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 › September 2026 Edition

Workforce management suites

Asked as “workforce management software”, and as “WFM platform for an hourly workforce”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 47 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
ADP Workforce Now
Contested
19% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 50 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

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.
Small businessWhen I Work18%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketADP Workforce Now19%ContestedThis pageEnterpriseUKG Pro42%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01ADP Workforce Now19%10%31accepted challenger
02UKG Ready15%6%16accepted challenger
03Homebase15%12%17accepted challenger
04Zoho People11%8%13accepted challenger
05Deputy6%3%31accepted challenger
06Rippling6%0%21accepted challenger
07When I Work6%4%24accepted challenger
08Connecteam6%7%14accepted challenger
09Workforce.com4%10%10accepted challenger
10Dayforce2%0%19accepted challenger
11BambooHR2%20%10accepted challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
16Verint Workforce Management0%50%10criticized challenger
15SAP SuccessFactors0%36%11criticized challenger
13UKG Pro0%35%23criticized challenger
14Workday0%25%12criticized challenger
12Paylocity0%0%11accepted 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.
Head to head
ADP Workforce Now vs UKG ReadyADP Workforce Now vs HomebaseUKG Ready vs Homebase

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
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative30%
Key
01ADP Workforce Now19%
02UKG Ready15%
03Homebase15%
04Zoho People11%
05Deputy6%
06Rippling6%
07When I Work6%
08Connecteam6%
09Workforce.com4%
10Dayforce2%
11BambooHR2%
12Paylocity0%
13UKG Pro0%
14Workday0%
15SAP SuccessFactors0%
16Verint Workforce Management0%

02What they warned about

Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, 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.
UKG Pro
35%
8 of 23 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Avoid enterprise platforms like UKG Pro or Workday until you're well into the hundreds of employees” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt
Verint Workforce Management
50%
5 of 10 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Avoid Verint/Alvaria unless you have a dedicated center of excellence.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Aspect WFM
67%
4 of 6 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Be Most Cautious With (Frequent Complaints on Complexity, Support, UI): Aspect WFM (Alvaria)... Steep learning curve” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Infor Workforce Management
100%
3 of 3 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“On G2, it holds a rating of **3.7/5.0** with only **14 reviews**... suggests the product may not be widely used or is struggling to retain customers” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative 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

66 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. 854 links across 193 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

peoplemanagingpeople.com
vendor site · People Managing People38 answers · 42 citations · 10 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow32 answers · 36 citations · 10 models
gartner.com
vendor site · Gartner21 answers · 40 citations · 10 models
softwareadvice.com
21 answers · 24 citations · 10 models
learn.g2.com
20 answers · 21 citations · 10 models
performancereviewssoftware.com
18 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com
17 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
forbes.com
16 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
rippling.com
vendor site · Rippling16 answers · 18 citations · 8 models
g2.com
15 answers · 38 citations · 7 models
worldmetrics.org
14 answers · 16 citations · 7 models
assembled.com
vendor site · Assembled13 answers · 29 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.

peoplemanagingpeople.com/tools/best-workforce-management-software
37 answers · 10 models
guideflow.com/blog/workforce-management-software
27 answers · 10 models
learn.g2.com/best-workforce-management-software
20 answers · 10 models
performancereviewssoftware.com/blog/best-workforce-management-software-comp…
18 answers · 9 models
softwareadvice.com/hr/workforce-management-software-comparison
18 answers · 9 models
forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-workforce-management-software
16 answers · 9 models
gartner.com/reviews/market/workforce-management-applications
15 answers · 8 models
rippling.com/blog/best-workforce-management-software
11 answers · 8 models
toolradar.com/guides/best-workforce-management-software
11 answers · 9 models
viewpointanalysis.com/post/workforce-management-software-options-2026
11 answers · 7 models

