AI Indexes
HR AI Index
October 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Workforce planning and analytics › Employee monitoring › Enterprise › October 2026 Edition

Employee monitoring for enterprise buyers

Asked as “employee monitoring tool”, and as “workforce productivity analytics software”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 50 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, fourteen models each. Added to the October 2026 Edition on October 4, 2026; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b-run3), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories: how the two compare.
Standing · first-choice share
26%
Contested · ActivTrak 16%
26Teramind16ActivTrak16Visier42others

26% of first choices, contested.

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.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all fourteen models, for an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Teramind26%21%52accepted challenger
02ActivTrak16%14%56accepted challenger
03Visier16%0%13accepted challenger
04Hubstaff10%19%36accepted challenger
05Insightful8%10%40accepted challenger
06Veriato2%13%23accepted challenger
07CurrentWare2%0%12accepted challenger
Show the one product at 0%, ordered by negative rate
08Time Doctor0%33%15criticized challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
All twenty-one head-to-head pages: the top seven products, each against each

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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Teramind26%
02ActivTrak16%
03Visier16%
04Hubstaff10%
05Insightful8%
06Veriato2%
07CurrentWare2%
08Time Doctor0%

What they warned about

One of fourteen 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, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX, MiniMax M2.5, GPT-6 Luna and Muse Glimmer 30B 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.
Teramind
21%
11 of 52 labels negative · 8 of 14 models · 2 hard negative
“Frequently cited as the *most invasive*... Drawbacks include steep privacy risks... compliance hurdles” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Hubstaff
19%
7 of 36 labels negative · 7 of 14 models · 3 hard negative
“all nine platforms systematically shared identifying worker data ... with outside tech companies and data brokers” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
ActivTrak
14%
8 of 56 labels negative · 7 of 14 models · 2 hard negative
“cloud-only products such as **ActivTrak** and **Hubstaff** are not suitable for on-premise deployments” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
Time Doctor
33%
5 of 15 labels negative · 5 of 14 models · 2 hard negative
“Avoid These for Large Scale ... **Time Doctor** | Per-seat pricing with add-on stacking” Kimi K2, budget prompt

What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the fourteen in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

80 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1169 links across 262 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. None of the 252 answers across every segment cited this index's own page for the category.

vendor site · Insightful48 answers · 75 citations · 13 models
vendor site · CurrentWare43 answers · 51 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Teramind32 answers · 69 citations · 13 models
31 answers · 34 citations · 12 models
29 answers · 83 citations · 10 models
vendor site · WorkTime27 answers · 35 citations · 10 models
26 answers · 33 citations · 11 models
vendor site · G225 answers · 30 citations · 11 models
25 answers · 25 citations · 10 models
22 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Hubstaff21 answers · 39 citations · 9 models
vendor site · ActivTrak21 answers · 27 citations · 11 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.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best employee monitoring tool”, “employee monitoring tool”, “employee monitoring tools”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Teramind teramind.co26%1305,40011919,425$51848
ActivTrak activtrak.com16%1468,10015618,356$11,550471
Visier visier.com16%2592,4007240,26716
Hubstaff hubstaff.com10%15218,100202100,097120
Insightful insightful.io8%106135,00031,73251,763$34376
Microsoft Viva Insights microsoft.com8%3059031145,358,109$12,455103
Veriato veriato.com2%3148013485$438
CurrentWare currentware.com2%27210315,1938
WorkTime worktime.com2%223,6001713,3339
Workday workday.com2%3831,220,00023,8482,213,45080

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 21 sites; 4 of them are among the sites the models cited here (activtrak.com, insightful.io, peoplemanagingpeople.com, worktime.com). The first result for “best employee monitoring tool” is reddit.com.

