Findem

Good recruiting decisions require good information. Getting to it should not take ten tabs and twenty minutes. Fia, the Findem Intelligent Assistant, was built around that idea. Ask what you want and get expert-level results in seconds, without needing to know exactly where to look or how to configure the search. The tool should work for the recruiter. Not the other way around.

"AI isn't ready for HR because HR data isn't ready for AI." That's how Hariharan Kolam, Findem's CEO, describes what most talent leaders are running into. The tools got faster, but the underlying data didn't get better. Most HR data captures what someone called themselves, not what they actually did. It misses how someone grew into a role, what they built under pressure, and where their real impact came from. Findem's AI is built on expert-labeled data that reflects the judgment of recruiters and leaders who know what success actually looks like. The signals driving every recommendation are grounded in growth, context, and impact. Better decisions start with better data. That's what Findem is built to deliver.

95% of AI projects fail to deliver real ROI. Ashwinder (Ash) Ahluwalia opened with that stat at UNLEASH — in a room full of AI vendors. He was not indicting the industry. He was drawing a line between AI that generates activity and AI that produces outcomes. That distinction is the whole point of the Intelligent Job Post. Job posts were never designed for quality. They were designed for views. Most AI in hiring has not changed that. It has just optimized the same broken top of funnel, faster. The Intelligent Job Post is built to change what a job post actually does. Instead of waiting for the right person to scroll past a listing, it actively sources, engages, and qualifies candidates using verified data. Every open role becomes something that works on your behalf. AI that generates activity is easy to build. AI that produces outcomes requires a different foundation.

AI that can't explain why it surfaced a candidate is harder to trust and harder to use responsibly. Hiring managers are unlikely to act on recommendations they can't understand or defend. And when the reasoning lives inside a black box, bias has nowhere to be identified and nothing to correct it. Explainability is about making the evidence visible — how someone has grown, what they've built, and where their impact came from — so every suggestion can be seen, questioned, and refined over time. That's what Findem is built to do. Our Labeling Engine transforms people data into verified Success Signals that make every recommendation traceable to something real. AI can inform hiring decisions. It can't replace the accountability that comes with making them.

Meltwater knew Mexico City was the right market. They just needed to prove it — and then hire there fast. The recruiting team needed to move fast without an established talent network or in-house market intelligence. Early on, they leaned on local agencies to build pipelines. To scale sustainably, they needed a different approach. Findem's Insight Reports gave Meltwater a real-time view of where the right talent lived, how companies were hiring, and what the market actually looked like. That intelligence didn't just validate Mexico City as the right move. It gave the team the confidence and the tools to act on it. As Erin Giles, Head of Talent Americas at Meltwater, put it: "The Insight Reports help us understand where the right talent actually lives and drive smarter, data-backed location strategy conversations with our hiring managers." When the data tells you where to go and the tools get you there, entering a new market stops feeling like a risk.

The best thing about building something you believe in is the people you get to build it with. Our marketing team came together last month to focus on what's ahead: the roadmap, mission, and the hard questions about how to keep building something that actually helps people make better talent decisions. And we made time for the kind of conversations that don't happen over Slack. We're proud of what this team is building and even more proud of how they build it together.

How can talent intelligence support stronger internal succession and workforce planning decisions? Join AESC Learning & Development for Talent Intelligence: Internal Data Curation and Succession, part of the AESC Powered by Findem Talent Intelligence Certification. Register now: https://lnkd.in/ekU_YRzz This session will explore how organizations can better curate and apply internal talent data to support optimal talent decisions, strengthen succession planning, and inform workforce strategy. The webinar will conclude with a collaborative roundtable discussion facilitated by: Tina Paikeday, Responsible AI Senior Advisor, Findem Hariharan Kolam, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Findem June 3, 2026 | 10:00–11:00 AM PT | 1:00–2:00 PM ET | 6:00–7:00 PM BST Registration is complimentary for all AESC Members. #AESCLearnDev #TalentIntelligence #SuccessionPlanning #WorkforcePlanning #ExecutiveSearch #Findem

More AI won't fix a broken foundation. This month's Shortlist is about building the right one. This month, we cover the launch of Findem Studio, our new MCP integration with ServiceNow, and what it actually takes to turn AI into better hiring outcomes. Check out the latest edition below.

We launched Findem Studio last week. This week, it's powering ServiceNow AI. Through MCPs, Findem Studio now distributes the Talent Graph — 1.6 trillion expert-labelled data points across people, companies, and time — directly into ServiceNow's autonomous HR platform. Trusted talent intelligence available wherever decisions happen, not locked inside another application. What this unlocks: → Autonomous HR sourcing & recruiting agents that reason over real-time talent market data → Expert-level talent decisioning at machine speed, inside the workflows HRBPs and managers already live in → A clear path to fast customer outcomes — starting with high-volume roles where the leverage is biggest This is exactly what we built Findem Studio for. Big thanks to John Phillips and the ServiceNow team. Much more to share soon. https://lnkd.in/ecSaVmMf #Knowledge2026 #Knowledge26

Findem has been selected to receive the 2026 AESC Vanguard Award. We are honored to be recognized by the Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants (AESC) — the global association setting the gold standard for executive search and leadership consulting — at the AESC Global Summit on Leadership in New York City. The Vanguard Award honors trailblazing organizations that challenge conventions, push boundaries, and leverage their influence to drive change through leadership and executive talent. That's a standard we hold ourselves to. "The easy answer that AI replaces judgment is wrong. The harder, truer answer is that AI amplifies the thing that this profession has always been great at — that is seeing people fully." - Tina Paikeday, Responsible AI Senior Advisor at Findem Challenging convention is exactly what we set out to do. A resume has never fully captured a leader. We built Findem to change that — so the people who find and place the world's leaders can do it with more signal, less noise, and better outcomes. Findem is proud to join Hearst as only the second recipient of this award. We don't take that lightly. We're proud of the progress we've made, the impact our customers are achieving, and the passion our team brings to this work every day. Thank you to everyone who continues to support us and our mission.