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 › Talent intelligence › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Talent intelligence for small business buyers

Asked as “talent intelligence platform”, and as “AI talent platform for hiring and mobility”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 49 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Pin
Contested
18% 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 businessPin18%ContestedThis pageMid-marketPin17%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseEightfold AI72%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 small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Pin18%3%33accepted challenger
02Gem14%0%32accepted challenger
03Lessie AI14%0%19accepted challenger
04Loxo10%0%24accepted challenger
05Manatal6%0%13accepted challenger
06Metaview4%0%25accepted challenger
07hireEZ4%15%26accepted challenger
08Wrangle4%0%11accepted challenger
09Eightfold AI4%84%45criticized challenger
10Ashby2%0%13accepted challenger
Show the six products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
13iCIMS Talent Cloud0%100%11criticized challenger
16Beamery0%93%29criticized challenger
15Phenom0%91%22criticized challenger
12Workday Skills Cloud0%90%10criticized challenger
14Gloat0%77%22criticized challenger
11SeekOut0%61%18criticized 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
Pin vs GemPin vs Lessie AIGem vs Lessie AI

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 →
P01
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
01Pin18%
02Gem14%
03Lessie AI14%
04Loxo10%
05Manatal6%
06Metaview4%
07hireEZ4%
08Wrangle4%
09Eightfold AI4%
10Ashby2%
11SeekOut0%
12Workday Skills Cloud0%
13iCIMS Talent Cloud0%
14Gloat0%
15Phenom0%
16Beamery0%

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.
Eightfold AI
84%
38 of 45 labels negative · 12 of 12 models · 14 hard negative
“Most enterprise-sized talent intelligence suites (Eightfold, Beamery, Phenom, iCIMS, Workday Skills Cloud, Gloat, LinkedIn Talent Insights, etc.) are not built for small businesses” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Phenom
91%
20 of 22 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 14 hard negative
“pricing starts at around **$10,000 per month**. It is only cost-effective for companies executing massive, continuous high-volume hiring campaigns.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Beamery
93%
27 of 29 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 15 hard negative
“Enterprise talent CRM + skills graph. Requires at-scale hiring and dedicated TA ops. Implementation and maintenance are complex and costly.” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Gloat
77%
17 of 22 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 12 hard negative
“Some platforms that are not suitable for small businesses include Gloat, Workday Skills Cloud, Phenom, and iCIMS Talent Cloud.” Llama 4 Maverick, 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

67 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. 906 links across 208 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

pin.com
vendor site · Pin41 answers · 83 citations · 10 models
metaview.ai
vendor site · Metaview39 answers · 53 citations · 10 models
learn.g2.com
37 answers · 37 citations · 11 models
g2.com
36 answers · 71 citations · 11 models
hiretruffle.com
29 answers · 31 citations · 10 models
lessie.ai
vendor site · Lessie26 answers · 27 citations · 9 models
skima.ai
vendor site · Skima25 answers · 26 citations · 9 models
xobin.com
vendor site · Xobin23 answers · 23 citations · 9 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow18 answers · 19 citations · 8 models
wrangle.ai
vendor site · Wrangle18 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
trustradius.com
15 answers · 15 citations · 9 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com
vendor site · People Managing People14 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.

