HR AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index Core HR and payroll Leave › Enterprise September 2026 Edition

Leave and absence management for enterprise buyers

Asked as “leave management software”, and as “PTO tracking tool”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 49 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Contested
37% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Workday37%17%53endorsed leader
02Rippling10%19%27accepted challenger
03UKG Pro8%12%32accepted challenger
04AbsenceSoft6%12%26accepted challenger
05SAP SuccessFactors2%15%20accepted challenger
06Dayforce2%22%18accepted challenger
07BambooHR2%45%31criticized challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09ADP Workforce Now0%29%17criticized challenger
08Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM0%13%15accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Workday37%
02Rippling10%
03UKG Pro8%
04AbsenceSoft6%
05SAP SuccessFactors2%
06Dayforce2%
07BambooHR2%
08Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM0%
09ADP Workforce Now0%

02What they warned about

Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
BambooHR
45%
14 of 31 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“SMB-Designed HR Suites (e.g., BambooHR, Factorial, Zoho People) ... Why avoid them” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Workday
17%
9 of 53 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Avoid for Predictable Costs - **Enterprise giants** (Workday...): **Custom quotes** only” Grok 4.1 Fast, budget prompt
ADP Workforce Now
29%
5 of 17 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Avoid for Predictable Costs ... often $100k+ setup + unpredictable per-user/module fees” Grok 4.1 Fast, budget prompt
Dayforce
22%
4 of 18 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Avoid for Predictable Costs ... **Custom quotes** only” Grok 4.1 Fast, budget prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

64 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 5 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 875 links across 217 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

