HR AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Performance and talent management › Succession planning › Enterprise › September 2026 Edition

Succession planning for enterprise buyers

Asked as “succession planning software”, and as “talent review tool”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 50 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
SAP SuccessFactors
Contested
24% 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 businessPaycor27%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketLattice31%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseSAP SuccessFactors24%ContestedThis page

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
01SAP SuccessFactors24%12%43accepted challenger
02Workday14%11%27accepted challenger
03Workday HCM8%0%10accepted challenger
04TalentGuard6%11%27accepted challenger
05Cornerstone OnDemand4%5%20accepted challenger
06ChartHop2%11%18accepted challenger
07UKG Pro2%0%10accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
08PeopleFluent0%10%21accepted challenger
09Eightfold AI0%7%14accepted challenger
10Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM0%0%12accepted challenger
11Dayforce0%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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01SAP SuccessFactors24%
02Workday14%
03Workday HCM8%
04TalentGuard6%
05Cornerstone OnDemand4%
06ChartHop2%
07UKG Pro2%
08PeopleFluent0%
09Eightfold AI0%
10Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM0%
11Dayforce0%

02What they warned about

Zero of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, 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.
SAP SuccessFactors
12%
5 of 43 labels negative · 4 of 12 models
“HCM giants like SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle HCM, or Cornerstone require disciplined setup... Misconfigurations lead to inaccurate reporting” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
TalentGuard
11%
3 of 27 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“What to Avoid... some PeopleFluent or TalentGuard configurations): Without published rates, your total cost is highly dependent on negotiation” Kimi K2, budget prompt
Workday
11%
3 of 27 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“What to Avoid if Predictability Is Critical - **Workday**: Excellent succession tools, but typically $34–$42 per employee/month and quote-based” Kimi K2, budget prompt
Excel
100%
2 of 2 labels negative · 2 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“What to avoid: Relying on Excel, PowerPoint organizational charts, and paper-based templates to manage the talent pipeline.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, 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. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 863 links across 204 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

