The Hire You’re About to Make Is Based on the Wrong Data
Michael Landers · RizeCon 2026 · Pocatello
As AI enhances what organizations can do, it quietly erodes something else: the human intelligence that makes due diligence on people more than a vibes check. Michael Landers — who has asked the same question to over 125,000 people across 10 years and works with venture capital firms in San Francisco — spent his session showing a room of business owners how badly most hiring and investment decisions miss the actual question, and what a more forward-facing assessment looks like.
The uncomfortable diagnosis: almost every tool businesses use to evaluate people is backward-facing. Resumes, references, LinkedIn profiles, performance reviews — all of it describes what someone has done. But the role you’re hiring for is about what they’ll do next, in conditions that don’t yet exist.
What he covered
AI enhances, HI erodes. Michael’s framing: the laws of the universe say when something enhances, something else erodes. As AI skills expand, human intelligence — sensing, thinking, feeling, reading rooms, intuiting what’s off — starts to atrophy if you don’t deliberately protect it. Balance is the only path that works. The leaders who come to him now aren’t asking for help with technology. They’re asking for help with sensing, thinking, and feeling.
Mental models shape what you see before you see it.
Every judgment you make about a person — polite or rude, qualified or not, assertive or aggressive — is a comparison against a mental model you built before this moment. To demonstrate it live, Michael asked the room to name a gesture that means the same thing in all cultures. Everyone guessed. Everyone was wrong. There isn’t one. A thumbs-up is offensive in Iran and Iraq. “Got your nose” is the Korean equivalent of the middle finger. The Greek open-handed stop gesture means “I throw poop in your face.” The point isn’t cultural trivia: it’s that your brain has been filling in answers based on exposure, not evidence. That is exactly what it does when you interview someone.