How 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.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best employee monitoring tool for an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which workforce productivity analytics software would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade employee monitoring tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best employee monitoring tool 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 an employee monitoring tool. What should we look at?”Negative“Which employee monitoring tools should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Teramind
Three alternativesActivTrak, Insightful, WorkTime
Visier, WorkdayChanged
Two alternativesMicrosoft Viva Insights, Rippling
ActivTrak, Insightful
Four alternativesHubstaff, Teramind, Veriato Vision, WorkTime
Insightfulno first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniTeramind
Five alternativesActivTrak, Hubstaff, Insightful, ProHance, Time Doctor
ActivTrakChanged
Two alternativesADP DataCloud, Teramind
Teramind, Veriato
Two alternativesActivTrak, Hubstaff
against: BeyondTrust
ActivTrak, Hubstaffagainst: Teramindno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashActivTrak, Teramind
Three alternativesHubstaff, Time Doctor, Veriato
Microsoft Viva InsightsChanged
Four alternativesActivTrak, Teramind, Visier, Windmill
Teramind
Five alternativesActivTrak, Hubstaff, Insightful, Time Doctor, Veriato
WorkTime
Two alternativesInsightful, Teramind
no first choiceagainst: Apploye, Buddy Punch, Controlio, Deputy, Desklog, Hubstaff, Monitask, Sneek/Tandem, Spyrix, Teramind, Time Doctor, Vericlock, When I Work
Perplexity SonarHubstaff
Four alternativesActivTrak, Insightful, ProHance, Teramind
VisierChanged
Six alternativesActivTrak, Insightful, Prodoscore, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro Workforce Analytics, Workday
Teramind, Veriato
Six alternativesActivTrak, Connecteam, Hubstaff, Insightful, ProHance, Time Doctor
Insightful
One alternativeHubstaff
against: Teramind
no first choiceagainst: ActivTrak, Hubstaff, Insightful, Teramind
Grok 4.1 FastInsightful
Two alternativesActivTrak, Teramind
Microsoft Viva InsightsChanged
Five alternativesDayforce, Sapience Analytics, UKG Pro Analytics, Visier, Workday Prism
against: ActivTrak, Insightful
Teramind
Four alternativesActivTrak, CurrentWare, InterGuard, Veriato
ActivTrak
One alternativeInsightful
against: Hubstaff, Teramind, Time Doctor, Veriato
no first choiceagainst: ActivTrak, InterGuard, Kickidler, StaffCop, Teramind, Veriato/Cerebral
Mistral SmallTeramind, Veriato
Two alternativesActivTrak, Insightful
VisierChanged
Two alternativesActivTrak, Teramind
Teramind, Veriato
Five alternativesActivTrak, CurrentWare, Hubstaff, Insightful, StaffCop
ActivTrak, Hubstaff
Two alternativesCurrentWare, Teramind
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashTeramind
Two alternativesActivTrak, Time Doctor
VisierChanged
Three alternativesInsightful, UKG Pro Workforce Analytics, Workday Workforce Analytics
Teramind, Veriato
Three alternativesActivTrak, Hubstaff, Time Doctor
Teramind
Two alternativesActivTrak, Insightful
no first choiceagainst: ActivTrak, Hubstaff, Teramind, Time Doctor, Veriato, WorkComposer
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeldno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceagainst: ActivTrak, BambooHR EMS, Controlio, Hubstaff, Insightful, Teramind, Veriato
Qwen 3.7 FlashActivTrak, Teramind
One alternativeHubstaff
VisierChanged
Four alternativesActivTrak, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro Workforce Analytics
ActivTrak, Teramind
Three alternativesHubstaff, Insightful, Time Doctor
Hubstaff, Teramindagainst: ActivTrakno first choicenothing named
Kimi K2Teramind
Three alternativesActivTrak, Insightful, Veriato
Microsoft Viva Insights, VisierChanged
Four alternativesActivTrak, Insightful, Teramind, Workday People Analytics / Prism Analytics
Teramind
Five alternativesActivTrak, Hubstaff, InterGuard, StaffCop, Veriato
ActivTrak, Teramind
One alternativeVeriato
against: Hubstaff, Insightful, Time Doctor
no first choicenothing named
GLM 4.7 FlashXTeramind
Three alternativesActivTrak, Hubstaff, Insightful
VisierChanged
Eight alternativesActivTrak, Crunchr, Insightful, Microsoft Viva Insights, One Model, Oracle Fusion HCM Analytics, SAP SuccessFactors People Analytics, Workday People Analytics
ActivTrak
Six alternativesCurrentWare, Hubstaff, Insightful, Teramind, Veriato, WorkTime
Controlio
Three alternativesActivTrak, Hubstaff, Insightful
no first choiceagainst: Apploye, Buddy Punch, Deputy, Desklog, Hubstaff, Monitask, Time Doctor, VerClock, When I Work
MiniMax M2.5Hubstaff, Teramind
Three alternativesActivTrak, Controlio, Veriato
Visier, Workday Prism AnalyticsChanged
Three alternativesActivTrak, Insightful, SAP SuccessFactors
no first choiceno first choice
Four alternativesActivTrak, Insightful, Teramind, WorkTime
against: Timechamp
no first choiceagainst: Teramind
GPT-6 LunaActivTrak
One alternativeTeramind
Microsoft Viva InsightsChanged
Four alternativesActivTrak, Visier, Workday People Analytics, Worklytics
ActivTrak
Four alternativesInsightful, Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management, Teramind, Veriato
CurrentWare
One alternativeInsightful
against: ActivTrak
no first choiceagainst: Retina-X, SpyFone
Muse Glimmer 30BTeramind, Veriato Workforce Behavior Analytics
Three alternativesControlio, Hubstaff, InterGuard
WorklyticsChanged
Three alternativesMicrosoft Viva Insights, SAP SuccessFactors, Visier
Teramind
Five alternativesActivTrak, CurrentWare, Hubstaff, Insightful, WorkTime
Insightful
One alternativeVeriato
against: ActivTrak, Teramind
no first choiceagainst: Monitask, Teramind
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The 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
