“Where should we hire for this role?” is the question most workforce leaders Google, prompt into ChatGPT, or debate in Slack — usually without a confident answer.
With global hiring now standard and 2026 expansion plans accelerating across midmarket companies, the real bottleneck isn’t a lack of information; it’s a lack of a credible starting point. Generic AI returns averages. Internal spreadsheets are months stale. Consultants take weeks.
The companies moving fastest use a new category of tool: AI-powered workforce planning, which gives leaders a fast, directional read on where to hire, what it will cost, and how hard it will be — grounded in real employment data rather than scraped public sources.
Global hiring: it's not a recruiting question. It's a workforce planning question.
Not long ago, when companies wanted to hire, they’d start by looking for people in their local market, only expanding if they couldn’t find someone nearby. But that focus has changed. “Now, in the world where organizations can hire anywhere, it’s less about who I should hire and more about where I should hire,” explains Isaac Rahman, principal product manager, Safeguard Global.
This change couldn’t have come at a better time. With companies facing cost pressures in legacy markets, along with mergers and acquisitions and restructuring activities, they’re seeking to optimize costs. Looking globally allows business leaders to identify talent in lower-cost markets.
However, Rahman says that looking for the least expensive option isn’t always what’s best in the long term.
“Finding the best answer involves a broader set of factors: where the talent actually exists, what total employment cost looks like once taxes and regulations are factored in, and whether time zone alignment, compliance requirements, and business risk have been properly considered.”
With the increased complexity of where to expand, the need to get it right, and the risks of getting it wrong are only escalating. “The decisions companies make now can shape cost structure, compliance exposure, and talent strategy for years,” he adds.
Despite the elevated stakes and new pressures, many teams still make hiring decisions based on antiquated methods, such as spreadsheets, generic salary surveys, and instinct.
The search for better answers: why generic AI isn't enough
As organizations sought better information, workforce leaders started using ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity to answer their expansion questions. However, generic tools are trained on publicly available information, which is most likely outdated and inaccurate, Rahman says.
“Employers and clients want data grounded in reality: actual salaries, real tax burdens, genuine hiring difficulty, local benefits norms. That kind of insight comes from people with on-the-ground experience in those markets, not from a generic AI tool.”
Rahman adds that when businesses reach the practical-implementation stage, they find that a general AI tool, such as ChatGPT, offers information that doesn’t match reality. “You’ve hired someone on the ground and find it’s completely wrong. Now you have to redo your budgeting around new numbers and account for additional time lost.”
The questions workforce leaders need answered
Instead of leading with “whom should we hire,” Rahman suggests answering the “where should we hire” question by examining four areas:
- Strategic: Where are the company’s clients? Does it make sense to hire someone from a lower-cost country across the globe if they can’t contribute to the business or be part of the culture?
- Financial: Salary is only one metric. What is the true cost of employment, including taxes, mandatory benefits, insurance, and other expenses?
- Operational: How difficult is it to hire, manage, and terminate employees who work from specific countries?
- Risk: What compliance risks are companies taking when they enter new countries with new regulations? What are the ramifications of that risk, such as fines and reputational damage?
Answering the right questions
Rahman says that instead of using generic AI chatbots, companies need AI-powered workforce planning and optimization tools that deeply assess the global workforce, coupled with expert human guidance to enhance the data insights.
“Safeguard’s Intelligent Workforce platform helps companies assess and analyze their global workforce, considering 187 countries. It also draws on real, current salary data, not static,” Rahman adds. Then the information is enhanced by Safeguard’s in-country experts who understand the specific markets and their nuances firsthand.
This extra step is key to global hiring success, Rahman says. “We’re not just giving you data. We’re helping you think about your goals and then making those goals a reality.”
Looking for answers to the right workforce planning question? Try Safeguard Global’s Intelligent Workforce solution for free and determine with confidence where to hire for open roles.
