7 Best AI Applicant Tracking Systems in 2025: Tested by HRs

The best AI applicant tracking systems make hiring easier by automating resume screening, interview scheduling, and candidate communications. In this article, I share hands-on insights from testing seven leading ATS platforms used by HR professionals in 2025.

What is an AI Applicant Tracking Software?

An AI-powered Applicant Tracking System (AI ATS) is a software solution that uses artificial intelligence to automate and enhance the recruitment process, streamlining tasks like resume screening, candidate ranking, and even some interview scheduling. Essentially, it's a regular ATS that incorporates AI capabilities to make hiring more efficient and effective.

An AI Applicant Tracking Software can identify key skills, experiences, and patterns that match job requirements, helping recruiters focus on the most promising candidates without manually sifting through hundreds of applications.

Besides resume screening, these systems can automate routine tasks like sending personalized follow-up emails, scheduling interviews based on availability, and providing data-driven insights on recruitment metrics. This reduces bias, speeds up the hiring cycle, and improves the overall candidate experience, making AI ATS an essential tool for modern HR teams.

AI Applicant Tracking Systems: TL;DR

1. Lindy: Best for flexible, customizable AI-powered hiring
2. Zappyhire: Best for enterprise-grade recruitment automation
3. Eightfold: Best for talent intelligence and workforce insights
4. hireEZ: Best for AI-powered candidate sourcing and engagement
5. Manatal: Best for AI-driven candidate scoring and job board posting
6. Zoho Recruit: Best for SMBs needing deep HR integrations
7. Greenhouse: Best for data-driven hiring and DEI analytics

7 Best AI Applicant Tracking Software in 2025

1. Lindy: Best for flexible, customizable AI-powered hiring

What does it do? Lindy automates recruitment tasks with flexible, AI-driven agents tailored to your hiring needs.

Who is it for? Ideal for hiring managers and entrepreneurs who want to build custom AI workflows that handle sourcing, interviewing, and outreach.

Lindy stands out by letting you create custom workflows in minutes without coding. For example, you can set up a Recruiting Screener agent to transcribe interviews, analyze candidate responses, and update your CRM automatically. Its "human-in-the-loop" approach means you stay in control, reviewing and guiding AI actions as needed.

You can customize workflows using conditions, multi-trigger events, and looping, perfect for managing large candidate pools or complex hiring steps. With ready-made templates, you can quickly start automating outreach, scheduling, and candidate data entry. 

Lindy’s AI is model-agnostic, so you can choose from various top AI engines depending on your needs. Let’s say you use GPT-4.1 for nuanced work like personalized candidate emails or complex interview questions. Switch to Gemini Flash 2.0 for fast, real-time tasks like phone calls and summarizing long documents. This lets you balance accuracy, speed, and cost efficiently.

Integrations with thousands of apps, including Slack, Gmail, and popular CRMs, make it easy to fit Lindy into your existing recruitment stack. Its multi-agent system can work like a team, automating multiple hiring tasks simultaneously. The platform supports over 50 languages, letting you communicate with candidates worldwide while storing data securely in English.

Whether on desktop or mobile, you can manage AI workflows on the go. Lindy offers a free plan with 400 monthly credits, making it easy to experiment and scale automation without upfront costs.

Pros

• Tweakable drag-and-drop workflows
• Lindy Academy for in-depth tutorials and 24/7 support
• SOC 2, HIPAA, and PIPEDA compliant with AES-256 encryption

Cons

• Custom workflows require setup time
• May need a learning curve for complex automations

Pricing

• Free plan: 400 credits/month, 400 tasks, 1M character knowledge base
• Pro plan ($49.99 per month): 5,000 credits, premium actions, basic phone features
• Business plan ($299.99 per month): 30,000 credits, premium phone, priority support
• Custom plan: tailored AI agent implementation and onboarding support

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2. Zappyhire: Best for enterprise-grade recruitment automation

What does it do? Zappyhire is an all-in-one recruitment platform built to automate every step of the hiring process for large enterprises, from job requisitions to onboarding.

Who is it for? Zappyhire is ideal for people who manage high-volume recruitment across distributed teams and need scalable, AI-powered automation.