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 workforce management software for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which WFM platform for an hourly workforce would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top WFM suites and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best workforce management software for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a workforce management software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which WFM suites should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choice
Four alternativesADP Workforce Now, Deputy, Paycor, Synerion
Deputy, PaycorChanged
Two alternativesADP Workforce Now, UKG Ready
Dayforce, UKG Pro
Five alternativesADP WorkForce Suite, Paylocity, Rippling, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday Adaptive Planning
Homebase
Four alternativesConnecteam, Desklog, When I Work, Zoho People
no first choiceagainst: Verint Workforce Management
GPT-5.4 miniUKG Ready
Three alternativesDayforce, Oracle, Workday HCM
UKG ReadyHeld
One alternativeADP Workforce Now
against: Connecteam, Homebase, NICE, Verint Workforce ManagementUKG Pro Workforce Management / UKG Ready
Eight alternativesADP Workforce Now, Blue Yonder Workforce Management, Dayforce, Infor Workforce Management / Infor HCM, NICE Workforce Management, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, SAP SuccessFactors + SAP workforce tools, Workday
Homebase
Three alternativesConnecteam, When I Work, WorkforceHub
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashKantata
Ten alternativesADP Workforce Now, BambooHR, Float, Paycor, Paylocity, Productive.io, Rippling, Runn, Scoro, UKG Ready
RipplingChanged
Three alternativesConnecteam, Paycor, UKG Ready
against: UKG ProNICE, UKG Pro
Four alternativesDayforce, Genesys, Verint Workforce Management, Workday
Connecteam
Four alternativesClockify, Homebase, Sling, When I Work
no first choiceagainst: ADP Workforce Now + WFM, Aspect WFM, Assembled, Dialpad, Genesys, Infor Workforce Management, NICE Workforce Management, Solvvy, Soon, Talkdesk, UKG Pro Workforce Management, Verint Workforce Management
Perplexity SonarADP Workforce Now
Five alternativesDeputy, HiBob, Paylocity, UKG Pro, When I Work
ADP Workforce NowHeld
Two alternativesDeputy, Nowsta
no first choiceHomebase
Three alternativesJibble, When I Work, Zoho People
no first choiceagainst: Calabrio ONE, Genesys
Grok 4.1 FastADP Workforce Now
Two alternativesRippling, UKG Ready
UKG ReadyChanged
Three alternativesADP Workforce Now, Deputy, Workforce.com
Dayforce, UKG Pro/Ready
Two alternativesADP Workforce Management, Rippling
against: Infor Workforce Management, WorkForce SoftwareHomebase, Zoho People
Two alternativesConnecteam, When I Work
against: BambooHR, Deputyno first choiceagainst: Aspect WFM, UKG Pro Workforce Management, Workday Workforce Management, Workforce.com
Mistral SmallADP Workforce Now
Two alternativesDayforce, Paylocity
ADP Workforce Now, DeputyChanged
Two alternativesPaycor, UKG Ready
UKG Pro
Four alternativesDayforce, Rippling, WorkForce Software, Workforce.com
Homebase, When I Work
Two alternativesConnecteam, Zoho People
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashUKG Ready
Three alternativesADP Workforce Now, Deputy, Rippling
DeputyChanged
One alternativeUKG Ready
against: Homebase, When I Workno first choiceagainst: ADP Workforce Now, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday HCMConnecteam, Homebase
Three alternativesDeputy, When I Work, Zoho People
against: UKG Pro, Workdayno first choiceagainst: BambooHR, Workday, Zoho Peopleagainst: Aspect WFM, Calabrio ONE, Genesys Cloud WFM, NICE CXone, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro, Verint Workforce Management
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceWorkforce.comChanged
Three alternativesADP Workforce Now, Paycor, UKG Ready
Deputy
Four alternativesAssembled, Calabrio ONE, NICE CXone, Verint Workforce Management
Zoho People
Two alternativesDeputy, Rippling
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashADP Workforce Now
Four alternativesDayforce, Deputy, HiBob, UKG Pro
Rippling, When I WorkChanged
One alternativeDeputy
against: UKG ReadyDayforce, UKG Pro
Eight alternativesADP Workforce Now, BambooHR, Deel, Paylocity, QuickBooks Time, Remote, Rippling, Workday
Connecteam
Four alternativesBambooHR, Deputy, When I Work, Zoho People
ADP Workforce Now, Dayforce, UKG Ready
Six alternatives7shifts, Personio, Rippling, ServiceMax, When I Work, Zenefits
against: UKG Pro, Workday Dayforceagainst: Aspect WFM, Calabrio ONE, NICE CXone, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro, Verint Workforce Management, Zendesk WFM
Kimi K2ADP Workforce Now, BambooHR
Three alternativesDayforce, HiBob, UKG Pro / UKG Dimensions
Workforce.comChanged
Two alternativesADP Workforce Now, Connecteam
against: UKG ProDayforce, UKG Pro
Six alternativesADP Workforce Now, Genesys Workforce Management, NICE Workforce Management, SAP SuccessFactors, Verint Workforce Management, Workday
Homebase, Zoho People
Three alternativesDeputy, TimeTrex, When I Work
no first choiceagainst: ADP Workforce Now, UKG Pro
GLM 4.7 FlashXRippling
Four alternativesADP Workforce Now, Deputy, Paylocity, UKG Ready
UKG ReadyChanged
Six alternativesConnecteam, Deputy, Homebase, Paycor, Rippling, Workforce.com
no first choiceZoho People
Five alternativesConnecteam, Deputy, Homebase, Keka HR, When I Work
no first choiceagainst: ADP Workforce Now, Infor Workforce Management, Oracle, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro, Workday
MiniMax M2.5ADP Workforce Now
Three alternativesBambooHR, Paylocity, UKG Pro
Paycor, UKG ReadyChanged
Two alternativesADP Workforce Now, Paylocity
no first choiceWhen I Work, Zoho People
