The Talent Studios Introduces Determined People, an Agentic AI-Enabled Technology Platform
October 3, 2025 – The Talent Studios has launched Determined People, an agentic, AI-powered cognitive engine. “As an executive search firm, over the last 36 months we’ve seen AI-enabled recruitment tools pitched to us by technology startups that are being led by engineers and entrepreneurs first and foremost,” said Jeremy Cohen, co-founder and CEO of The Talent Studios. “They have stumbled upon human capital as an opportunistic area, but lack the depth and experience that comes from being in the trenches over decades as search consultants or recruiters.”
“It’s evident in their resulting work product and tools – they don’t solve for some of the nuance and incrementality that only seasoned search and recruitment consultants, or our internal client HR & talent teams or investor/partner human capital leaders would know from owned experience. For AI products to be valuable, their creators need to fundamentally understand the context and logic of the industries they are serving.”
In assessing all available AI capabilities in the marketplace, he’s seen “examples of terrific data aggregation and summarization – but these AI recruitment startup leaders have made the claim that their tools are truly agentic, somewhat less convincingly so.”
Kelli Telling, co-founder of The Talent Studios has spent 20 years in executive search and recruitment; however, she began her career in data architecture and digital product development at MicroStrategy, GE and Deloitte. “Every AI tool we tested for executive search, recruitment, talent business intelligence, assessment or selection, produced narrowed consideration sets of candidates, but the underpinning philosophy, logic and process on which the LLM’s were trained was somewhat of a black box,” she said.
Determined People is a comprehensive solution for candidate identification, recruitment, assessment and selection, that was created with the purpose of establishing a kinetic and unfair advantage for both its search consultants and its clients. The platform has been developed by handpicked technology teams in Israel and North America.
Determined People, utilizing its mixed-model LLM’s and long context windows, has been trained on The Talent Studios’ validated analog search process that has been in practice for nearly two decades — producing successful long-term client outcomes. Projecting The Talent Studios’ collective learnings onto the AI playing field has increased the scale, speed, and affordability of hiring, and creates a decision space with autonomy and independence for clients.
“As search consultants first, we have been able to lead and orchestrate a team of product leaders, engineers, data scientists, UX designers and industrial/organizational psychologists to identify, then assess, the highest performing candidates in the world,” said Ms. Telling.
Conventional Wisdom
Determined People harnesses what Ms. Telling describes as what’s become the conventional wisdom, known business intelligence and judgment from “between the two ears” of decades-long search consultants and puts that domain superiority into the hands of early career recruiters, human capital leaders, investors and client organizations.
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“Much of what makes Determined People unique is its ability to distill client businesses into constituent elements and characteristics, then project those into the marketplace to instantly isolate and target organizations and candidates through observable efficacy attributes and KPIs,” said Ms. Telling. “After identification and engagement, Determined People assesses psycho-social signals in real-time during candidate interviews and case simulations.”
Both Mr. Cohen and Ms. Telling believe that Determined People doesn’t just compete in the war for talent, it changes the rules of engagement by transforming recruitment from an art into a precise, evidence-driven science that scales with AI. “With the rollout of Determined People beginning late 2025 through early 2026, The Talent Studios is delivering what the market has been missing: an array of dedicated agentic AI tools built by search consultants who’ve lived and won in the challenge environment, for clients and talent leaders who need to solve for it at scale,” they said.
The Talent Studios is a business-to-consumer focused retained executive search firm, working across consumer technology, digital commerce, four-wall commerce & service businesses, iconic brands, entertainment, media & content and consumer services. Its vertical focus includes: fashion & apparel, food & beverage, beauty & personal care, lifestyle brands, action sports, fitness/wellness, creator economy, media & content, digital and physical consumer services (healthcare, FinTech, education, two-sided marketplaces). The Talent Studios was founded by Mr. Cohen and Ms. Telling.
Investor partners and direct brand clients include: Apollo Management, Advent International, Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital, L Catterton, Apollo Global Management, Institutional Venture Partners, HIG Growth, Norwest Equity Partners, North Castle Partners, Red Bull, Mattel, Disney, Burton Snowboards, Restoration Hardware, The Princeton Review, Pure Barre, Raising Cane’s, Boardriders, Aston Martin, Fanatics, Soylent, SmartyPants Vitamins, Lulus.com, Restoration Hardware, Restore Hyper Wellness, Peet’s Coffee and Public Goods.
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Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
