We work upstream of the hire, before the cost is committed.
Founders, leadership teams and PE-backed businesses come to us when an appointment carries real risk. The work begins with the mandate: what it must deliver in its first year, what it should not own, and whether a hire is the right answer at all.
Retained mandates only, from senior leadership through to first data and AI appointments at board level.
For market research, insight, ResTech and consultancy businesses, AI is no longer a side project. It is reshaping delivery, client expectations, data quality, workflow, pricing and commercial strategy. Talent Pools AI helps leadership teams define the capability they actually need before they hire, so AI-era appointments are built around the business problem, not just another shiny job title.
The most important appointments are rarely the easiest to make. In specialist markets, a strong CV is only part of the picture. You need leaders with the judgement, sector understanding and commercial credibility to deliver against the wider business agenda.
Talent Pools AI combines deep market knowledge with rigorous executive search to identify and assess leadership talent across Insights, ResTech and Consulting. We work closely with founders, boards and leadership teams to define the brief, understand the market and find the people capable of making a meaningful impact.
Our work spans established leadership roles and newer mandates emerging as AI changes how knowledge businesses operate, from Heads of Insight and Research to AI, data, product, strategy, innovation and commercial leadership.
Retained mandates only.
Every search is senior-led, built around your specific market and focused on the leadership outcome the appointment needs to deliver.
Founder of Talent Pools AI
Joanna founded Talent Pools AI to help ambitious organisations make better hiring and workforce decisions in a rapidly changing market. Too often, leaders are forced to act with incomplete information or default to familiar profiles. She wanted to change that.
Her specialist sector is the knowledge economy, particularly the world of insights, consultancy, and data-driven firms. Through flexible advisory, search, and talent intelligence engagements, she works with founders and leadership teams in this sector to reduce risk, access non-obvious capability, and ensure each hire supports long-term growth and competitive advantage.
Today, her work sits at the intersection of executive search, AI-era workforce strategy and leadership advisory. She helps organisations understand whether they need to hire for AI, govern AI more effectively, or redesign roles around AI-enabled change. That perspective informs every search engagement, whether she is appointing a CAIO, CDAO, Head of Insights, Chief Research Officer or transformation leader.
In 2023, I attended a Generative AI conference in San Francisco, and it transformed my perspective on the future of market research. Since then, I’ve been focused on how AI can amplify, not replace, rigorous research thinking. Working with AI-powered insights platforms as they scaled confirmed my belief that increasingly agentic tools unlock new opportunities, while rendering human judgement and human-in-the-loop decision making more important than ever.
I founded Talent Pools AI after identifying a clear gap in the market. Digital and technology recruiters often miss the nuance and rigour of the insights and knowledge economy, while traditional search practitioners struggle with the pace, ambition, and vision required to attract talent organisations navigating AI-driven transformation. Talent Pools AI bridges that gap by combining executive search expertise with AI fluency and a passion for innovation, empowering the ambitious firms to build high-performing, future-focused leadership teams. 
Cambri
Loops
Boxclever
Sparkler, now part of PA Consulting
Horizon Strategy
Three Hands
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