HR AI Index
Index › Talent acquisition › September 2026 Edition

AI recruiting assistants

Asked as “AI recruiter”, and as “AI-powered candidate screening tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 42 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
GoPerfect
Contested
19% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 50 categories →

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 businessManatal25%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketGoPerfect19%ContestedThis pageEnterpriseEightfold AI32%ContestedStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01GoPerfect19%0%11accepted challenger
02Workable17%8%24accepted challenger
03Manatal12%5%19accepted challenger
04Ashby7%21%14accepted challenger
05Greenhouse5%12%16accepted challenger
06SeekOut2%0%13accepted challenger
07Zoho Recruit2%9%11accepted challenger
08Gem2%0%10accepted challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
13Eightfold AI0%50%18criticized challenger
12HireVue0%40%25criticized challenger
11Paradox0%12%16accepted challenger
10Juicebox0%8%13accepted challenger
09hireEZ0%0%14accepted 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
GoPerfect vs WorkableGoPerfect vs ManatalWorkable vs Manatal

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
12
13
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative30%
Key
01GoPerfect19%
02Workable17%
03Manatal12%
04Ashby7%
05Greenhouse5%
06SeekOut2%
07Zoho Recruit2%
08Gem2%
09hireEZ0%
10Juicebox0%
11Paradox0%
12HireVue0%
13Eightfold AI0%

02What they warned about

One of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, 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.
Workday
100%
9 of 9 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“defendant in the landmark *Mobley v. Workday* lawsuit, which alleges that its AI screening systems systematically excluded qualified Black, older, and disabled applicants” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
HireVue
40%
10 of 25 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“HireVue is facing allegations that its video-interviewing platform discriminates against candidates with disabilities” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Eightfold AI
50%
9 of 18 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“A California lawsuit against Eightfold reframes the issue as a transparency and consumer protection violation, alleging the AI tools generated secret candidate reports without disclosure.” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
Ashby
21%
3 of 14 labels negative · 3 of 12 models
“Potentially Greenhouse, Lever (by Employ), Ashby (FCRA investigations for AI screening/interviews)” Grok 4.1 Fast, 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

68 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. 907 links across 282 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

greenhouse.com
vendor site · Greenhouse30 answers · 36 citations · 11 models
goperfect.com
vendor site · GoPerfect29 answers · 45 citations · 10 models
hiretruffle.com
24 answers · 34 citations · 10 models
thehirehub.ai
vendor site · TheHireHub.AI21 answers · 28 citations · 10 models
pin.com
vendor site · Pin20 answers · 30 citations · 9 models
selectsoftwarereviews.com
vendor site · Select Software Reviews17 answers · 18 citations · 7 models
lindy.ai
17 answers · 17 citations · 8 models
herohunt.ai
vendor site · HeroHunt.ai14 answers · 16 citations · 6 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow14 answers · 14 citations · 9 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com
vendor site · People Managing People12 answers · 15 citations · 8 models
metaview.ai
vendor site · Metaview11 answers · 14 citations · 6 models
joveo.com
vendor site · Joveo10 answers · 10 citations · 10 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.