Eighty-four rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:32yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:16yes14 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:17yes1423 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:39yes193 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:19yes2010 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:28yes157 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:32yes2325 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:35yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:21yes1535 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:31yes1423 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:16yes24151 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:30yes1022 s
Direct recommendationGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:40yes214 s
Direct recommendationMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:19yes2524 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:27yes1811 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:19yes35 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:37yes2033 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:39yes203 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:21yes2411 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:35yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:19yes2034 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:22yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:26yes514 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:28yes2028 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:15yes15114 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:32yes1434 s
ParaphraseGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:18yes415 s
ParaphraseMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:17yes1422 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:29yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:23yes59 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:37yes2233 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:37yes176 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:28yes2110 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:31yes78 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:18yes2133 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:21yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:35yes1048 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:17yes1350 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:19yes2050 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:33yes1420 s
ComparativeGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:29yes622 s
ComparativeMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:35yes1336 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:35yes1610 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:38yes38 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:22yes2234 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:31yes204 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:25yes2111 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:26yes149 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:38yes2429 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:27yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:28yes2081 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:22yes2556 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:18yes2324 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:20yes1836 s
Budget constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:26yes216 s
Budget constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:27yes1321 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:23yes1813 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:18no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:17yes1327 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:30yes197 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:30yes1611 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:24no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:19yes1948 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:21yes52 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:18no029 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:19yes2330 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:40yes1431 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:28no053 s
Scale constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:24yes323 s
Scale constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:27yes1228 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:36yes1611 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:36yes28 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:32yes2429 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:31yes205 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:17yes2511 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:24yes148 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:26yes2433 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:29yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:30yes1955 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:25yes1443 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:29yes2327 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:36yes2137 s
Negative framingGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:32yes523 s
Negative framingMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:23yes2337 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
None. Every name in this category resolved on its own.
Unresolved, counted raw
BambooHR EMS
BeyondTrust
EmpCloud
Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management
Sneek/Tandem
SpyFone
Spyrix
TrackForce
UKG Pro Analytics
VMware Carbon Black
VerClock
Veriato Workforce Behavior Analytics
Workday Workforce Analytics
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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