Why “Another ATS” Isn’t Enough Anymore—and What Comes Next!

et pitched new recruiting technology all the time. New ATSs, new “AI-powered” platforms, new promises to fix what’s broken in talent acquisition. So when someone first told me I needed to check out PerfectHire, another ATS, my reaction was pretty predictable: Here we go again. But then they added something that piqued my curiosity: "ATS+". That’s what pulled me into a conversation with Matt Schalsey, founder (or co-founder, depending on how you count it) of Perfect Hire, and the guest on this episode of HR Famous. And the deeper we went, the clearer it became this wasn’t a rip-and-replace ATS with a few shiny features slapped on top. This was a complete rethink of how recruiting technology should actually work. Matt’s background isn’t traditional HR tech; it’s sales enablement. And that matters. Sales figured out years ago what recruiting is still struggling with: high performers don’t win because they work harder on admin. They win because technology removes friction, so they can focus on what actually drives results. Conversations. Relationships. Decisions. That’s the core idea behind Perfect Hire. Instead of forcing recruiters into rigid workflows, Perfect Hire breaks the ATS down to its foundation and rebuilds it around recruiter enablement, not just tracking activity, but driving outcomes. Matt and his team talked to more than 300 TA leaders to understand why they hate their ATSs (and let’s be honest, almost everyone does). The answers weren’t shocking: too much admin, no visibility, no accountability, and tools that slow people down rather than speed them up. Where things get really interesting is how Perfect Hire uses AI. This isn’t “type the right prompt and hope for the best” AI. The platform is designed so that AI works quietly in the background, informing decisions, automating scheduling, generating interview questions, reducing bias, and keeping pipelines moving without recruiters having to babysit the system. We also talked about something the industry doesn’t discuss enough: accountability. Most ATSs give you dashboards, but they don’t really tell you who’s performing, where capacity is breaking down, or what happens when leadership suddenly increases hiring by 30%. Perfect Hire connects recruiting execution to forecasting, workforce planning, and even retention, so TA leaders can have real business conversations instead of crossing their fingers and hoping it all works out. And for hiring managers? Visibility finally makes sense. Instead of being angry because they don’t know what’s happening, they can actually see progress, bottlenecks, and next steps without needing recruiters to translate ATS chaos into English. This episode is a must-listen if: You’re tired of ATSs that track work instead of enabling it You believe recruiting should operate more like sales (because it is) You care about accountability, outcomes, and doing more with fewer resources If recruiting is truly critical to your business—and not just something you tolerate—this conversation will challenge how you think about talent technology. Watch or listen to the full episode of HR Famous and see why PerfectHire might be the future of recruiting.