handoff and keeping the existing ATS as the system of record.

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Herhold's subject-line post gives recruiters usable outreach tactics, and his Hyreflow launch post tracks activation and onboarding. Smyth turns workflow friction into product claims and gives concrete examples.

Herhold writes more about outbound email tactics, beta metrics and the founder journey. Smyth focuses on ATS integration, Microsoft 365 tools and skepticism toward volume-based AI outreach.

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Feakins' 2027 post lists AI screening, database search and follow-ups, then leaves trust and commitment to the recruiter; Smyth makes a parallel case for removing manual integration and bringing data into the recruiter's tools.

Feakins applies the argument to travel nursing demand and the changing recruiter role, using market data from Aya's Index. Smyth applies it to staffing software architecture, ATS workflow and Microsoft 365 automation, with less sector-specific labor-market analysis.

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In one post, Jain lays out a practical sequence: revisit past candidates, search for adjacent experience, map likely employers, then approach passive candidates. That gives a staffing-software company a concrete sourcing-focused webinar or demo angle.

The examples emphasize sourcing and expanding Fabric toward a broader hiring platform, rather than the specific case for keeping an established ATS as the source of truth and bringing its work into Microsoft 365. Choose Smyth when ATS integration and recruiter workflow are central; choose Jain when niche-role discovery is the main campaign task.

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Herhold’s examples include practical recruitment email subject lines and early product lessons about onboarding, activation, and measuring where users get stuck—useful material for a hands-on session about agency operations and software adoption.

The examples focus more on agency growth, outreach, and an evolving recruiting product than on integrating an existing ATS with Outlook, Teams, and Power Automate.

• Smyth is the closer choice for an ATS-preserving Microsoft 365 workflow campaign; Herhold is more relevant when agency growth and adoption are the campaign need.
• Ask for comparative reach and commercial availability before booking Smyth.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

Feakins connects AI and data to recruiter priorities—such as assignment end dates, candidate job interest, and redeployment—and argues that recovering demand requires rebuilding candidate acquisition and recruiting capacity together. Those examples make the campaign sector-specific rather than a general staffing-technology discussion.

The posts center on travel-nursing operations and market demand, not the ATS-plus-Microsoft 365 architecture Smyth discusses.

• Feakins is the more directly relevant option for a travel-nursing campaign; Smyth is better aligned to a cross-staffing workflow integration campaign.
• Ask for audience and commercial-availability details before booking Smyth.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2