Zappyhire covers the entire recruitment lifecycle with modular automation that adapts to your enterprise’s scale and complexity. You can create job postings, screen candidates, schedule interviews, and manage hiring decisions all in one place. 

The platform’s standout feature, ZappyVue, lets candidates record video interviews anytime. This means your team can review and collaborate asynchronously, which is helpful when schedules don’t align.

Resume screening is improved by an intelligent parser that ranks candidates instantly using contextual AI, plus it generates detailed personal traits reports. You also get gamified AI assessments that simulate real work scenarios, helping you evaluate candidates’ skills flexibly and accurately.

Candidate engagement stays strong, thanks to a multilingual recruiting chatbot that answers FAQs and auto-schedules interviews 24/7. For pre-onboarding, Zappyhire streamlines offer letters, auto-fills forms, and connects you with background verification vendors, all while proactively sharing company info to boost new hire engagement.

On the analytics side, you get predictive hiring insights drawn from over 16 candidate data points and historical trends. Even collaboration is easy with a drag-and-drop workflow builder and a centralized portal for your hiring team. 

And enterprise-grade security features like 128-bit encryption keep your data safe. Integrations with job boards, social media, and other tools round out its ecosystem, making it a good choice for enterprise recruitment.

Pros

• Automated video interviews with ZappyVue
• Personalized demo sessions with product experts
• Integrates with Zoom, Slack, WhatsApp, GSuite, Teams
• Extensive resources: eBooks, webinars, blog, and HR glossary

Cons

• May be complex for small businesses
• Advanced features may require onboarding time

Pricing

Zappyhire hasn’t disclosed its pricing publicly.

3. Eightfold: Best for talent intelligence and workforce insights

What does it do? Eightfold uses AI-powered talent intelligence to help you recruit smarter, retain employees, and grow workforce skills.

Who is it for? Best if you need deep workforce insights and AI-driven hiring at enterprise scale.

Eightfold’s AI platform creates a constantly evolving profile of your workforce by combining your employee data with real-time work insights. This “digital twin” lets you see skill gaps, career trajectories, and workforce trends instantly. 

Eightfold comes with agentic AI, which doesn’t just analyze data but actively recommends candidates, suggests upskilling opportunities, and supports managers with task coordination, all to accelerate talent growth and engagement.

The platform covers all major talent functions: intelligent hiring to surface best-fit candidates, talent management to encourage internal mobility, workforce exchange that connects people with jobs and training, and resource management for skills-based project staffing. 

As roles and business priorities shift, Eightfold’s recommendations update automatically to keep your strategies relevant.

Designed with fairness and compliance at its core, Eightfold uses specialized AI models to minimize bias and ensure equal opportunity. It supports over 155 countries and 24 languages, making it a strong choice for global enterprises. Its FedRAMP Moderate authorization guarantees top-level security compliance for sensitive environments.

Eightfold also provides educational resources like a talent intelligence library and self-guided tours, making it easier to onboard your team and maximize ROI.

Pros

• Easy and intuitive user interface improves recruiter efficiency
• Streamlines talent acquisition with smart AI-driven workflows
• Enhances sourcing strategy with AI-powered candidate recommendations

Cons

• Complexity requires some user onboarding
• Enterprise pricing may be high for smaller firms

Pricing

Eightfold hasn’t revealed its pricing on its official website. 

4. hireEZ: Best for AI-powered candidate sourcing and engagement

What does it do? hireEZ combines AI-powered sourcing, engagement, and workflow automation to streamline recruiting.

Who is it for? Ideal for automating tedious hiring tasks while keeping recruiters in control.

hireEZ is a powerful platform that integrates sourcing, candidate relationship management (CRM), applicant tracking (ATS), analytics, and internal mobility tools, all driven by advanced AI. 

For example, its AI Sourcing Hub scours multiple databases, including social media and job boards, to quickly surface top candidates matching your job criteria. This drastically cuts down the hours you’d spend manually searching for talent. 

Once candidates enter your funnel, the Applicant Match feature automatically screens and ranks resumes, helping you zero in on the best fits. Plus, Rediscovery digs through your existing ATS to find hidden gems you might have missed before, saving you from sourcing from scratch.

