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The Work Deserves Recognition. Now It's Getting Some.

Here's something I've noticed in almost every conversation I've had with TA leaders over the past eighteen months: the most interesting AI work in recruiting isn't necessarily coming from vendors. It's coming from practitioners.

A recruiter who built a prompt sequence that cut their intake call prep time in half. A small TA ops team that wired together a few tools and finally got their hiring managers responding to feedback requests. A sourcer who created a workflow so clean and repeatable that their entire team adopted it in a week. Real work, built inside real recruiting functions, solving real problems and almost none of it getting any visibility beyond the team that built it.

That's the gap we're trying to close.

Today, we are officially opening submissions for the CXR Recruiting Awards: AI Edition 2026 - and we built this thing for exactly those practitioners.

What This Is

This is not a vendor competition. It's not a sponsored showcase. It's a practitioner-first recognition program for TA teams who have used AI - at any scale, with any tool, at any budget - to measurably improve the work of recruiting.

We've been connecting the talent acquisition community for over 30 years. In that time, we've seen a lot of industry awards come and go. Most of them end up rewarding the teams with the biggest budgets, the glossiest submissions, the flashiest brands, or the loudest vendor partners behind them.

This one is different. The judging panel includes CXR community members and industry experts - senior practitioners - alongside our team. The rubric rewards impact, usefulness, and the ability for other TA teams to actually adopt what you've built. The guardrails are clear: no real candidate data, no vendor-supplied solutions, no pay-to-play dynamics. Just original work by employer teams who are doing the actual work.

What Qualifies

If you used AI to save recruiter time, improve decisions, strengthen the candidate experience, sharpen the hiring manager partnership, or give TA leadership better visibility into what's actually happening then you have something worth submitting.

We're scoring entries on four dimensions: impact (35%), usefulness (25%), usability (20%), and responsible AI practices (20%). You don't need a fully deployed, production-tested tool. You can describe impact you've seen or reasonably expect as long as you're specific and honest about it.

And if you're sitting there thinking my solution is pretty simple - submit it anyway! Elegant and usable beats elaborate and complicated every time. A single well-crafted prompt that saves your team hours every week is a legitimate entry and, frankly, the kind of thing this community learns from most.

How It Works

Three things. That's the whole ask.

1. Complete the entry form. Tell us what you built, what problem it solves, what tools or budget it required, and what impact you've seen or expect.
2. Record a demo video. Fifteen minutes or less. Show a realistic workflow using fake or anonymized data. No slides-only submissions - we want to see it in action.
3. Submit by April 24.

No membership required. No entry fee.

We're hosting an optional kickoff call on April 1 and drop-in office hours on April 10 and 17. Come with your half-formed idea. We'll help you figure out if it's worth finishing.

What's at Stake

Everyone who submits gets recognized. Here's how it breaks down.

All Contributors — Wall of Fame Every submission that meets the guardrails earns a spot on the physical Wall of Fame at Marketplace Live, an additional feature on the CXR community site, a contributor social media package from CXR, and permanent archiving in the CXR AI Library for members. Your work won't disappear after judging - it becomes a resource for the broader community.

Finalists (3) Three finalists will be selected and publicly announced on May 8. Finalists receive hotel lodging for two at Marketplace Live, free event access for two team members, a CXR Podcast interview, a finalist social media package, and an invitation to present live in front of the judges and community - plus everything contributors receive.

The Winner The winner receives the traveling trophy, presented live on stage. They also get a CXR-hosted dinner for their entire team - up to 15 people - a 45-minute Community Spotlight interview (live and recorded), and a full winner social media package from CXR. Plus, everything finalists and contributors receive.

That last part matters. This isn't a plaque-and-a-handshake award. It's real recognition, real visibility, and a genuine platform to share what your team built with the most senior TA community in the industry.

Where It All Lands

The awards ceremony takes place on June 10 at Marketplace Live in Louisville - CXR's invitation-only, learning-first event for senior TA leaders and Solutions leaders. Unlike a typical conference or trade show, Marketplace Live brings together a curated, executive-level audience for facilitated peer roundtables and high-signal conversations with vetted solution partners. No expo floor noise, no vendor-driven agenda - just focused, practitioner-level discussion on what's actually working. The awards ceremony closes out the day, which makes the finalist presentations something the right people will actually be in the room to see.

One More Thing

You don't have to be a CXR member to enter or to win. We mean that. If the best AI work in recruiting right now is being built at a company that's never heard of us, we want to see it. The mission is surfacing work that moves the industry forward - that's really it.

Submissions are open now. The deadline is April 24, 2026.

Submit your work at cxrrecruitingawards.com

And if you've seen something inside your organization worth nominating - a teammate, a team, a quiet project that's making real impact - share this with them. The work deserves to be recognized.

Questions? Reach us at awards@cxr.works. Or drop a comment below and I'll answer it here.