Time may fly when you’re having fun, but certainly not when you’re hiring for a tech role.

According to an April report by recruiting software company Ashby, the average technical hire needed 23.3 hours of collective interview time in Q1 2026. In comparison, the average business hire took only 12.2 hours of interview hours. Of the technical roles examined in the report (data, product management, engineering, design, and IT and security), data roles were the timeliest investment for recruiters, requiring an average of 24.9 interview hours per hire.

What’s the hold up? Mike Meyer, CIO at Salesloft, told IT Brew that unlike other industries where someone’s experience may speak for itself, tech managers want to see candidates demonstrate their skills firsthand. This, along with the need to ensure a candidate’s culture fit, can drag out the hiring process.

“You have more to vet in a technical role, because you’ve got to do all the same things you do for other roles…And then you’ve also got to make sure that they’ve got the technical ability as well,” Meyer said, adding that assessing candidates for AI expertise adds another layer of complexity to interviews.

There are still ways to move fast with desired candidates.—BM

Companies and countries increasingly want to call the shots when it comes to AI. The question is: Can they realistically do so?

Research firm IDC predicts 75% of G2000 companies (i.e., Forbes’ ranking of the top 2,000 global public companies) will “prioritize pursuits of AI sovereignty, using a blend of non-public hosting, open technologies, and regional partners to support mission-critical AI uses” by 2027.

What is AI sovereignty? Juan N. Pava, a research fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, told IT Brew the concept of AI sovereignty is not “very well-defined.” At a high level, though, it means companies and countries having some level of autonomy over AI tech stacks.

“It’s really about a country’s ability to choose and shape its dependencies on AI systems,” Pava said. “And this is inclusive of across the entire AI tech stack, so, compute talent, models, applications, etcetera, and ensuring that it’s aligned with strategic goals for a country or company.”

Why AI sovereignty is piquing interest.—BM

Teamwork makes the dream work, even for telecommunications titans that want to heighten their defenses in the evolving cybersecurity threat landscape.

Last month, eight telecommunications giants joined forces to form the Communications Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (C2 ISAC). Founding member companies include:

• AT&T
• T-Mobile
• Verizon
• Charter
• Comcast
• Cox
• Lumen Technologies
• Zayo

Long time in the making. Some may recall that the National Coordinating Center for Communications (a.k.a., the COMM-ISAC) has long served as a way for telecoms to communicate about threats. However, AT&T CISO Rich Baich told IT Brew that the organization—which operates under CISA—has a broad focus, driving a need for the new C2 ISAC that’s even more cybersecurity-focused.

The comms sector continues to face significant threats.—BM