# Season 9 | Ep9 Emily Van Eyssen on why she's firing staff and replacing them with AI

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-rag-podcast-recruitment-agency-growth-podcast-1158173/season-9-ep9-emily-van-eyssen-on-why-she-s-firing-staff-and-replacing-them-with-ai
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-rag-podcast-recruitment-agency-growth-podcast-1158173/season-9-ep9-emily-van-eyssen-on-why-she-s-firing-staff-and-replacing-them-with-ai.md
Podcast: [The RAG Podcast - Recruitment Agency Growth Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-rag-podcast-recruitment-agency-growth-podcast-1158173)
Published: 2025-12-03T11:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://hoxomedia.com
Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/6cb0a14d-0a30-46ad-8d54-2a83bc59d11f.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-rag-podcast-recruitment-agency-growth-podcast-1158173/episodes/season-9-ep9-emily-van-eyssen-on-why-she-s-firing-staff-and-replacing-them-with-ai
Duration seconds: 3638

## Resource

Emily Van Eyssen on why she's firing staff and replacing them with AI "I automated someone's entire job out of my business." "They're gone. That role doesn't exist anymore." Emily Van Eyssen isn't talking about the future. She's talking about last month. She had no recruitment experience when she started. Zero training. Never worked for an agency. Stumbled into it during the pandemic through a government contract she still doesn't understand why she won. Most people would have crashed and burned. Emily placed 200 young people into employment, made a lot of money, and accidentally built a completely virtual recruitment business. When the pandemic ended and the scheme shut down, she had a choice. Go back to managing Airbnbs (which she hated), or figure out how to make recruitment work. Three years later: 30-35 placements per month Team of just 8 people 300+ people placed globally Jobs being automated out of existence in real-time But here's what makes Emily's story urgent. She's not planning for an AI future. She's living it right now. South African talent + AI super users = roles disappearing overnight. She fired someone last week for refusing to use AI. That job is now gone forever. One of her team automated their own role out. They're still there. The role isn't. She's training 5,000 people per month in South Africa on AI (and employing none of them). She's targeting 100 placements per month by Easter. Same 8-person team. This week on The RAG Podcast, Emily tells you exactly what's coming. We cover: Why she fired someone for refusing to adopt AI (and automated their job immediately) How one team member automated an entire salary out of the business The South Africa + AI combination making UK roles obsolete Why she's training thousands in AI but employing none of them…

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## Transcript

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