34 answers · 34 citations · 10 models
28 answers · 29 citations · 9 models
vendor site · People Managing People24 answers · 28 citations · 10 models
21 answers · 25 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Guideflow21 answers · 25 citations · 8 models
20 answers · 30 citations · 10 models
19 answers · 19 citations · 9 models
18 answers · 23 citations · 8 models
vendor site · HONO18 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
17 answers · 36 citations · 7 models
vendor site · Gartner17 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
16 answers · 26 citations · 8 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best leave management software for an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which PTO tracking tool would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade leave management tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best leave management software for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Scale-constrained“We are a 5,000 person company with SSO, SOC 2 and procurement review requirements evaluating a leave management software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which leave management tools should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Workday
Two alternativesADP, SAP SuccessFactors
no first choiceChanged
Two alternativesSAP SuccessFactors, Workday
UKG Pro, Workday
Two alternativesAbsenceSoft, JJ Keller Leave Manager
against: BambooHR
Time Off Manager 365
Two alternativesAbsenceSoft, Workday
against: ADP Workforce Now, Dayforce, UKG Pro
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniWorkday
Two alternativesAbsenceSoft, SAP SuccessFactors Time Management / Time Off
UKG Pro, WorkdayChangedagainst: UKG ReadySAP SuccessFactors Time Management / SAP Absence and Leave Management by WorkForce Software, Workday
Four alternativesADP Time & Attendance / Leave modules, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, UKG Pro / UKG Dimensions / UKG Time Management, WorkForce Software
Stiira
One alternativeLeavePro
against: Cala HQ, Offflow, PurelyHR
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashAbsenceSoft, Rippling
Four alternativesCocoon, HiBob, Tilt, Workday
SAP SuccessFactors, WorkdayChanged
Three alternativesAbsenceSoft, Rippling, WorkForce Software
AbsenceSoft
Five alternativesADP Vantage / ADP Workforce Now, Cocoon, Indeavor, Tilt, Workday
Stiira
Five alternativesAbsenceSoft, Dayforce, Time Off Manager 365, UKG Pro, Workday
no first choiceagainst: AttendanceBot, BambooHR, BrightHR, Flamingo, Personio, Timetastic, Vacation Tracker, Zoho People
Perplexity SonarUKG Pro, Workday
Two alternativesAbsenceSoft, Rippling
against: BambooHR
UKG ProChanged
Three alternativesPaycom, Replicon, Workday
against: BambooHR
SAP SuccessFactors, Workday
Six alternativesADP Total Absence Management, AbsenceSoft, Dayforce, Indeavor, Rippling, UKG Pro
Rippling
Two alternativesADP Vantage HCM, HROne
against: BambooHR
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastWorkday
Three alternativesADP Workforce Now, Rippling, UKG Pro
WorkdayHeld
Three alternativesADP Workforce Now, Replicon, UKG Pro
against: BambooHR, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, Rippling, SAP SuccessFactors
UKG Pro
Five alternativesADP Workforce Now/Vantage HCM, Dayforce, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday
against: BambooHR, Replicon, Rippling
actiPLANS
Two alternativesLeaveBoard, Zoho People
against: ADP Workforce Now, BambooHR, Dayforce, Rippling, UKG Pro, Workday
AbsenceSoft, Workday
Two alternativesDeputy, Jellyfish
against: AbsenceSoft, BambooHR, Day Off, Gusto, JJ Keller Leave Manager, Leave Dates, LeaveBoard, Rippling, Time Off Manager 365, UKG Pro, Workday, actiPLANS
Mistral SmallWorkday
Three alternativesADP Workforce Now, BambooHR, UKG Pro
BambooHR, TimeOff.ManagementChanged
One alternativeConnecteam
UKG Pro
Five alternativesADP Workforce Now, Dayforce, Oracle, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday
Time Off Manager 365, Zoho People
Three alternativesAbsenceSoft, LeaveBoard, Rippling
no first choiceagainst: Workday
DeepSeek V4 FlashWorkday
Five alternativesAbsenceSoft, Cocoon, Dayforce, Deel, Rippling
WorkdayHeld
Two alternativesADP Workforce Now, UKG Pro
against: Calamari, Vacation Tracker
UKG Pro, Workday
Four alternativesADP Workforce Now / Vantage, Dayforce, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central
against: Calamari, LeaveBoard, Timetastic, Vacation Tracker
Deel, Rippling
Two alternativesBambooHR, Namely
against: SAP SuccessFactors, Timetastic, Workday
no first choiceagainst: ADP Workforce Now, AbsenceSoft, BambooHR, Calamari, Excel, Google Sheets, Gusto, LeaveBoard, Notion templates, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, PlanMyLeave, SAP SuccessFactors, Timetastic, UKG Ready, Vacation Tracker, Who’s Off, Workday
Llama 4 MaverickWorkdayDay OffChanged
Four alternativesBuddy Punch, Flamingo, Teamsense, Time Off Manager 365
no first choiceno first choiceCocoon
Four alternativesBSHOne HRMS, MangoApps, Tilt, greytHR
against: ADP Workforce Now, AbsenceSoft, Day Off, Dayforce, LeaveBoard, UKG Pro, Workday, actiPLANS
Qwen 3.7 FlashWorkday
Three alternativesOracle Fusion Cloud HCM, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro / Kronos
RipplingChanged
Four alternativesKeka, LeaveBoard, UKG Pro, Workday
Workday
Three alternativesOracle Fusion Cloud HCM, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro
Rippling
Three alternativesDeel, TimeOff.Management, Zoho People
no first choiceagainst: Excel, Google Sheets
Kimi K2SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, Workday
Six alternativesADP Vantage HCM, ADP Workforce Now, BambooHR, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, Paylocity, Rippling
DayforceChanged
Three alternativesAbsenceSoft, Rippling, Zalaris
no first choice
Four alternativesOracle Fusion Cloud HCM, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro, Workday
Leave Balance
Two alternativesTimetastic, actiPLANS
against: BambooHR, Dayforce, Personio/Factorial, Rippling, Workday
AbsenceSoft, LeaveLogic
Four alternativesOracle, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro, Workday
against: BambooHR, Paylocity
against: ADP, Workday
GLM 4.7 FlashXWorkday
Five alternativesBambooHR, Deel, Rippling, Zalaris, Zoho People
UKG Pro, WorkdayChanged
One alternativeDeputy
Workday
Twelve alternativesADP Workforce Now, AbsenceSoft, BambooHR, Deel, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, Personio, Replicon, Rippling, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro, Zalaris, ZenHR
Connecteam, Workday
Two alternativesRippling, UKG Ready
no first choiceagainst: BambooHR, Factorial, Timetastic, Vacation Tracker, Zoho People
MiniMax M2.5Workday
Five alternativesADP Workforce Now, BambooHR, Deel, Rippling, UKG Pro
RepliconChanged
Three alternativesOracle Fusion Cloud HCM, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday
UKG Pro
Four alternativesDayforce, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday
Stiira
Three alternativesAbsenceSoft, Dayforce, UKG Pro
no first choiceagainst: ADP Workforce Now, BambooHR, UKG Ready, Workday
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:06yes1810 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:18yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:08yes2256 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:06yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:58yes3218 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:22yes55 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:18yes911 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:34yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:49yes1545 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:42yes1540 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:44yes1464 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:40yes922 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:54no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:10yes26 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:34yes620 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:37yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:08yes4118 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:45yes55 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 18:20yes2459 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:47yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:36no032 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:37yes1020 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:57yes24120 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:03yes939 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:35yes1813 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:41yes512 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:52yes2149 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:20yes2010 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:06yes3016 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:48yes811 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:26yes1722 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:08yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:35yes2251 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:00yes1932 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:07yes22146 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:40yes1321 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:00yes1511 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:22yes35 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:22yes1833 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:58yes2010 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:59yes1915 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:38yes55 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:23yes2450 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:58yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:15yes954 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:05yes1227 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:17yes3070 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:15yes1656 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:32no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:00no09 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:56no017 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:54yes2010 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:45yes1311 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:42no09 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:52yes1022 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:47yes55 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:12no028 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:43yes2037 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:13yes1452 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:41no010 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:44yes189 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:25yes46 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:00yes1754 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:45yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:03yes2117 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:58yes97 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:34yes2440 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:54yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:01yes521 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:16yes2645 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:12yes2659 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:44yes1339 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Ceridian Dayforce read as Dayforce
Deel HR read as Deel
JJ Keller read as JJ Keller Leave Manager
Oracle Cloud HCM read as Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM
Oracle HCM read as Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM
Oracle HCM Cloud read as Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM
SAP read as SAP SuccessFactors
SAP SuccessFactors HCM read as SAP SuccessFactors
UKG Ready / UKG Pro read as UKG Ready
Workday HCM read as Workday
Workday Human Capital Management read as Workday
Workday Workforce Management read as Workday
Unresolved, counted raw
ADP Leave Management
ADP Time & Attendance / Leave modules
ADP Total Absence Management
ADP Vantage / ADP Workforce Now
ADP Workforce Now/Vantage HCM
BrightHR
Cala HQ
LeaveLogic
LeavePro
LeaveWizard
Offflow
SAP SuccessFactors Time Management / SAP Absence and Leave Management by WorkForce Software
SAP SuccessFactors Time Management / Time Off
UKG Pro / UKG Dimensions / UKG Time Management
Visma
Who’s Off
ZenHR
Zotrack
Zucchetti
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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