metaview.ai/resources/blog/talent-intelligence-platforms
39 answers · 10 models
learn.g2.com/best-talent-intelligence-software
37 answers · 11 models
g2.com/categories/talent-intelligence/small-business
30 answers · 10 models
pin.com/blog/talent-intelligence-platforms
30 answers · 10 models
lessie.ai/blog/talent-intelligence-platforms
26 answers · 9 models
xobin.com/blog/best-talent-intelligence-platforms
23 answers · 9 models
pin.com/blog/talent-intelligence-software
21 answers · 9 models
skima.ai/blog/industry-trends-and-insights/talent-intelligence-tools
21 answers · 8 models
hiretruffle.com/blog/talent-intelligence-platforms
19 answers · 10 models
wrangle.ai/blogs/best-talent-intelligence-platforms-2026
18 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 talent intelligence platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which AI talent platform for hiring and mobility would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top talent intelligence platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best talent intelligence platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a talent intelligence platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which talent intelligence platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Pin
Two alternativesLoxo, Talentel
Eightfold AIChanged
One alternative365Talents
Loxo
Four alternativesAshby, Gem, Metaview, hireEZ
against: Eightfold AIPin
Three alternativesArya, Juicebox, Leonar
no first choiceagainst: Aon, Workday
GPT-5.4 miniLoxo
Two alternativesLinkedIn Talent Insights, Recruiterflow
against: Eightfold AI, PhenomEightfold AIChanged
Two alternativesFuel50, Gloat
Gem
Two alternativesLinkedIn Talent Insights / LinkedIn Recruiter enterprise, Phenom
against: Eightfold AILoxo, TalentHRagainst: 365Talents, ZoomInfo Talentno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashPin
Five alternativesALT-Talent, Arya, Intervue, Metaview, hireEZ
against: Beamery, Eightfold AI, Gloat, LinkedIn Talent Insights, Phenom, Retrain.aiPlumChanged
Two alternativesSeekOut, Workable
against: Eightfold AI, GloatPin
Three alternativesMetaview, SeekOut, hireEZ
against: Beamery, Eightfold AI, Gloat, PhenomPin
Three alternativesCoRecruit, Manatal, Zoho Recruit
against: Beamery, Eightfold AI, SeekOutLoxo, Pin
Two alternativesMetaview, Truffle
against: Beamery, Eightfold AI, Phenomagainst: Beamery, Eightfold AI, Gloat, Phenom, Visier, Workday Skills Cloud, iCIMS Talent Cloud
Perplexity SonarLoxo
Two alternativesLessie AI, Pin
WorkableChanged
Three alternativesManatal, Pin, Talentprise/Juicebox
against: Eightfold AI, ReejigPin
Three alternativesGem, Metaview, hireEZ
against: Beamery, Eightfold AI, SeekOutLessie AI
Two alternativesLoxo, Manatal
no first choiceagainst: Beamery, Draup, Eightfold AI, Gloat, Lightcast, Phenom, TalentNeuron, Workday Skills Cloud, iCIMS Talent Cloud
Grok 4.1 FastGem, Metaview
One alternativeLoxo
against: Beamery, Eightfold AI, hireEZManatalChanged
Three alternativesBreezy HR, Pin, Workable
against: Eightfold AI, GloatGem, Metaview
Three alternativesCoRecruit, Loxo, hireEZ
against: Beamery, Eightfold AIManatal, Zoho Recruit
One alternativePin
against: SeekOut, hireEZno first choiceagainst: Beamery, CoRecruit, Cornerstone, Draup, Eightfold AI, Gloat, Greenhouse, Phenom, SAP SuccessFactors, SeekOut, Workday Skills Cloud, iCIMS Talent Cloud
Mistral SmallAshby, hireEZManatalChanged
Three alternativesEightfold AI, SeekOut, iMocha
Loxo
Three alternativesGem, Metaview, hireEZ
against: SeekOutWrangle
Four alternativesAmazingHiring, Gem, Lessie AI, Loxo
against: Beamery, Eightfold AIno first choiceagainst: Beamery, Eightfold AI, Gloat, Phenom, TalentNeuron, Workday Skills Cloud, iCIMS Talent Cloud
DeepSeek V4 FlashGem, Metaview
Two alternativesLoxo, hireEZ
against: Beamery, Eightfold AI, Phenom, iCIMS Talent CloudAimploy RecruitChanged
Two alternativesBambooHR, Workable
against: Eightfold AI, Fuel50, Gloat, Phenom, Pin, SAP SuccessFactors, SeekOutAshby, Metaview, Pin
Three alternativesGem, Loxo, Wrangle
against: Beamery, Eightfold AI, Findem, SeekOutLessie AI
Four alternativesGem, Loxo, Manatal, Pin
against: Beamery, Eightfold AI, Phenom, iCIMS Talent CloudGem, Wrangle
One alternativePin
against: Beamery, Eightfold AI, Gloat, Phenom, SeekOut, Visieragainst: Beamery, Eightfold AI, Phenom, SeekOut, iCIMS Talent Cloud
Llama 4 MaverickLessie AI
Two alternativesAmazingHiring, Loxo
against: Beamery, Eightfold AIHirevireChangedLoxo
Five alternativesAshby, Gem, Lessie AI, Metaview, hireEZ
Lessie AI
Four alternativesAmazingHiring, Gem, Loxo, Wrangle
no first choiceagainst: Gloat, Phenom, Workday Skills Cloud, iCIMS Talent Cloud
Qwen 3.7 FlashGem
One alternativehireEZ
RipplingChanged
One alternativeHireScore
against: Eightfold AI, PhenomLoxo
Five alternativesAmazingHiring, Ashby, Gem, Lessie AI, hireEZ
against: Beamery, Eightfold AIPin
Three alternativesGem, Loxo, hireEZ
Gem, hireEZ
Three alternativesAmazingHiring, Andela, CoRecruit
against: Draup, Eightfold AIagainst: Eightfold AI, Gloat, Greenhouse, Lever, LinkedIn Talent Insights, Oracle Taleo, Workday Skills Cloud
Kimi K2Gem
Four alternativesLessie AI, Metaview, Pin, Wrangle
against: Beamery, Phenom, iCIMS Talent CloudGoFIGRChanged
Two alternativesManatal, Pin
against: Eightfold AI, Fuel50, Gloat, HireVue, ParadoxPin
Five alternativesAshby, Gem, Lessie AI, Metaview, hireEZ
against: Beamery, Eightfold AILessie AI, Pin
Two alternativesGem, Manatal
no first choice
Four alternativesAshby, Gem, Metaview, hireEZ
against: Alex/Apriora, Beamery, EasyHire, Eightfold AI, Gloat, HeyMilo, LinkedIn Recruiter, Phenom, SeekOut, Workday Skills Cloud, hireEZ
GLM 4.7 FlashXGem
Five alternativesBryq, Lessie AI, Metaview, SeekOut, iMocha
