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

PEO providers

Asked as “PEO”, and as “professional employer organization”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 50 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, fourteen models each. Added to the October 2026 Edition on October 4, 2026; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b-run3), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories: how the two compare.
Standing · first-choice share
24%
Contested · ADP TotalSource 22%
24Justworks22ADP TotalSource14TriNet40others

24% 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.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrantSince September 2026
01Justworks24%8%38accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 24% now.
02ADP TotalSource22%15%46accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 22% now.
03TriNet14%16%44accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 14% now.
04Paychex PEO12%8%26accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 12% now.
05Rippling10%0%22accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 10% now.
06Insperity6%14%35accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 6% now.
07Paychex4%18%11accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 4% now.
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09Gusto0%30%10criticized challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now.
08Deel0%8%13accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now.

The floor is 13 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. Movement is read over the twelve models both editions asked; GPT-6 Luna, Muse Glimmer 30B joined this edition and are in the standing but not yet in the comparison. How the floor is measured

Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
All twenty-one head-to-head pages: the top seven products, each against each

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% negative40%
Key
01Justworks24%
02ADP TotalSource22%
03TriNet14%
04Paychex PEO12%
05Rippling10%
06Insperity6%
07Paychex4%
08Deel0%
09Gusto0%

What they warned about

Four of fourteen models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2 and GLM 4.7 FlashX 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.
ADP TotalSource
15%
7 of 46 labels negative · 6 of 14 models
“ADP TotalSource has a 3.1 Trustpilot score with numerous negative reviews about customer support, and many users claim they faced payroll accuracy issues” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
TriNet
16%
7 of 44 labels negative · 5 of 14 models · 1 hard negative
“**TriNet** has numerous negative reviews citing: Poor customer support and slow response times” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt
Insperity
14%
5 of 35 labels negative · 4 of 14 models · 1 hard negative
“Avoid or approach with extreme caution: Any PEO without ESAC accreditation or IRS CPEO certification” Kimi K2, negative prompt
Gusto
30%
3 of 10 labels negative · 3 of 14 models
“compare **Gusto** and **OnPay**-style HR/payroll platforms, but note that those are not always full PEOs” GPT-5.4 mini, budget prompt

What they cite

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

Sites the answers cite

78 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 993 links across 191 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. None of the 252 answers across every segment cited this index's own page for the category.

43 answers · 78 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Deel38 answers · 51 citations · 12 models
34 answers · 38 citations · 11 models
33 answers · 35 citations · 11 models
27 answers · 31 citations · 10 models
vendor site · G224 answers · 24 citations · 12 models
23 answers · 32 citations · 12 models
vendor site · RemotePeople20 answers · 21 citations · 9 models
vendor site · ADP17 answers · 23 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Guideflow17 answers · 17 citations · 8 models
vendor site · FirstHR16 answers · 18 citations · 10 models
16 answers · 17 citations · 11 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.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best peo”, “peo”, “peos”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 days
Justworks justworks.com24%28260,500452236,868$2,424120
ADP parent site
ADP TotalSource 22%
22%1462,740,00023,897
Paychex paychex.com
Paychex PEO 12%, Paychex 4%, Paychex PEO/Oasis 0%
16%92550,0004,7772,394,396 company68
TriNet trinet.com14%19074,000909232,419$53330
Rippling rippling.com10%1260301,00017,886712,399$42,013115
Insperity insperity.com6%9890,5001,172134,574$17,835120
G&A Partners2%538
CoAdvantage2%27,100223
Papaya papayaglobal.com
Papaya Global 2%
2%156246,00031,430189,744 company$8,30911
EORHQ's recommended provider2%

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 21 sites; 2 of them are among the sites the models cited here (adp.com, deel.com). The first result for “best peo” is trustradius.com.