On the engagement side, hireEZ shines with AI-powered outreach tools. You can run personalized email campaigns at scale or send timely text messages that feel one-to-one. Scheduling interviews is easier, too, as AI coordinates availability and books slots automatically, reducing back-and-forth. 

The EZ Agent mode takes this further by running multi-step workflows that adapt as it learns from your hiring outcomes, improving candidate matches over time. Your talent pool stays well-organized with tagging, notes, and filters, while collaboration features let your team share candidate profiles and assign next steps smoothly. 

With built-in diversity and inclusion analytics, you get actionable insights to keep hiring fair and balanced. Overall, hireEZ frees recruiters from tedious tasks so they can focus on building relationships and making strategic hiring decisions.

Pros

• Unified platform combining sourcing, CRM, ATS, and mobility
• AI-driven automation boosts recruiting efficiency and scalability
• Useful freemium tools: Boolean Builder, Recruiting GPT, Job Generator

Cons

• Can be overwhelming for smaller teams
• Some features require setup and learning time

Pricing

You can fill out a form and contact hireEZ for a custom plan. 

5. Manatal: Best for AI-driven candidate scoring and job board posting

What does it do? Manatal uses AI to simplify sourcing, screening, and managing candidates while enhancing recruitment marketing.

Who is it for? Best for teams that need fast candidate scoring and extensive job board integrations.

Manatal is designed to transform recruiting for HR teams, agencies, and BPOs by leveraging AI at every stage of hiring. Its AI Engine scores candidates by analyzing job descriptions and matching profiles, speeding up screening so you can focus on interviewing top talent. For example, it automatically enriches candidate profiles by pulling data from 20+ social media sites like LinkedIn and GitHub, giving you a fuller picture beyond resumes.

When it comes to sourcing, Manatal integrates with over 2,500 free and premium job boards worldwide, including LinkedIn, Indeed, and Monster, letting you advertise broadly from one platform. You can also create a branded career page that’s easily embedded in your website with no coding, helping attract candidates with a professional, customizable portal.

The applicant tracking system supports customizable pipelines and a Kanban board view, so you can track candidates’ progress visually and adjust workflows per department or job. 

Collaboration features include shared candidate profiles, role-based permissions, and communication via integrated email and calendar tools. Plus, interviewers can submit scorecards using customizable forms, making evaluations consistent and easy to review.

Manatal also provides extensive reporting and analytics to track hiring KPIs and job board effectiveness. A mobile app lets recruiters stay productive on the go. With 24/5 support and strong data privacy standards (SOC II Type 2), Manatal combines usability, compliance, and powerful AI capabilities in one package.

Pros

• Access to 600+ million candidate profiles globally
• Lets you customize different multilingual career pages
• Post jobs on thousands of free and premium channels
• LinkedIn Chrome extension for efficient candidate sourcing

Cons

• Limited free plan features
• Some advanced tools require setup time

Pricing

• Professional plan ($19/user/month): Up to 15 jobs, 10,000 candidates, unlimited hiring managers
• Enterprise plan ($39/user/month): Unlimited jobs and candidates, workflow automation
• Enterprise Plus plan ($59/user/month): Everything in Enterprise plus user groups, single sign-on, API access, priority support
• Custom plan (on demand): Dedicated support, custom features, compliance reports

6. Zoho Recruit: Best for SMBs needing deep HR integrations

What does it do? Zoho Recruit offers a cloud-based ATS and CRM platform that streamlines hiring from sourcing to onboarding.

Who is it for? Best for those who need a flexible, easy-to-use system for recruitment agencies, HR teams, or staffing firms.

Zoho Recruit brings together applicant tracking and candidate relationship management in one cloud platform, accessible on any device, including Android and iOS. It supports diverse hiring needs, from small businesses posting a few jobs to staffing agencies managing complex workflows. 

For example, you can create highly customizable job postings with templates and share them instantly across 75+ job boards and social media channels, helping you reach a wide talent pool quickly.

The platform tracks every stage of the hiring pipeline, from screening resumes to scheduling interviews, sending offers, and onboarding new hires. Its AI assist feature helps craft optimized job descriptions, boosting your listing’s visibility.

A timeline feature logs candidate interactions for better transparency, while collaboration tools enable your team and hiring managers to share notes, score candidates, and communicate.