talentguard.com
vendor site · TalentGuard38 answers · 43 citations · 10 models
engagedly.com
vendor site · Engagedly35 answers · 36 citations · 10 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow33 answers · 37 citations · 9 models
gartner.com
vendor site · Gartner32 answers · 46 citations · 10 models
darwinbox.com
vendor site · Darwinbox25 answers · 26 citations · 10 models
successionstack.com
vendor site · SuccessionStack24 answers · 26 citations · 9 models
firsthr.app
vendor site · FirstHR23 answers · 23 citations · 9 models
skillpanel.com
vendor site · SkillPanel22 answers · 37 citations · 8 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com
vendor site · People Managing People19 answers · 20 citations · 9 models
worldmetrics.org
16 answers · 22 citations · 7 models
monday.com
vendor site · Monday.com16 answers · 16 citations · 8 models
pickmysoft.com
16 answers · 16 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
36 answers · 10 models
engagedly.com/blog/best-succession-planning-softwares
35 answers · 10 models
darwinbox.com/blog/8-best-succession-planning-software-enterprises
25 answers · 10 models
gartner.com/reviews/market/succession-planning-technology
25 answers · 10 models
firsthr.app/compare/performance/succession-planning-software
23 answers · 9 models
guideflow.com/blog/succession-planning-software
21 answers · 8 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com/tools/best-succession-planning-software
17 answers · 9 models
successionstack.com/best-succession-planning-software
17 answers · 9 models
monday.com/blog/project-management/succession-planning-software
16 answers · 8 models
pickmysoft.com/blog/best-succession-planning-software
16 answers · 9 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 an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which talent review tool would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade succession planning tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best succession planning 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 succession planning software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which succession planning tools should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5SAP SuccessFactors
Three alternativesChartHop, Eightfold, PeopleFluent
no first choiceChangedSAP SuccessFactors
Five alternativesChartHop, Cornerstone, PeopleFluent, UKG Pro, Workhuman
Cornerstone OnDemand
Two alternativesLattice, SuccessionHR
against: Eightfold AI, SAP SuccessFactors, Workdayno first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniWorkday
Three alternativesOracle HCM Cloud, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro
Workday Talent ManagementChanged
Two alternativesCornerstone, Eightfold
SAP SuccessFactors Succession & Development
Two alternativesOracle Fusion Cloud Talent Management, UKG Pro Succession
Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM Succession Planning
Two alternativesWorkday HCM, Workday Succession Planning
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashSAP SuccessFactors, Workday HCM
Three alternativesCornerstone OnDemand, PeopleFluent, TalentGuard
SAP SuccessFactors, Workday Human Capital ManagementChanged
Three alternativesCornerstone Galaxy, Culture Amp, Lattice
no first choice
Six alternativesCornerstone OnDemand, Eightfold AI, PeopleFluent, SAP SuccessFactors, TalentGuard, Workday HCM
SuccessionHR
Three alternativesSAP SuccessFactors, SuccessionStack, Workday
SAP SuccessFactors Succession & Development, Workday Succession and Development
Four alternativesCornerstone OnDemand, Nakisa, PeopleFluent, TalentGuard
against: Excel, PowerPoint
Perplexity SonarSAP SuccessFactors
Four alternativesDayforce, Eightfold AI, TalentGuard, Workday
Workday Human Capital ManagementChanged
Three alternativesBetterworks, Dayforce, SAP SuccessFactors HCM
SAP SuccessFactors, Workday
Seven alternativesCornerstone OnDemand, Dayforce, Eightfold, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, PeopleFluent, TalentGuard, UKG Pro
TalentGuard
Two alternativesSAP SuccessFactors, Workday
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastSAP SuccessFactors
Two alternativesOracle Fusion Cloud HCM, Workday HCM
Workday Human Capital ManagementChanged
Four alternativesDayforce, Oracle Fusion HCM, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro
SAP SuccessFactors
Four alternativesCornerstone OnDemand, Eightfold AI, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, Workday HCM
SAP SuccessFactors
Two alternativesOracle HCM Cloud, Workday
against: ChartHop, Deel EngageCornerstone OnDemand, MangoApps Succession Hub, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro
Two alternativesEngagedly, Workday
against: Cornerstone, Oracle HCM Cloud, PerformYard, SAP SuccessFactors, Spreadsheets, Standalone 9-Box Grid Tools or Templates
Mistral SmallTalentGuardWorkday Human Capital ManagementChanged
Two alternativesOracle Fusion HCM, SuccessFactors
no first choiceSAP SuccessFactors Succession & Development, Workday Succession
One alternativeOracle Fusion Cloud HCM
against: ChartHop, TalentGuardno first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashSAP SuccessFactors, Workday
Four alternativesEightfold AI, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, PeopleFluent, TalentGuard
Workday Talent & PerformanceChanged
Four alternativesCornerstone OnDemand, Dayforce, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, SAP SuccessFactors
Eightfold AI, SAP SuccessFactors
Six alternativesCornerstone OnDemand, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, Orgvue, PeopleFluent, TalentGuard, Workday
SuccessionHR
Two alternativesSuccessionStack, TalentGuard
against: Cornerstone OnDemand, SAP SuccessFactors, Workdayno first choiceagainst: BambooHR, Excel, Google Sheets, SAP SuccessFactors
Llama 4 MaverickTalentGuardno first choiceChangedno first choiceSAP SuccessFactors, Workday
Three alternativesChartHop, Cornerstone OnDemand, PeopleFluent
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 Flash10Eighty
Four alternativesChartHop, Eightfold AI, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday
Workday HCMChanged
Four alternativesChartHop, Lattice, Leapsome, SAP SuccessFactors
Eightfold AI, SAP SuccessFactors, TalentGuard
Three alternativesChartHop, Cornerstone OnDemand, Workday
Workday
Two alternativesCornerstone OnDemand, SAP SuccessFactors
no first choiceagainst: ServiceNow, SharePoint
Kimi K2SAP SuccessFactors Succession & Development, Workday Succession Planning
