# Skills intelligence for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, September 2026

HR AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "skills intelligence platform" and as "skills taxonomy and inference tool", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://hr-ai-index.com/performance/skills-intelligence/smb/

**Standing:** Skills Base leads with 35% of first choices; verdict contested. 43 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Skills Base | 35% | 4% | 28 |
| 2 | MuchSkills | 7% | 7% | 14 |
| 3 | SkillPanel | 5% | 0% | 12 |
| 4 | agyleOS | 2% | 0% | 18 |
| 5 | AG5 | 2% | 8% | 12 |
| 6 | SkillsDB | 0% | 8% | 12 |
| 7 | iMocha | 0% | 17% | 12 |
| 8 | Pluralsight Skills | 0% | 20% | 10 |
| 9 | Gloat | 0% | 69% | 13 |
| 10 | Eightfold AI | 0% | 77% | 22 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: no first choice; alternatives Ashby, Docebo, Metaview, hireEZ
- GPT-5.4 mini: Cobrainer, SkillPanel; alternatives Codility
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: MuchSkills; alternatives AG5, SkillPanel, Skills Base, agyleOS
- Perplexity Sonar: Lessie AI; alternatives Loxo, SwipeGuide, agyleOS, edyoucated
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Skills Base; alternatives SkillsDB
- Mistral Small: MuchSkills, Skills Base; alternatives Cloud Assess, edyoucated
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Skills Base; alternatives AG5, Kahuna, SkillsDB, agyleOS
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Lattice; alternatives Airtable, BambooHR, Notion, Pluralsight Skills
- Kimi K2: Skills Base; alternatives SkillsDB, agyleOS
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Skills Base; alternatives Fuel50, Skills Inventory Manager, SkillsDB, iMocha
- MiniMax M2.5: Betterteam, Sprout; alternatives Assessly

## Sources the answers cite

61 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- firsthr.app: 34 answers, 41 citations
- cloudassess.com: 21 answers, 33 citations
- fuel50.com: 21 answers, 28 citations
- hrtechsaas.com: 21 answers, 23 citations
- f6s.com: 19 answers, 21 citations
- g2.com: 18 answers, 38 citations
- goskills.com: 13 answers, 24 citations
- peoplemanagingpeople.com: 12 answers, 14 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://firsthr.app/compare/training/skills-management-software (34 answers)
- https://hrtechsaas.com/blog/skills-intelligence-software (20 answers)
- https://cloudassess.com/blog/best-skills-intelligence-platforms (19 answers)
- https://docebo.com/learning-network/blog/skills-intelligence-platforms (12 answers)
- https://goskills.com/resources/best-lms-small-business (12 answers)
- https://fuel50.com/blog/skills-intelligence-platforms (11 answers)
- https://aihr.com/blog/skills-intelligence (9 answers)
- https://f6s.com/software/category/skills-intelligence (9 answers)
- https://peoplemanagingpeople.com/tools/best-skills-management-software (9 answers)
- https://clickup.com/blog/skills-management-software (8 answers)

## Warned against

- Eightfold AI: 17 of 22 labels negative. "Avoid platforms like Eightfold AI, Gloat, or Firefly Talent unless you have over $1M in annual HR spend." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, direct prompt)
- Gloat: 9 of 13 labels negative. "are out of the question. They are expensive, require heavy implementation" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt)
- Udemy Business: 5 of 8 labels negative. "Mass-market platforms (e.g., Udemy) offer thousands of courses but have limited quality control and wildly inconsistent instructor standards." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- Freelancer.com: 4 of 4 labels negative. "Platforms to Avoid or Be Highly Cautious With:
- Freelancer.com: ... Reviews call it "one of the worst" for hiring" (Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://hr-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://hr-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as HR AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, hr-ai-index.com.