against: Beamery, Eightfold AI, hireEZMonday.com AgentsChanged
One alternativeManatal
against: Fetcher, Gloat, HeroHunt.ai, Workday Skills CloudGem, Lessie AI
Five alternativesLoxo, Metaview, Pin, SeekOut, Wrangle
against: Beamery, Eightfold AILessie AI
Three alternativesGem, Metaview, Pin
against: Eightfold AI, Findem, SeekOutno first choiceagainst: BambooHR, Beamery, ChartHop, Eightfold AI, Gloat, Greenhouse, HiBob, LinkedIn Talent Insights, Phenom, Workday HCM, Workday Skills Cloud, iCIMS Talent Cloud
MiniMax M2.5Lessie AI, Loxo
Four alternativesAmazingHiring, Ashby, Gem, hireEZ
against: Beamery, Eightfold AIPinChanged
Two alternativesEightfold AI, Manatal
against: 365Talents, Gloat, PhenomMetaview
Three alternativesAshby, Gem, hireEZ
against: Eightfold AI, LightcastPin
Three alternativesLessie AI, Manatal, Metaview
no first choiceagainst: Beamery, Phenom, iCIMS Talent Cloud
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 21:10yes169 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:19yes26 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:55yes10219 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:06yes197 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:08yes4019 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:54yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:20yes2625 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:14yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:45yes1222 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:45yes922 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:34yes1347 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:24yes520 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:06yes97 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:05yes36 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:29yes2630 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:57yes206 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:37yes4118 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:56yes55 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:04yes2840 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:22yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:23yes2374 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:39yes2856 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:08yes14122 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:41yes2356 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:25yes158 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:30yes47 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:01yes1658 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:14yes209 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:58yes4224 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:43yes98 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:50yes2736 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:33yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:17yes525 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:56yes1951 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:18yes1125 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:00yes920 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:51yes107 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:04yes35 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:08yes1823 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:34yes204 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:22yes4222 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:50yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:04yes814 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:17yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:20yes515 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:02yes738 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:35yes1139 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:33yes1738 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:51no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:28no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:16yes1120 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:20yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:26yes1514 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:36no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:27yes1619 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:49yes52 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:37yes1049 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:14yes1524 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:36yes1063 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:13no011 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:22yes188 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:00no06 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:25yes1018 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:11yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:07yes1713 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:55yes1111 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:12yes2727 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:28yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:00yes939 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:58yes2555 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:06yes2046 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:02yes1329 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
Arya Pulse read as Arya
Eightfold read as Eightfold AI
Lessie read as Lessie AI
SAP read as SAP SuccessFactors
iCIMS read as iCIMS Talent Cloud
Unresolved, counted raw
ALT-Talent
Aimploy Recruit
Anutio
HireScore
Monday.com Agents
Talentel
Talentprise/Juicebox
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.
← Succession planningCoaching platforms →