HR AI Index
Index › Performance and talent management › September 2026 Edition

Succession planning

Asked as “succession planning software”, and as “talent review tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 52 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Lattice
Contested
31% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 50 categories →

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 businessPaycor27%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketLattice31%ContestedThis pageEnterpriseSAP SuccessFactors24%ContestedStanding →

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
01Lattice31%5%38endorsed leader
02Engagedly17%0%14accepted challenger
03Empxtrack8%0%10accepted challenger
04Teamflect6%0%10accepted challenger
05SuccessionNow4%0%16accepted challenger
06TalentGuard4%5%22accepted challenger
07SuccessionStack4%0%14accepted challenger
Show the six products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
13Workday0%40%20criticized challenger
12SAP SuccessFactors0%35%23criticized challenger
11Cornerstone OnDemand0%13%15accepted challenger
08PerformYard0%0%14accepted challenger
09Leapsome0%0%12accepted challenger
10ChartHop0%0%10accepted 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
Lattice vs EngagedlyLattice vs EmpxtrackEngagedly vs Empxtrack

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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Lattice31%
02Engagedly17%
03Empxtrack8%
04Teamflect6%
05SuccessionNow4%
06TalentGuard4%
07SuccessionStack4%
08PerformYard0%
09Leapsome0%
10ChartHop0%
11Cornerstone OnDemand0%
12SAP SuccessFactors0%
13Workday0%

02What they warned about

One of twelve 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, 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.
Workday
40%
8 of 20 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Cornerstone OnDemand: ... avoid purchasing them solely for succession” Gemini 3.5 Flash, scale prompt
SAP SuccessFactors
35%
8 of 23 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“you generally want to avoid dedicated enterprise-suite software (like SAP SuccessFactors or Oracle) which can cost tens of thousands of dollars a year” Qwen 3.7 Flash, budget prompt
Excel
100%
2 of 2 labels negative · 2 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Using Excel, Google Sheets, or static offline templates to track your organization's succession plan is a widespread but dangerous practice.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Paycom
67%
2 of 3 labels negative · 2 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Paycom | Not intuitive, steep learning curve, limited features, poor support.” Grok 4.1 Fast, 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

65 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. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 737 links across 156 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

talentguard.com
vendor site · TalentGuard35 answers · 42 citations · 10 models
firsthr.app
vendor site · FirstHR29 answers · 29 citations · 9 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow28 answers · 36 citations · 10 models
engagedly.com
vendor site · Engagedly26 answers · 28 citations · 10 models
gartner.com
vendor site · Gartner23 answers · 30 citations · 9 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com
vendor site · People Managing People23 answers · 23 citations · 8 models
successionstack.com
vendor site · SuccessionStack21 answers · 27 citations · 9 models
softwareadvice.com
19 answers · 22 citations · 7 models
worldmetrics.org
18 answers · 26 citations · 8 models
g2.com
16 answers · 34 citations · 7 models
skillpanel.com
vendor site · SkillPanel16 answers · 22 citations · 6 models
monday.com
vendor site · Monday.com16 answers · 18 citations · 9 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.