Automations handle repetitive tasks like resume parsing and interview scheduling, freeing your team to focus on candidate engagement. Staffing agencies can use the optional client portal to streamline communication with clients, while integrated e-sign technology simplifies paperwork.

Zoho Recruit’s advanced reporting helps you analyze time-to-hire, job performance, and diversity metrics, supporting smarter decisions and inclusive hiring. With 50+ integrations, including Slack, LinkedIn, and Zoho’s own ecosystem, it fits well within existing workflows.

A permanently free version lets you try basic features with limited job postings, while tiered paid plans scale with your recruiting needs. The platform balances power with simplicity, backed by positive user reviews and strong data privacy standards.

Pros

• CRM reduces candidate drop-off, boosts retention
• Supports virtual interviews and background checks
• Highly customizable for tailored recruitment workflows

Cons

• Free plan limits active job postings
• Advanced features may require onboarding support

Pricing

• Forever Free: 1 active job per recruiter, candidate management, interviews
• Standard ($25/user/month): Up to 100 active jobs, premium job boards
• Professional ($50/user/month): Workflow automation, advanced integrations
• Enterprise ($75/user/month): Full features, client portal, enhanced analytics

7. Greenhouse: Best for data-driven hiring and DEI analytics

What does it do? Greenhouse streamlines hiring with AI-powered tools focused on data insights and diversity.

Who is it for? Greenhouse is best for those who want a hiring platform centered on analytics and inclusive recruiting.

Greenhouse is a widely adopted recruitment platform that helps companies of all sizes build effective teams through data-driven hiring and inclusivity tools. For example, its real-time dashboards give you instant visibility into key metrics like time to hire and sourcing effectiveness, helping you identify bottlenecks early. 

Custom reports allow you to track team performance and hiring trends, making it easier to refine your recruitment strategy regularly.

The platform stands out with its focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). It offers anonymized applications and take-home tests to reduce unconscious bias, plus behavioral nudges that encourage interviewers to follow inclusive practices. 

Greenhouse even supports collecting candidate pronouns and name pronunciation to foster a respectful candidate experience from the start.

For advanced users, the “Expert” plan includes a Business Intelligence Connector for deeper data integration and tailored DEI reports that let you monitor demographic trends and assess the impact of your diversity efforts. 

You can also set recruitment goals and track progress using built-in tools, promoting transparency and accountability across teams.

By combining predictive hiring features like Offer Forecast with dedicated DEI analytics, Greenhouse empowers organizations to make fairer, smarter decisions, leading to more diverse, high-performing teams.

Pros

• Company DE&I statement
• Candidate name pronunciation
• Automated user management and stage transitions rules

Cons

• Expert plan required for full DEI features
• May be complex for smaller, less technical teams

Pricing

• Essential plan (custom pricing): Core ATS, goal tracking, DEI behavioral nudges
• Advanced plan (custom pricing): Adds automated interview scheduling, EEO reporting, and candidate surveys
• Expert plan (custom pricing): Offers advanced analytics with Business Intelligence Connector, DEI tools, and custom workflows

Which ATS has the Best AI Capabilities?

Lindy leads the way with truly customizable AI-powered recruiting workflows. Instead of one-size-fits-all, you build AI agents that fit your unique hiring needs, from candidate sourcing and screening to interviews and follow-ups. You can pick different AI models for different tasks, ensuring the right balance of speed, accuracy, and cost. 

Lindy integrates smoothly with your existing HR tools and supports over 50 languages, making global recruiting easier. Plus, its human-in-the-loop design means you stay in control throughout the process. You even get the flexibility to build workflows from scratch or choose from a range of templates that can be tweaked and customized.

If you want an ATS that evolves with your business and automates more than just the basics, Lindy is the clear choice. Start your free trial today and experience AI-driven recruiting made simple.

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How I Tested the Best ATS with AI Features

I tested multiple applicant tracking systems' AI capabilities across real-world recruiting workflows to find the best AI ATS solutions. I focused on features that truly transform hiring, like AI-powered candidate sourcing, automated screening, and interview scheduling, to identify which ATS AI tools deliver on efficiency and accuracy without overwhelming users.

