As hiring shifts from fragmented workflows to outcome-driven systems, a new model is emerging where talent is not just identified but activated. Richard Stein, CEO of HSiQ, unpacks how Findem’s acquisition of Glider AI signals a broader reset toward agentic talent systems—where validated skills, intelligent agents, and execution capability converge to redefine how organizations hire, deploy, and scale talent.
“Companies do not buy recruiting technology because they want better workflows; they buy it because they need great hires.” So says Hariharan Kolam, CEO of Findem. In the view of many, somewhere along the way, the industry lost sight of that. Hiring became fragmented, optimized for process rather than outcomes, with context lost across disconnected steps.
That is now being reset.
Findem’s just-announced acquisition of Glider AI – a skills validation platform used by Intuit, FedEx and Emirates – points to where the market is moving: From sourcing candidates to validating them through skills assessments and AI interviews. The promise is an end-to-end AI platform that delivers hire-ready talent where skills are not just inferred, but confirmed.
This is the early shape of something bigger: agentic talent systems.
As AI evolves from tools that support work to systems that perform work, the question is no longer just “what skills do people have?” but rather “what outcomes can be executed and who knows how to direct them?” This is where agentic skills emerge.
“Too often,” says Mr. Kolam, “hiring depends on stitching together disconnected tools and processes, and critical context gets lost along the way.” The combination of Findem and Gilder AI, in his view, creates a single solution that produces more confident hiring decisions. “That’s the outcome AI should deliver,” he notes.
Intelligent Agents Within Workflows
“Hiring breaks down when the signals used to evaluate candidates lack verifiable data,” says Satish Kumar, CEO of Gilder AI. “We bring proof to hiring through job-ready skills and verified identity,” he notes.
Traditional job architectures are already breaking down. Roles today are more fluid, built around capabilities rather than fixed responsibilities. Agentic AI accelerates this shift further. It introduces a new category of capability: the ability to orchestrate, deploy, and govern intelligent agents within real workflows.
“Intelligence only matters when it drives real decisions – who to hire, how to develop, and where to deploy talent. Insight that doesn’t change outcomes isn’t intelligence, it’s just information.”
In this world, skills are no longer just something you possess. They are something you activate through systems that deliver outcomes.
Organizations are investing heavily in AI, productivity, and intelligence-led hiring models. Yet readiness remains low. Most leadership teams are still operating with static skills inventories rather than dynamic execution systems powered by agentic capability.
That gap is where the real divide is forming.
Execution is the Constraint, Not Technology
“We see many firms adopting the language of skills,” says Richard Stein, CEO of HSiQ – the talent intelligence advisory solutions unit of Hunt Scanlon. “Far fewer are building the infrastructure to operationalize them. They invest in AI, but fail to redesign decision rights, incentives, and leadership behaviors to actually deploy it at scale.”
Technology is not the constraint; execution is.
“Skills only matter if activated. Not identified. Not mapped. Not discussed. But activated. Agentic AI raises the stakes on all three.”
“Data without deployment is noise,” says Lori Hock, CEO of skills intelligence platform Opptly. In an agentic world, that becomes even more acute because deployment no longer simply means acting on insight. It means translating insight into autonomous or semi-autonomous execution at scale.
Table Stakes: Agentic AI
“Intelligence only matters when it drives real decisions – who to hire, how to develop, and where to deploy talent,” notes Scott A. Scanlon, CEO of Hunt Scanlon and co-founder of HSiQ. “In my view, insight that doesn’t change outcomes isn’t intelligence, it’s just information.”
“Skills only matter if activated,” he says. “Not identified. Not mapped. Not discussed. But activated. Agentic AI raises the stakes on all three.”
The next phase of talent strategy will not be defined by who understands skills, but by who can convert them into action through agents, workflows, and leadership systems that actually move work forward.
“The organizations that win will be those that compress the cycle from insight to orchestration to execution, embedding this capability into how they hire, develop, and lead,” said Mr. Stein.
In this emerging model, skills remain the foundation. Agentic capability becomes the multiplier. “But execution is the dividing line,” he notes.
And that leads to a harder truth: Most organizations don’t have a skills problem. They have an activation problem.
HSiQ Insights Lab was created to examine exactly this intersection – where data, technology, and human potential converge. As the workforce contracts, advantage will not come from doing more with less. It will come from seeing more of what already exists – and using it intelligently.
For more information on how HSiQ can help your business succeed, please contact us today.
Article By
Richard Stein
Richard Stein is CEO of HSIQ. He has a distinguished career supporting the C-suite of many of the world’s top corporations and financial services organizations in all aspects of talent acquisition, development and retention. Richard is one of the industry’s top advisors with experience across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific.
