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 › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Succession planning for small business buyers

Asked as “succession planning software”, and as “talent review tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 48 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Paycor
Contested
27% 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%ContestedThis pageMid-marketLattice31%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseSAP 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 small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Paycor27%0%35accepted challenger
02BambooHR25%0%31accepted challenger
03Lattice10%27%37criticized challenger
04SuccessionNow6%13%30accepted challenger
05PerformYard6%0%24accepted challenger
06Teamflect4%0%20accepted challenger
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
08Workday0%100%11criticized challenger
09SAP SuccessFactors0%92%13criticized challenger
07Leapsome0%55%11criticized 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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Paycor27%
02BambooHR25%
03Lattice10%
04SuccessionNow6%
05PerformYard6%
06Teamflect4%
07Leapsome0%
08Workday0%
09SAP SuccessFactors0%

02What they warned about

Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, 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.
Lattice
27%
10 of 37 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Many platforms (e.g., Lattice, Leapsome, SuccessionNow) have **high minimum annual fees** and steep learning curves that a small team cannot justify.” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
SAP SuccessFactors
92%
12 of 13 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 9 hard negative
“Enterprise platforms like Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, and Eightfold AI use custom pricing that can be significantly higher ... making them overkill for small businesses” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
Workday
100%
11 of 11 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 9 hard negative
“Enterprise platforms like Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, and Eightfold AI use custom pricing that can be significantly higher ... making them overkill for small businesses” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
Leapsome
55%
6 of 11 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Many platforms (e.g., Lattice, Leapsome, SuccessionNow) have **high minimum annual fees** and steep learning curves” 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

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. 778 links across 158 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

firsthr.app
vendor site · FirstHR41 answers · 41 citations · 10 models
talentguard.com
vendor site · TalentGuard40 answers · 43 citations · 10 models
successionstack.com
vendor site · SuccessionStack32 answers · 37 citations · 9 models
monday.com
vendor site · Monday.com27 answers · 31 citations · 10 models
g2.com
24 answers · 40 citations · 11 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com
vendor site · People Managing People22 answers · 27 citations · 8 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow21 answers · 23 citations · 11 models
gartner.com
vendor site · Gartner20 answers · 20 citations · 7 models
softwareadvice.com
18 answers · 22 citations · 7 models
aihr.com
vendor site · AIHR18 answers · 18 citations · 10 models
workhuman.com
vendor site · Workhuman18 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
capterra.com
17 answers · 27 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.