Three alternativesCornerstone OnDemand Succession Management, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM Succession Planning, UKG Pro Succession Planning
Workday HCMChanged
One alternativeSAP SuccessFactors
against: Culture Amp, Latticeno first choice
Seven alternativesCornerstone OnDemand, Eightfold AI, Oracle HCM Cloud, PeopleFluent, SAP SuccessFactors, TalentGuard, Workday HCM
ChartHop, Lattice
Two alternativesCornerstone OnDemand, SAP SuccessFactors
against: PeopleFluent, TalentGuard, WorkdaySAP SuccessFactors, Workday
Two alternativesCornerstone OnDemand, TalentGuard
nothing named
GLM 4.7 FlashXSAP SuccessFactors, Workday
Six alternativesCornerstone OnDemand, Darwinbox, Eightfold AI, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, PeopleFluent, TalentGuard
Workday HCMChanged
Three alternativesCornerstone SGL, Dayforce, SAP SuccessFactors HCM
no first choiceagainst: TaleoWorkday
Two alternativesChartHop, SAP SuccessFactors
no first choiceagainst: Excel Spreadsheet
MiniMax M2.5SAP SuccessFactors
Four alternativesEightfold AI, Oracle HCM Cloud, TalentGuard, Workday
Workday Human Capital ManagementChanged
Three alternativesHR Cloud Perform, Paylocity, SAP SuccessFactors
no first choiceSuccessionStack
Three alternativesSAP SuccessFactors, SuccessionHR, Workday
against: Cornerstone, PeopleFluent, TalentGuardno first choiceagainst: BambooHRagainst: SAP SuccessFactors
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 21:37yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:34yes45 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:10yes1227 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:08yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 17:57yes2917 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:57yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:10yes1431 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:30yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:00yes1228 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:03yes1234 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:31yes21168 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:38yes822 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:01no04 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:23yes34 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:51yes922 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:00yes206 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:49yes3418 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:25yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:09yes1818 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:45yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:19yes525 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:20yes1565 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:54yes1245 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:35yes518 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:51yes1312 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:40yes610 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:58yes1627 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:30yes2010 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 17:54yes1916 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:41yes57 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:28yes1829 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:06yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:36yes1742 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:17yes1735 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:37yes16103 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:57yes984 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:58yes1311 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:21yes45 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:24yes1329 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:26yes208 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:41yes3520 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:33yes57 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:50yes1836 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:34yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:54no035 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:37yes1958 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:49yes19105 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:46yes1371 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:30no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:52no011 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:45yes1929 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:38yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:16yes2216 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:27no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:19yes2738 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:01yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:01yes938 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:09yes2942 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:23yes2455 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:07yes941 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:38yes1611 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:41yes57 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:39yes920 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:21yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:14yes3119 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:35yes1111 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:15yes2435 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:43yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:21no030 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:35yes1933 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:54yes2596 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:03yes520 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
10Eighty
CXEverywhere
Cegid Talentsoft
Cornerstone OnDemand / Cornerstone SGL
Cornerstone OnDemand Succession Management
Cornerstone OnDemand – Succession
Cornerstone SGL
Darwinbox – Succession & Mobility
Engagedly – Talent Mobility
HR Cloud Perform
MangoApps Succession Hub
Oracle Fusion Cloud Talent Management
Oracle Succession Planning
PageUp Talent & Succession
Scion
Standalone 9-Box Grid Tools or Templates
Succession Hub by MangoApps
UKG Pro Succession
Workday Succession and Development
Workday Talent
Workday Talent & Performance
Workday Talent & Succession
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.
← Skills intelligenceTalent intelligence →