How 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.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best PEO for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which professional employer organization would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top PEOs and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best PEO for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a PEO. What should we look at?”Negative“Which PEOs should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceADP TotalSourceChanged
Three alternativesInsperity, Rippling, TriNet
no first choiceagainst: InsperityJustworks
Three alternativesBambee, Native Teams, Papaya Global
no first choiceagainst: ADP TotalSource, Insperity, Paychex
GPT-5.4 miniADP TotalSource
Two alternativesInsperity, TriNet
TriNetChanged
Two alternativesG&A Partners, Insperity
no first choice
Five alternativesADP TotalSource, Insperity, Justworks, Paychex PEO, TriNet
Justworks
Two alternativesADP TotalSource, Paychex
against: Gusto, OnPay
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashRippling
Three alternativesADP TotalSource, Insperity, TriNet
RipplingHeld
Three alternativesADP TotalSource, Insperity, TriNet
ADP TotalSource
Six alternativesDeel, Insperity, Justworks, Oyster, Rippling, TriNet
Justworks
Two alternativesGusto, Rippling
against: Paychex PEO
Justworks, Rippling
One alternativeInsperity
against: ADP TotalSource, CoAdvantage
against: Bison PEO, Complete Payroll Solutions
Perplexity SonarInsperity, Paychex
Three alternativesADP TotalSource, Deel, Rippling
against: Justworks
ADP TotalSource, TriNetChanged
Two alternativesDeel, Paychex PEO
no first choicePaychexno first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastInsperity
Four alternativesADP TotalSource, Justworks, Paychex PEO, TriNet
Paychex PEO, TriNetChanged
One alternativeADP TotalSource
ADP TotalSource
Four alternativesInsperity, Justworks, Paychex, TriNet
against: Deel
Justworks
Two alternativesDeel, Rippling
against: ADP TotalSource, Gusto, TriNet
no first choiceagainst: Insperity, National PEO, TriNet
Mistral SmallADP TotalSource, Paychex PEO
One alternativeDeel Hire
Paychex PEOChanged
Two alternativesADP TotalSource, TriNet
ADP TotalSource
Four alternativesG&A Partners, Justworks, Paychex, TriNet
EORHQ's recommended provider, Justworks
One alternativeRemote People
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashADP TotalSource, Rippling
Three alternativesInsperity, Justworks, TriNet
InsperityChanged
One alternativeTriNet
Justworks
Four alternativesADP TotalSource, Insperity, Rippling, TriNet
Justworks
Two alternativesGusto, OnPay
no first choicenothing named
Llama 4 MaverickPaychex PEO
Two alternativesDeel, Guideflow
no first choiceChangedno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashCoAdvantage
Three alternativesDeel, Paychex PEO, TriNet
TriNetChanged
Two alternativesJustworks, Rippling
no first choiceTriNet
Four alternativesGusto, Justworks, QuickBooks Payroll, Rippling
no first choiceagainst: ADP TotalSource, Comcare Staffing, H.R. Smart Group, Justworks, Staffing Solutions LLC, TriNet
Kimi K2ADP TotalSource, TriNet
Three alternativesInsperity, Justworks, Paychex PEO/Oasis
JustworksChanged
Two alternativesADP TotalSource, Paychex PEO
against: TriNet
Rippling
Five alternativesADP TotalSource, Insperity, Justworks, Paychex PEO, TriNet
Justworks
Two alternativesDeel, Rippling
no first choiceagainst: ADP TotalSource, Insperity, Justworks, Paychex PEO, TriNet, Vensure
GLM 4.7 FlashXADP TotalSource
Five alternativesG&A Partners, Justworks, Paychex PEO, Rippling, TriNet
G&A Partners, TriNetChanged
Two alternativesInsperity, Justworks
ADP TotalSource, Justworks, TriNet
Two alternativesInsperity, Paychex PEO
Papaya Global, Rippling
One alternativeGusto
no first choicenothing named
MiniMax M2.5Paychex PEO
Two alternativesCoAdvantage, Deel Hire
Paychex PEOHeld
Three alternativesCoAdvantage, Justworks, TriNet
against: Insperity
no first choiceJustworks
Three alternativesADP TotalSource, Gusto, Paychex PEO
no first choiceagainst: ADP TotalSourceagainst: ADP TotalSource, Gusto, TriNet
GPT-6 LunaADP TotalSource
Two alternativesInsperity, TriNet
ADP TotalSourceHeld
Two alternativesInsperity, TriNet
no first choice
Six alternativesADP TotalSource, Insperity, Justworks, Paychex PEO, Rippling, TriNet
Justworksno first choiceagainst: Empower HR, LLC, Human Capital Concepts LLC
Muse Glimmer 30BADP TotalSource
Four alternativesEngage PEO, Insperity, Paychex PEO, TriNet
ADP TotalSourceHeld
Two alternativesPaychex PEO, TriNet
ADP TotalSource
Three alternativesInsperity, TriNet, Vensure Employer Solutions
Justworks
Three alternativesDeel PEO, Gusto, Paychex PEO
no first choiceagainst: Paychex, TriNet, XcelHR
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The 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
Eighty-four rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:22no04 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:23yes36 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:35yes1430 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:21yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:23yes2012 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:34yes811 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:20yes1733 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:28yes54 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:27yes628 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:39yes1323 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:41yes1829 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:42yes515 s
Direct recommendationGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 21:42yes416 s
Direct recommendationMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 21:21yes2325 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:25yes1610 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:30yes25 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:31yes1631 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:42yes204 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:30yes2111 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:32yes109 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:28yes2233 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:24yes54 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:33yes1031 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:33yes1824 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:40yes916 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:21yes1123 s
ParaphraseGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 21:26yes313 s
ParaphraseMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 21:38yes2226 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:33yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:18yes39 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:19yes1221 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:33yes204 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:36yes2013 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:27yes98 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:19yes2231 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:25yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:19yes520 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:24yes1932 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:25yes1928 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:21yes1226 s
ComparativeGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 21:34yes825 s
ComparativeMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 21:38yes1531 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:41yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:38yes44 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:26yes1624 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:33yes203 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:32yes2312 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:29yes828 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:20yes2024 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:28yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:24yes1040 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:32yes1424 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:31yes1416 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:23yes1324 s
Budget constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 21:34yes214 s
Budget constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 21:34yes2226 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:33yes910 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:19no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:39yes1026 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:37yes195 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:32yes1412 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:31no09 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:21yes2335 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:29yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:25yes1032 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:39yes2023 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:41yes1018 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:29yes517 s
Scale constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 21:30yes524 s
Scale constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 21:28yes1520 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:40yes1810 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:19yes56 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:20yes1527 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:27yes205 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:27yes2210 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:21yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:18no03 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:36yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:22no028 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:39yes2530 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:26no04 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:35yes1023 s
Negative framingGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 21:23yes220 s
Negative framingMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 21:30yes2228 s

Normalization in this category

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

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
ADP read as ADP TotalSource
Unresolved, counted raw
Bison PEO
Comcare Staffing (Legacy Divisions)
EORHQ's recommended provider
Forbes Advisor
H.R. Smart Group
National PEO
PEO Marketplace
Questco
Staffing Solutions LLC
Vensure Employer Solutions
Xenium
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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