talentguard.com/blog/10-best-role-readiness-planning-software-for-2025
34 answers · 10 models
firsthr.app/compare/performance/succession-planning-software
28 answers · 9 models
engagedly.com/blog/best-succession-planning-softwares
24 answers · 10 models
gartner.com/reviews/market/succession-planning-technology
21 answers · 9 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com/tools/best-succession-planning-software
20 answers · 8 models
successionstack.com/best-succession-planning-software
20 answers · 9 models
guideflow.com/blog/succession-planning-software
18 answers · 7 models
monday.com/blog/project-management/succession-planning-software
16 answers · 9 models
softwareadvice.com/hr/succession-planning-comparison
16 answers · 7 models
workhuman.com/blog/succession-planning-software
12 answers · 6 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 succession planning software for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which talent review tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top succession planning tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best succession planning software for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a succession planning software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which succession planning tools should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Engagedly, Lattice
Four alternativesChartHop, ELMO Software, Fuel50, TalentGuard
BambooHRChanged
Two alternativesLattice, Paylocity
no first choice
One alternativePeoplebox
Empxtrack
Two alternativesPaycor, PerformYard
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniUKG Pro
Three alternativesCornerstone Succession, Quantum Workplace, SAP SuccessFactors HCM
LatticeChanged
Three alternativesLeapsome, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday
Oracle Talent Management / Talent Review and Succession Management, SAP SuccessFactors Succession & Development
Three alternativesBambooHR, ClearCompany, Lattice
StaffCircle
Three alternativesBambooHR, Lattice, UKG Ready
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashLattice
Five alternativesChartHop, OrgChart, PerformYard, SuccessionNow, Teamflect
against: SAP SuccessFactors, WorkdayLatticeHeld
Five alternativesConfirm, HiBob, Leapsome, Rippling, Teamflect
against: Workdayno first choice
Six alternativesCornerstone OnDemand, Plum, SAP SuccessFactors, SuccessionNow, TalentGuard, Teamflect
SuccessionNow
Four alternativesDeel HR, PerformYard, Teamflect, The 9-Box Grid Spreadsheet
against: Cornerstone OnDemand, SAP SuccessFactors, TalentGuardLattice
Five alternativesPerformYard, Plum, Qooper, TalentGuard, Teamflect
against: Cornerstone OnDemand, SAP SuccessFactors, Workdayagainst: Excel, Google Sheets
Perplexity SonarTalentGuard
One alternativeEngagedly
LatticeChanged
Four alternatives15Five, Betterworks, ThriveSparrow, UKG Pro
no first choicePaycor
One alternativeBambooHR
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastEngagedly
Three alternativesLattice, SuccessionNow, SuccessionStack
against: UKG ProLatticeChanged
Four alternatives15Five, BambooHR, Leapsome, Paylocity
SAP SuccessFactors
Four alternativesCornerstone OnDemand, Oracle HCM Cloud, UKG Pro/Ready, Workday
SuccessionNow
Four alternativesEmpxtrack, Lattice, PerformYard, Workzoom
against: Monday.com, Paycorno first choiceagainst: SAP SuccessFactors, Workdayagainst: Paycom, SAP SuccessFactors
Mistral SmallEngagedly, Lattice
Three alternativesSuccessionNow, SuccessionStack, TalentGuard
15Five, LatticeChanged
One alternativePerformYard
no first choiceSpreadsheets
Three alternativesLattice, Paycor, SuccessionNow
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashEngagedly, Lattice
Four alternativesLeapsome, Paylocity, SuccessionNow, SuccessionStack
against: Cornerstone, Dayforce, WorkdayLatticeChanged
Four alternatives15Five, Betterworks, Culture Amp, Leapsome
against: Workdayno first choice
Eight alternativesChartHop, Cornerstone OnDemand, Lattice, SAP SuccessFactors, SuccessionNow, SuccessionStack, TalentGuard, Workday
Teamflect
Three alternativesCreately, Monday.com, SuccessionNow
no first choicenothing named
Llama 4 MaverickEngagedly
Three alternativesLattice, SuccessionStack, UKG Pro Succession Planning
no first choiceChangedno first choicePaycor
Two alternativesGuideflow, TalentGuard
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashEngagedly
Four alternativesLattice, SuccessionStack, SuccessionWizard, TalentGuard
LatticeChanged
Two alternatives15Five, PerformYard
no first choiceBambooHR
Four alternativesAirtable, Lattice, Notion, OrgChartNow
against: Oracle, SAP SuccessFactorsDevisl, Divalent, Lumesse, TalentGuard
Three alternativesBambooHR, Justworks, Rippling
against: Oracle Fusion, SAP SuccessFactors, Workdayagainst: DISC, Enneagram, Excel, Myers-Briggs
Kimi K2SuccessionStack
Four alternativesClearCompany, Engagedly, Lattice, Paylocity
against: BambooHR, Oracle HCM Cloud, SAP SuccessFactors, WorkdayLatticeChanged
Two alternativesLeapsome, PerformYard
SAP SuccessFactors
Four alternativesLattice, SuccessionNow, SuccessionStack, Workday
Empxtrack, Teamflect
Two alternativesSIGMA Succession Planning Templates, SuccessionNow
against: Latticeno first choiceagainst: Paycom
GLM 4.7 FlashXDayforce, Engagedly, Lattice, SuccessionStack
Seven alternativesCornerstone OnDemand, Leapsome, SAP SuccessFactors, SuccessionNow, TalentGuard, UKG Pro Succession Planning, Workday HCM
LatticeChanged
Two alternatives15Five, Quantum Workplace
no first choice
Thirteen alternativesChartHop, Cornerstone OnDemand, Dayforce, Eightfold, Lattice, Leapsome, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, PeopleFluent, SAP SuccessFactors HCM, SuccessionNow, SuccessionStack, TalentGuard Succession Planning, Workday HCM
Empxtrack, Monday.com
Three alternativesSuccessionNow, SuccessionStack, Teamflect
against: Lattice, PaycorEngagedly
Five alternativesCornerstone OnDemand, Empxtrack, Lattice, Paycor, PerformYard
nothing named
MiniMax M2.5Engagedly
Three alternativesLattice, TalentGuard, UKG Pro
LatticeChanged
Three alternatives15Five, Betterworks, Culture Amp
no first choiceCreately, Empxtrack, Teamflect
Two alternativesLattice, monday work management
no first choice
Five alternativesEngagedly, Qooper, SuccessionHR, TalentGuard, UKG Pro
nothing 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 17:57yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:00yes38 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:52yes1546 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:25yes188 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:09yes3020 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:41yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:53yes1322 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:58yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:37yes523 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:53yes1654 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:51yes1249 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:25yes510 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:03yes98 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:45no04 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:33yes1424 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:53yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:14yes3015 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:05yes55 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:31yes1917 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:58yes54 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:17yes530 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:02yes1551 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:03yes2228 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:48yes1022 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:41yes1511 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:33yes27 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:27yes720 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:11yes208 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:38yes1814 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:58yes56 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:57yes1723 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:59yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:02yes829 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:31yes1140 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:24yes833 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:13yes513 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:14yes96 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:41yes36 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:48yes2020 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:44yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:07yes3621 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:10yes55 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 18:32yes2546 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:11yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:44no029 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:15yes1225 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:17yes1050 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:42yes1017 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:01no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:58no05 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:02yes1351 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:53yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:55yes1211 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:20no010 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:27yes1520 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:14yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:06no032 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:05yes823 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:50yes1298 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:01yes922 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:38yes169 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:43yes59 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:04yes1044 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:47yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:19yes3217 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:07yes54 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:30yes2524 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:20yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:00no032 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:02yes2429 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:48yes947 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:32yes519 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
None. Every name in this category resolved on its own.
Unresolved, counted raw
8fold
AIHR Succession Planning Tools & Templates
Arcoro
Devisl
ELMO Software
Oracle Talent Management / Talent Review and Succession Management
OrgChartNow
Peoplise
SAP SuccessFactors Succession and Development
SIGMA Succession Planning Templates
SIGMA Succession Templates
SuccessionWizard
The 9-Box Grid Spreadsheet
UKG Pro Succession & UKG Ready Succession
Workday Succession Planning & Position Management
Workday Talent Management / Succession
iMocha Succession Planning Tools
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in performance and talent management

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