1. AI candidate sourcing and discovery: I evaluated each AI ATS system’s ability to source candidates efficiently from diverse databases, job boards, social media, and internal talent pools. The key was how quickly and accurately the system surfaced qualified applicants using AI-driven algorithms. I also assessed rediscovery features, which unlock previously sourced candidates hidden in ATS databases, to maximize hiring potential and avoid duplicate efforts in the sourcing process.

2. Automated screening and ranking: This test focused on the AI-powered ATS’s resume parsing accuracy and candidate ranking capabilities. I checked how well the system understood contextual job requirements and matched candidates based on skills, experience, and cultural fit. Fairness was critical: the AI needed to minimize bias while helping recruiters focus on top talent efficiently. 

3. Interview scheduling and management: I assessed AI features automating interview scheduling, including syncing calendars, sending candidate notifications, and rescheduling. Some AI ATS platforms joined video calls autonomously and recorded interviews for review. The ease of reducing recruiter and candidate communication back-and-forth was a major factor, alongside user-friendly management of multiple interview stages and interviewer collaboration tools.

4. Candidate engagement automation: The evaluation included AI-driven outreach tools such as chatbots, personalized email campaigns, and automated follow-ups. Platforms featuring AI-powered ATS with Transformify-style engagement, automated bulk messaging, while preserving a personalized candidate experience. 

5. Reporting and analytics: I reviewed AI-powered reporting dashboards that provide insights into hiring funnel metrics, candidate pipeline health, and DEI compliance. The ability to generate customizable reports and predictive analytics was essential for making data-driven recruitment decisions. A strong AI-powered ATS empowers recruiters with actionable intelligence to continually optimize sourcing, reduce time-to-hire, and improve diversity outcomes.

6. Integration and workflow customization: Testing focused on the ATS AI system’s ability to connect with existing HR tech stacks, CRMs, calendars, job boards, and communication platforms. Flexibility to build and customize AI workflows, use multiple AI models, and automate complex hiring processes was critical. The best systems scale with growing recruitment needs and adapt to varied organizational structures.

Overall, I prioritized ATS AI tools that combined powerful automation with ease of use and transparency. The best AI applicant tracking system balances advanced capabilities with user control, helping teams hire smarter and faster in a competitive talent landscape.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an AI ATS, and how does it improve hiring? 

An AI ATS, or applicant tracking system powered by artificial intelligence, helps automate tasks like sourcing, screening, and scheduling candidates. It speeds up hiring by ranking applicants based on fit, reduces manual work, and improves candidate engagement. AI-powered ATS solutions allow recruiters to focus on important decisions while making the selection process more fair and accurate.

How does AI enhance candidate screening in ATS AI systems?

AI-powered ATS uses machine learning and natural language processing to analyze resumes and match them with job requirements. This results in better screening, ranks candidates by skills and experience, and reduces human bias. It saves time by filtering out unqualified applicants and highlighting top talent faster than traditional methods.

Can AI ATS integrate with existing HR tools?

Many AI ATS systems connect with CRMs, calendars, job boards, and communication platforms. This helps data flow easily between tools and makes hiring tasks simpler. When choosing the best AI ATS solutions, look for platforms that fit well with your current software to improve your hiring process.

What are the benefits of AI-powered candidate engagement?

AI-powered ATS platforms automate personalized outreach with chatbots, emails, and follow-ups. This keeps communication consistent while reaching many candidates, increasing response rates, and improving their experience. By handling routine messages automatically but keeping a human feel, applicant AI tools reduce recruiter workload and keep candidates interested throughout the hiring process.

How do AI-powered ATS tools support diversity and inclusion?

Many AI ATS tools include features to reduce bias, like anonymous applications and structured interviews, and provide diversity and inclusion analytics. These features help companies track their hiring diversity and encourage fairer recruitment. Checking the best AI applicant tracking system comparison can help find platforms focused on equal hiring.

What makes Lindy a standout AI ATS system?

Lindy lets you build custom AI agents that automate hiring tasks from sourcing to interviews and follow-ups. Its flexible design lets you choose the best AI engine for each task to save time and keep control. With many integrations and strong security, Lindy adapts to your recruiting needs and helps you hire smarter.