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Index › Research › Buyer segments · September 2026 Edition
Buyer segments · September 2026 Edition

In 48 of 50 categories, the product the models put first changes with the size of the company asking.

Every category is asked on behalf of three buyers: a small B2B company, a mid-market B2B company, an enterprise B2B company. Each buyer gets its own standing, computed within its segment and never pooled. This page reads the fifty standings side by side: two categories have one leader for every buyer, nineteen change leader once across the three, and twenty-nine have a different leader for each.

How often the leader changes

2one leader for every buyer
19the leader changes once across the three
29a different leader for each buyer

A product leads somewhere in ninety-nine cases across the fifty categories; sixty-seven of those products lead in exactly one segment of one category and nowhere else. The public standing on each category page is the mid-market one; the other segments are one link away on every category page and are never added to it.

What this measures is the answer, not the buyer: the same models, asked the same six ways, told a different company size. Whether that reflects the products or the models' reading of them is not something the index can say.

Every category, every buyer

The leader and its share of first choices in each segment. A share is within its own segment: twelve models, six framings, seventy-two answers.
CategorySmall businessMid-marketEnterprise
Course authoring tools Articulate 360 20% Articulate 360 22% Articulate 360 52%one leader
Flexible benefits Compt 37% Compt 30% Compt 38%one leader
Applicant tracking syste Breezy HR 41% Greenhouse 47% Greenhouse 47%two leaders
Candidate assessment TestGorilla 71% TestGorilla 68% SHL 24%two leaders
Compensation management Pave 17% Pave 18% beqom 19%two leaders
Contingent workforce man SimpleVMS 31% SimpleVMS 35% SAP Fieldglass 39%two leaders
Employee engagement surv Workleap Officevibe 40% Culture Amp 40% Culture Amp 30%two leaders
Employee onboarding BambooHR 38% BambooHR 29% Workday 49%two leaders
Employee wellbeing Wellable 29% Wellable 30% Personify Health 27%two leaders
Frontline employee apps Connecteam 85% Connecteam 56% Staffbase 31%two leaders
Global payroll Deel 29% Deel 22% Remote 19%two leaders
Goals and OKRs Tability 37% Tability 29% Betterworks 33%two leaders
HR help desk Zoho Desk 27% Zoho Desk 26% ServiceNow HR Service Delivery 53%two leaders
Interview scheduling Calendly 62% Calendly 21% GoodTime 56%two leaders
Job advertising JobTarget 19% JobTarget 21% Appcast 36%two leaders
Learning management syst TalentLMS 74% TalentLMS 48% Docebo 44%two leaders
Online course libraries LinkedIn Learning 24% Udemy Business 32% LinkedIn Learning 30%two leaders
Pay equity Gusto 21% Syndio 17% Syndio 53%two leaders
Recognition and rewards Bonusly 60% Bonusly 22% Achievers 38%two leaders
Talent intelligence Pin 18% Pin 17% Eightfold AI 72%two leaders
Technical hiring assessm CoderPad 26% HackerRank 28% HackerRank 42%two leaders
360 feedback Primalogik 20% Lattice 40% Culture Amp 33%three leaders
AI recruiting assistants Manatal 25% GoPerfect 19% Eightfold AI 32%three leaders
Background screening GoodHire 38% Checkr 43% First Advantage 38%three leaders
Benefits administration Gusto 68% PlanSource 23% Workday HCM 29%three leaders
Coaching platforms Boon Health 28% Growthspace 26% BetterUp 49%three leaders
Compensation benchmarkin Pave 32% Payscale 24% Mercer 26%three leaders
Compliance training TalentLMS 35% Traliant 22% NAVEX 21%three leaders
Earned wage access ZayZoon 55% Tapcheck 29% DailyPay 61%three leaders
HR AI assistants Gusto 29% Workativ Assistant 12% Leena AI 36%three leaders
HR compliance Gusto 25% Rippling 16% Workday 22%three leaders
HRIS and HCM platforms Gusto 42% Rippling 22% Workday HCM 70%three leaders
Internal communications Microsoft SharePoint 24% Happeo 16% Simpplr 24%three leaders
Internal talent marketpl TalentGuard 24% Fuel50 26% Gloat 49%three leaders
Learning experience plat GoSkills 57% Learn Amp 28% Docebo 32%three leaders
Leave Timetastic 25% BambooHR 28% Workday 37%three leaders
Mentoring software PushFar 39% Together 37% Qooper 29%three leaders
Org charts Organimi 31% ChartHop 27% Orgvue 22%three leaders
Payroll software Gusto 57% Rippling 28% ADP 30%three leaders
People analytics BambooHR 41% HiBob 15% Visier 65%three leaders
Performance management Effy AI 19% Lattice 41% Workday 32%three leaders
Recruiting CRM Pin 23% Lever 20% Beamery 20%three leaders
Recruitment marketing 100Hires 20% Teamtailor 16% Phenom 41%three leaders
Skills intelligence Skills Base 35% TalentGuard 19% Eightfold AI 33%three leaders
Succession planning Paycor 27% Lattice 31% SAP SuccessFactors 24%three leaders
Time and attendance Homebase 21% UKG Ready 15% UKG Pro 29%three leaders
Video interviewing Hireflix 38% Spark Hire 55% HireVue 74%three leaders
Workforce management sui When I Work 18% ADP Workforce Now 19% UKG Pro 42%three leaders
Workforce planning Homebase 22% ChartHop 31% Anaplan 47%three leaders
Workforce scheduling Homebase 43% Deputy 26% UKG Pro 12%three leaders

Cite this

HR AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition: buyer segments. hr-ai-index.com/research/buyer-size/. Published under CC BY 4.0. Every figure on this page is computed from the published edition and changes with it; the edition and its date are the citation.

The output is the models' output. Nothing here says the models can be steered, and nothing here is a recommendation by the index.