Fosway Group, Europe's #1 HR industry analyst, has named hackajob a Potential Leader in the 2026 Fosway 9-Grid™ for Talent Acquisition. It's our first year on the grid, and Fosway recognized us for a specialism it calls Agentic Talent Attraction. That specialism is Archer, our AI sourcing agent for passive, in-demand talent. Alongside the Potential Leader Zone placement, Fosway gave Archer an Excelling trajectory and a Lower Total Cost of Ownership rating.
Fosway has analyzed the European HR, talent, and learning market for 30 years. The Fosway 9-Grid™ for Talent Acquisition is its independent read on the vendors in that market, drawing on a research network of more than 250 enterprise organizations and scoring each across five dimensions: Performance, Potential, Market Presence, Total Cost of Ownership, and Trajectory.
The 2026 Fosway 9-Grid™ for Talent Acquisition. hackajob sits in the Potential Leader Zone, top left.
Agentic Talent Attraction is the practice of using an AI agent to actively attract and qualify the talent a company wants, instead of waiting for that talent to apply. It's a response to a problem every talent acquisition team now recognizes. Inbound application volume has never been higher, and the signal inside it has never been lower. AI-generated CVs and mass-apply tools have flooded the funnel, while the people teams actually want to interview, the passive and in-demand ones, were never in that funnel to begin with.
Archer is built for that gap. It's an AI sourcing agent, not an AI sourcing tool, and the difference is the whole point. A tool hands a recruiter a profile and a list of things to do next. An agent runs the full cycle. Your recruiter calibrates Archer in plain English on what good looks like for a role. Archer then finds, engages, and delivers qualified candidates into the ATS your team already uses, across every open role, every day.
Recruiters own the definition of quality. Archer executes reach. Interviews, offers, and hiring decisions stay exactly where they belong, with your team. Archer isn't there to replace recruiters. It does the sourcing work no team has the bandwidth to do at full coverage.
Most sourcing happens on the 10 to 20% of roles a sourcer has time to prioritize. Archer covers every open role, every day. It works across the full range of skilled professional hiring, from Java Developers to Finance Managers to Legal Counsel to Operations Managers, and more.
On our own numbers, here's how Archer performs in practice:
Two parts of the rating stand out for anyone weighing up cost. Fosway gave Archer an Excelling trajectory, its view of our direction of travel relative to the market. And it placed Archer in the Lower band for Total Cost of Ownership, which covers the full cost of buying, running, and operating the solution over time.
For teams under pressure to do more hiring on a flat or shrinking budget, that pairing of a sophisticated approach at a lower cost of ownership is the part of the rating that tends to land hardest.
If reaching passive, in-demand talent is the gap on your team, that's exactly what Archer is built to close. The best way to judge it is on your own open roles, so book a walkthrough when you want to see it in action. Prefer to read the independent take first? Fosway's full analysis is in the Fosway 9-Grid™ for Talent Acquisition.
What is the Fosway 9-Grid™ for Talent Acquisition?
The Fosway 9-Grid™ for Talent Acquisition is an independent analysis of the talent acquisition software market by Fosway Group, Europe's #1 HR industry analyst. It rates vendors across five dimensions: Performance, Potential, Market Presence, Total Cost of Ownership, and Trajectory. It draws on Fosway's research network of more than 250 enterprise organizations across EMEA.
What did hackajob achieve in the 2026 Fosway 9-Grid™ for Talent Acquisition?
hackajob was named a Potential Leader in the 2026 Fosway 9-Grid™ for Talent Acquisition, recognized for the specialism Fosway calls Agentic Talent Attraction. It was hackajob's first inclusion on the grid, with an Excelling trajectory and a Lower Total Cost of Ownership rating.
What is an AI sourcing agent?
An AI sourcing agent is an AI system that carries out sourcing work itself, finding and engaging candidates on its own, instead of just handing a recruiter a list of profiles to chase. That's the line between an agent and a sourcing tool: the agent takes action, the tool surfaces names. How far each agent goes varies. Some stop at outreach, others qualify candidates too. Archer is an AI sourcing agent for passive, in-demand talent that runs it the whole way: the recruiter sets what good looks like, and Archer finds, engages and qualifies the right people, then delivers them into your existing ATS.
What does the Potential Leader Zone mean on the Fosway 9-Grid™?
The Potential Leader Zone recognizes solutions Fosway sees as sophisticated and well-suited to complex, enterprise-scale hiring, backed by strong innovation. Fosway's model treats every Zone as valuable, with the right choice depending on an organization's size, budget, and needs rather than a single top-right position.
Does Archer replace recruiters?
No. Recruiters own the definition of quality and make every hiring decision. Archer executes reach. It does the sourcing and qualification work at a scale no team has the bandwidth for, then delivers qualified candidates into the existing ATS. Interviews, offers, and hires stay with the recruiter.