Two alternativesDeputy, Homebase
no first choicenothing named
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 19:36yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:52yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:59yes1454 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:28yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:47yes3918 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:17yes55 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:09yes1417 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:33yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:53yes522 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:28yes942 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:36yes2749 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:42yes815 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:19yes1510 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:51yes47 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:56yes923 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:28yes207 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:08yes3419 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:10yes78 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:55yes1824 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:35yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:18no030 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:41yes842 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:07yes1357 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:59yes823 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:37yes1510 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:06yes811 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 20:17yes2428 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:36yes2011 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:46yes3014 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:22yes98 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:47yes1921 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:34yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:49yes1035 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:49yes1335 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:12yes1022 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:13yes556 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:28yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:05yes46 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 20:14yes1725 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:26yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:40yes1413 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:26yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:05yes1414 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:26yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:07yes523 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:17yes1019 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:46yes10106 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:03yes526 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:57no08 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:22no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:04no039 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:26yes207 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:53yes1410 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:46no010 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 20:15yes1944 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:58yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:12yes1024 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:14yes1565 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:23yes1385 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:18yes515 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:07yes3510 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:00no04 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:38yes2323 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:42yes208 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:15yes4720 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:54yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:54yes2924 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:45yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:21yes21104 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:09yes2832 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:16yes27256 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:09yes1524 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
ADP Workforce Manager read as ADP Workforce Management
Blue Yonder read as Blue Yonder Workforce Management
Calabrio read as Calabrio ONE
Ceridian Dayforce read as Dayforce
Legion read as Legion WFM
NICE WFM (Workforce Management) read as NICE Workforce Management
NICE WFM (formerly IEX) read as NICE Workforce Management
Oracle Cloud HCM read as Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM
Oracle HCM Cloud read as Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM
QuickBooks read as QuickBooks Time
Verint read as Verint Workforce Management
Unresolved, counted raw
Desklog
Genesys Cloud CX
Genesys Cloud WFM (WEM)
Genesys Cloud Workforce Engagement (WEM)
Genesys Cloud Workforce Engagement (WEM) and Workforce Management
Genesys Workforce Management
Infor CloudSuite (HSM)
Infor Workforce Management / Infor HCM
Keka HR
Oracle Field Service
Retain
SAP SuccessFactors + SAP workforce tools
Solvvy
Sona
Talkdesk
Teleopti WFM
WhenToWork
Workday Dayforce
inSchedule
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in core hr and payroll

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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