When a company’s rise feels both inevitable and unsettling, it’s worth paying closer attention. Mercor, built by three university dropouts who are now the youngest billionaires in history, might be one of those companies.

They began by connecting Indian software engineers with US tech companies. Peter Thiel noticed, invested, and within two years they’d transformed their student project into an AI-powered recruitment engine paying 30,000 contractors daily… with a team of just 70.

Their mission is ambitious: “To create a unified global labour market where everyone interviews at once, and every company can hire.”

It’s provocative. It’s futuristic. And it signals where the talent economy is heading.

A bigger shift is underway

Earlier this year, Brendan Foody suggested Mercor isn’t just a hiring platform but an attempt to redesign how labour itself is accessed, distributed, and measured. And other industry leaders are seeing similar shifts, each circling the same idea that AI isn’t just changing how we work but the very architecture around work.

As Tom Mackintosh, our Managing Director here at Solve, puts it:

“Mercor is less about recruitment disruption and more about the acceleration of workforce infrastructure. They’re building an intelligence layer — and that’s the part the industry should be paying attention to.”

Mercor’s strength isn’t just matching talent to roles but the ecosystem they’re building around:

• Skills and performance data
• Machine-learning feedback loops
• Predictive matching at scale

If they pull this off, they could improve hiring and redefine the very infrastructure of the global workforce.

The Kodak moment, but not for the reasons people think

When AI’s impact on hiring first hit the conversation, many assumed the order of disruption would begin with freelancers, move to contractors, and touch permanent recruitment last.

While this order of events still remains likely, the timeline for this is unknown, and Mercor’s acceleration is an interesting early marker. They launched in 2023, built their own AI foundation models, scaled a global technical contractor network, hit a $10B valuation in under two years, and rewrote the economics of matching people to work.

As Tom notes:

“Described by many in the industry as a ‘Kodak moment’, it’s worth mentioning that it’s less about the extinction of recruitment and more about its relevance as it is today. Kodak didn’t fail because cameras disappeared — they failed because someone else redefined the experience. And Mercor is trying to redefine the experience of contingent work.”

Right now, the impact is concentrated in the U.S. contractor market, but the bigger questions are: How fast does this become global? And how long before similar models pressure permanent hiring?

So, what does this mean for talent teams and workforce partners?

Expectations are rising. They aren’t eliminating recruitment or making talent teams irrelevant, and we know organisations still want and value human partnership — and the context, trust, strategy, and guidance that comes along with it.

In addition to this, they’ll also expect technology and intelligence that mirror the precision, speed, and clarity that companies like Mercor are bringing into the market.

This is where the future of talent sits: human plus AI, supported by stronger foundations, better processes, richer data, and smarter workforce models.

How does Solve come in?

We know these shifts aren’t abstract concepts and are hearing the same questions from clients every week:

·     How do we modernise our people strategy quickly?

·     Where should AI sit within our hiring process?

·     How do we stay compliant and in control as contingent work scales?

·     How do we build talent functions that can flex with market changes?

And our services are built exactly for moments like this; fixing people-strategy gaps, boosting hiring teams when demand spikes, getting control over contingent workforce as new models emerge, and building talent functions that are ready for wherever the market is heading.

Not through reinvention or endless consultancy, but with the right expertise, plugged in exactly where it’s need.

As Tom puts it:

“Mercor shows what’s possible at the extreme end of the market. Our job is helping organisations prepare for that reality — responsibly, strategically, and in a way that can actually work for their business.”

A new chapter, rather than an ending

Mercor’s rise only means that the bar in recruitment is rising in speed, market intelligence, measurement, and seamless experiences.

The companies who win will be those who build the right blend of people, process, and technology, and who partner with those who can help them get there.

If Mercor represents the future of AI-enabled talent infrastructure, Solve represents something just as important: A partner that helps organisations evolve towards that future, at the pace that’s right for you.

‍