firsthr.app/compare/performance/succession-planning-software
41 answers · 10 models
talentguard.com/blog/10-best-role-readiness-planning-software-for-2025
40 answers · 10 models
successionstack.com/best-succession-planning-software
32 answers · 9 models
monday.com/blog/project-management/succession-planning-software
27 answers · 10 models
aihr.com/blog/succession-planning-tools
18 answers · 10 models
gartner.com/reviews/market/succession-planning-technology
18 answers · 7 models
workhuman.com/blog/succession-planning-software
18 answers · 9 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com/tools/best-succession-planning-software
17 answers · 8 models
softwareadvice.com/hr/succession-planning-comparison
16 answers · 7 models
theorgchart.com/resources/succession-planning-tools
14 answers · 8 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 small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which talent review tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top succession planning tools for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best succession planning software for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a succession planning software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which succession planning tools should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Paycor
Three alternativesChartHop, PeopleFluent, PerformYard
BambooHRChanged
Two alternativesTalentHR, TestGorilla
Teamflect
Six alternativesBitrix24, Paycor, Peoplebox, PerformYard, TalentGuard, Zoho People
Paycor
Three alternativesPeoplebox, PerformYard, SuccessionNow
no first choiceagainst: Eightfold AI, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday
GPT-5.4 miniBambooHR
Two alternativesLattice, Plum
against: PaycomBambooHRHeld
Three alternativesPerformYard, Small Improvements, TalentHR
SuccessionHR
Five alternativesPlum, SAP SuccessFactors HCM, Talent Management Suite, Talent Successor, UKG Pro
against: PaycomStaffCircle
One alternativeLattice
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashTeamflect
Four alternativesChartHop, Deel HR, PerformYard, SuccessionNow
against: SAP SuccessFactors, Workday15FiveChanged
Two alternativesPerformYard, Teamflect
against: LatticeSuccessionNow, Teamflect
Two alternativesPerformYard, Teammeter
against: Cornerstone OnDemand, SAP SuccessFactorsSuccessionNow, Teamflect
Five alternatives9-Box Grid Template in Excel or Google Sheets, BambooHR, Deel, Paycor, PerformYard
against: Cornerstone, SAP SuccessFactorsSuccessionHR
Ten alternativesBambooHR, Built, Deel, Gusto, Notion, Paycor, PerformYard, Rippling, SuccessionNow, Teamflect
against: Cornerstone OnDemand, SAP SuccessFactors, Workdayagainst: Oracle Cloud HCM, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday
Perplexity SonarBambooHR, PaycorBambooHRChanged
Two alternativesPerformYard, Small Improvements
Teamflect
Five alternativesBambooHR, Paycor, PerformYard, SuccessionNow, Zoho People
against: Lattice, monday work managementPaycor
Two alternativesBambooHR, Successionly
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastPaycor
Three alternativesBambooHR, Succession Wizard, SuccessionNow
BambooHRChanged
Four alternatives15Five, Effy AI, PerformYard, TalentHR
SuccessionNow, Teamflect
Three alternativesBambooHR, Paycor, monday.com Work Management
against: LatticeEmpxtrack
Three alternativesCreately, Paycor, SuccessionNow
PerformYard
Three alternativesEmpxtrack, Paycor, Workzoom
against: Cornerstoneagainst: Lattice, Leapsome, Oracle HCM Cloud, PeopleFluent, SAP SuccessFactors, SuccessionHR, SuccessionNow, SumTotal, UKG Pro, Workday
Mistral SmallPaycor
Three alternativesFirstHR, Lattice, Sage
BambooHR, TalentHRChangedSuccessionNow
Four alternativesPaycor, PeopleFluent Succession Management, Succession Wizard, Teamflect
Paycor
One alternativeSuccessionNow
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashSuccessionNow
Two alternativesLattice, Paycor
BambooHRChanged
Four alternativesEffy AI, TalentHR, Trakstar, Zoho People
against: WorkdayExcel/Google Sheets templates, SuccessionNow
Five alternativesLattice, Leapsome, Monday.com, Paycor, SuccessionStack
against: TalentGuardEmpxtrack
Four alternativesAIHR, Airtable, Successionly, Teamflect
against: Lattice, Leapsome, SuccessionNowBambooHR, Paycor
Four alternativesLattice, Leapsome, PerformYard, SuccessionNow
against: SuccessionHR, TalentGuardagainst: Excel, Oracle HCM Cloud, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday
Llama 4 MaverickPaycor
Two alternativesLattice, Sage
TalentHRChanged
Three alternativesBambooHR, HiBob HRIS, Lattice
SuccessionNow
Three alternativesPaycor, PerformYard, Succession Wizard
Paycor
Three alternativesLattice, Monday.com, SuccessionNow
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashBambooHR
Three alternativesGusto, Lattice, Zoho People
LatticeChanged
Four alternativesBambooHR, Highspot, Seismic, TalentHR
Lattice
Four alternativesBambooHR, Monday.com, Paycor, PerformYard
Paycor
One alternativeLattice
Lattice, Paycor
Four alternativesBambooHR, Deel, Gusto, Rippling
against: Oracle HCM Cloud, SAP SuccessFactors, Workdayagainst: Cornerstone OnDemand, SAP SuccessFactors
Kimi K2PerformYard
Four alternativesChartHop, Lattice, Paycor, SuccessionNow
BambooHRChanged
Three alternativesEffy AI, FeedbackPulse, Trakstar
against: 15Five, LatticeSuccessionNow
Three alternativesBambooHR, Paycor, PerformYard
against: Lattice, LeapsomeChartHop, PerformYard
Two alternativesPaycor, Spidergap
against: Dayforce, PeopleFluent, SAP SuccessFactors, SumTotal, UKG Pro, WorkdayPaycor
Four alternativesCreately, Empxtrack, SuccessionNow, Teamflect
against: Oracle, SAP, Workdayagainst: Lattice, Leapsome, LegalZoom, Nolo, Oracle HCM Cloud, SAP SuccessFactors, SuccessionNow, Workday
GLM 4.7 FlashXSuccessionNow
Three alternativesBambooHR, Lattice, Paycor
LatticeChanged
Three alternatives15Five, BambooHR, TalentHR
SuccessionNow
Three alternativesLattice, Paycor, Teamflect
against: ChartHopCreately
Five alternativesEmpxtrack, Lattice, Monday.com, Paycor, SuccessionNow
no first choiceagainst: Lattice, Leapsome, SuccessionNow
MiniMax M2.5Lattice
One alternativeSuccessionNow
LatticeHeld
One alternativeBambooHR
SuccessionNow
Five alternativesBambooHR, Lattice, SuccessionStack, Teamflect, monday work management
BambooHR, ClearCompany
Three alternativesExcel/Google Sheets templates, Notion, Trello
no first choiceagainst: Lattice, Leapsome
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 20:10yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:32yes36 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:03yes818 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:33yes186 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:06yes3118 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:06yes55 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:51yes1737 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:43yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:21no027 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:30yes924 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:31yes1847 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:08yes1633 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:10yes97 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:49yes36 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:01yes2257 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:51yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:05yes3418 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:09yes53 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:36yes1616 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:01yes54 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:46yes826 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:05yes977 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:00yes1677 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:00no042 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:34yes1310 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:40yes78 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:59yes1456 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:45yes2010 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:17yes3720 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:41yes56 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:12yes1124 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:39yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:46yes520 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:05yes854 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:10yes2269 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:24yes1030 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:09yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:18yes38 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:57yes1647 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:35yes186 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:13yes3921 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:56yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:44yes1639 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:48yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:30yes521 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:22yes934 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:15yes1022 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:21no07 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:17no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:06no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:36yes1930 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:41yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:03yes1113 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:57no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:36yes1530 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:23yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:43yes534 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:09yes724 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:16yes1559 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:05yes519 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:46yes1911 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:38no04 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:58yes1055 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:15yes209 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:02yes2816 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:46yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:52yes2523 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:13yes94 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:26yes1565 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:43yes2337 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:16yes1363 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:45yes2060 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
9-Box Grid Template in Excel or Google Sheets
AllyO
Cambridge Small Business Succession Toolkit
Develop Digitally
ELLO Software
Google Sheets/Airtable template
LegalZoom
Nolo
SIGMA Assessment Systems
Succession Planner
Talent Management Suite
Talent Successor
monday.com Work Management
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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