Hacker News is much more AI-dense than the ATS feeds
Comparing AI-role density across the two main hiring data sources tracked by this site over the last 90 days. Data from Hacker News' monthly Who's Hiring threads and the public ATS feeds (Greenhouse, Ashby, Workable).
Per-source AI density
| Source | Total postings | AI postings | AI density |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hacker News (Who's Hiring) | 880 | 227 | 25.8% |
| ATS feeds (all configured sources) | 71,414 | 16,972 | 23.8% |
Top AI hirers on Hacker News (last 90 days)
Companies with the most AI-flagged postings in HN's monthly Who's Hiring threads. AI flag = comment text mentions a known AI keyword (LLM, ML, GPT, agents, embeddings, etc.). Ties broken alphabetically.
| Company | AI postings | Most recent |
|---|---|---|
| Coder | 3 | 2026-06-01 |
| Espresso AI | 3 | 2026-06-01 |
| Flow Traders | 3 | 2026-06-01 |
| Kinelo | 3 | 2026-06-01 |
| ML6 | 3 | 2026-06-01 |
| Back by Sequoia Capital, Peregrine is the operational AI platform powering decision making and operations SF / NYC / DC | 2 | 2026-06-01 |
| Blackshark AI | 2 | 2026-06-01 |
| Cardog | 2 | 2026-06-01 |
| Caribou | 2 | 2026-06-01 |
| Cloudflare | 2 | 2026-05-01 |
How to read this
HN's audience self-selects toward AI-curious startups, so the monthly Who's Hiring threads naturally over-represent AI roles. The ATS feeds (Greenhouse, Ashby, Workable) cover a much broader hiring market -- big enterprise, mid-market SaaS, industry-vertical companies -- where AI roles are still a minority.
Both numbers are correct. They measure different slices. HN reflects what early-stage tech is hiring for this month; ATS data reflects what the broader software industry is hiring for. The ratio between them is one of the cleanest available signals for whether AI hiring is still concentrated at the frontier or has broken out into the mainstream.
Today's ratio (1.08×) will move month over month as either source's mix shifts. A shrinking ratio means AI roles are spreading into the mainstream; a growing ratio means the frontier is pulling further away.