The Value of New Perspectives
A few weeks away, and a few different perspectives brought back
This month, I was lucky enough to get back to Argentina for the first time in 12 years. I spent a lot of formative time there in the 2000s. It’s a place that holds a lot of great memories for me, and where I started my recruitment journey.
It was a bit of a pilgrimage and everything you’d want a trip like that to be. Time with old friends, revisiting familiar spots, and trying a few new bars and restaurants that have popped up since I was last there. The kind of trip that reminds you how quickly things move on, but also how much stays the same.
Good growth
While I was away, I (sadly) missed HubSpot GROW ANZ 2026. By all accounts, it landed really well. Strong turnout, good energy, and a clear focus on where things are heading rather than where they’ve been.
It seems that general direction is showing up more broadly across the HubSpot ecosystem now too.
From my point of view, there have been a few notable shifts.
Their global event in Boston has been rebranded from INBOUND to UNBOUND, which signals a move away from traditional funnel thinking toward something more open and less linear.
They’ve also introduced the concept of AEO, or Answer Engine Optimisation. In simple terms, it’s about how often your business appears in AI-generated answers across platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. This shift feels like a from traditional search engines to answer engines.
And then there’s pricing.
There’s a pretty interesting move underway from HubSpot on AI pricing. They’re starting to push toward an outcome-based model, charging for what gets delivered rather than just access. So instead of paying for seats or usage, it’s more about results.
Real world applications
From what I’m seeing day to day, hiring conversations are moving in a similar direction.
There’s less focus on what someone knows, or how many years they’ve done something, and more focus on what they can actually deliver. Businesses are under pressure to justify spend everywhere, and hiring is no exception.
In that context, this kind of pricing model doesn’t feel left field. It feels like a reflection of a broader shift.
Industry moves
It’s also refreshing to see HubSpot use its momentum to move early on this kind of thinking.
Meanwhile, Salesforce continues to hold its position. Strong ecosystem, consistent demand, and still setting the pace in enterprise environments.
And ServiceNow is only becoming more relevant. Demand there remains high, particularly as businesses look to connect workflows and drive more efficiency across operations.
What it means for hiring
From a recruitment perspective, all of this points in the same direction.
Tools are getting smarter. Processes are getting faster. And expectations are getting sharper.
Whether it’s software pricing or hiring decisions, the focus is shifting to outcomes.
And stepping away for a few weeks, then coming back into all of this, it does give you a slightly different lens.
The same way places evolve while still holding onto what made them good in the first place, this space is doing something similar. The fundamentals are still there. But the way value gets defined and measured is changing.
It will be interesting to see how far that shift goes, and who follows HubSpot next.
– Garth
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