greenhouse.com/blog/best-ai-recruiting-software
29 answers · 11 models
hiretruffle.com/blog/ai-recruiting-software
23 answers · 10 models
lindy.ai/blog/best-ai-recruiting-tools-2024
17 answers · 8 models
selectsoftwarereviews.com/buyer-guide/ai-recruiting
16 answers · 7 models
thehirehub.ai/guides/ai-recruiting-tools
15 answers · 9 models
goperfect.com/blog/best-ai-recruitment-platforms-for-mid-sized-companies-in…
14 answers · 10 models
guideflow.com/blog/ai-recruiting-software
14 answers · 9 models
joveo.com/blog/best-ai-candidate-screening-tools
10 answers · 10 models
goperfect.com/blog/best-ai-candidate-screening-software-for-small-and-mid-s…
9 answers · 8 models
herohunt.ai/blog/best-ai-recruiting-tools-2026-15-ranked-and-priced
9 answers · 5 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 AI recruiter for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which AI-powered candidate screening tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top AI recruiting tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best AI recruiter for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an AI recruiter. What should we look at?”Negative“Which AI recruiting tools should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5GoPerfect
Two alternativesJuicebox, Workable
Pin, WorkableChanged
One alternativeSapia.ai
Metaview
Four alternativesGoodTime, Juicebox, SmartRecruiters, Workable
against: ManatalRecooty
Four alternativesJuggleHire, KitaHQ, Manatal, Wellfound
no first choiceagainst: Eightfold AI, HireVue, Workday
GPT-5.4 miniSeekOut
One alternativeParadox
HiPeopleChanged
Three alternativesA·Minds, HiredScore, hireEZ
no first choiceZoho Recruit
Two alternativesCeipal ATS, iSmartRecruit
against: Workableno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashAshby
Three alternativesFindem, Humanly, Juicebox
against: WorkdayMetaviewChanged
Three alternativesMokaHR, Truffle, Workable
no first choiceHiredAI
Five alternativesJuggleHire, Juicebox, Manatal, Truffle, Zoho Recruit
no first choiceagainst: Claude, Eightfold AI, Fireflies, GPT-4, Gemini, HireVue, Otter.ai, Paradox, Workday, Zoom assistants
Perplexity SonarGoPerfect
Two alternativesAutonomy Recruit, Workable
against: Ashby, GreenhouseGoPerfect, WorkableChangedno first choiceManatal
Three alternativesHirevire, Pin, Zoho Recruit
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastWorkable
Two alternativesAshby, hireEZ
WorkableHeld
Two alternativesManatal, Zoho Recruit
no first choiceManatal
Two alternativesBreezy HR, Zoho Recruit
against: Juicebox, Workableno first choiceagainst: Amazon, Ashby, Eightfold AI, Greenhouse, HireVue, Lever, Workday, iTutorGroup
Mistral SmallAshby
Three alternativesGreenhouse, TheHireHub.AI, hireEZ
WorkableChanged
Four alternativesAshby, Greenhouse, HeyMilo, HireVue
Noon
Seven alternativesBeamery, Eightfold AI, HireVue, Manatal, Paradox, SeekOut, hireEZ
Breezy HR, Pin
Two alternativesGoPerfect, Manatal
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashGreenhouse
Five alternativesAshby, Gem, SmartRecruiters, Workable, hireEZ
WorkableChanged
Three alternativesInterviewFlowAI, Manatal, Spark Hire
against: HireVueno first choice
Nine alternativesBrightHire, Gem, Manatal, Metaview, Paradox, SeekOut, Truffle, Workable, hireEZ
against: Eightfold AI, Findem, HireVueManatal
Three alternativesBreezy HR, EasyHire.me, Pin
against: Zoho Recruitno first choiceagainst: Eightfold AI, Harver, HireVue, Paradox, Workday
Llama 4 MaverickAutonomy Recruit
Three alternativesHumanly, Lever, TheHireHub.AI
GoPerfectChangedno first choiceGoPerfect
Three alternativesHiredAI, Juicebox, Weekday
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashGem
Four alternativesAshby, Autonomy Recruit, Greenhouse, TheHireHub.AI
WorkableChanged
Three alternativesAdaface, TestGorilla, Willo
no first choice
Five alternativesEightfold AI, Fetcher, HireVue, Paradox, SeekOut
GoPerfect
Two alternativesManatal, Pin
no first choiceagainst: HireVue, Humanly, Pymetrics, Workday, iTutorGroup, myInterview
Kimi K2Greenhouse
Three alternativesGoPerfect, Lever, Workable
against: AshbyAshby, Spark HireChanged
Two alternativesFetcher, HireVue
no first choice
Eight alternativesAshby, Gem, Greenhouse, HireVue, Juicebox, Paradox, SeekOut, hireEZ
Manatal
Three alternativesBreezy HR, Pin, Sprad
no first choiceagainst: Eightfold AI, HireVue, Pymetrics, Workday
GLM 4.7 FlashXTheHireHub.AI
Four alternativesAshby, Autonomy Recruit, Greenhouse, Workable
GoPerfectChanged
Five alternativesEightfold AI, Greenhouse, HireVue, Joveo, Workable
Workable
Twelve alternativesGreenhouse, HiPeople, HireVue, HiredScore, Humanly, Juicebox, Manatal, Paradox, SeekOut, Zapier, Zoho Recruit, hireEZ
against: Eightfold AIEasyHire.me, Pin
Five alternativesGoPerfect, InterviewFlowAI, Manatal, Olibr, Zoho Recruit
no first choiceagainst: Eightfold AI, HireVue, Workday, iCIMS
MiniMax M2.5TheHireHub.AI
Three alternativesAshby, Lever, Workable
GoPerfectChanged
Three alternativesQualifi, Sapia.ai, Workable
no first choice
Five alternativesHireVue, Manatal, Paradox, Skima AI, Truffle
Manatal, Pin
One alternativeZoho Recruit
no first choiceagainst: Amazon, Eightfold AI, HireVue, Workday
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 21:26yes168 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:57yes25 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:58yes1220 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:06yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:59yes3818 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:13yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:27yes2522 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 19:14yes523 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:03yes1475 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:22yes2650 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:54yes921 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:07yes910 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:14yes46 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:28yes1825 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:10yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:09yes3715 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:59yes87 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:41yes1718 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:49yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:56yes834 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:00yes1531 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:38yes522 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:42yes513 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:53yes1412 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:58yes811 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:06yes2152 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:56yes209 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:38yes2215 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:09yes109 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:11yes2631 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:37yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:31yes518 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:39yes2547 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:46yes17128 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:14yes2538 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:34yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:53yes35 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:05yes1542 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:55yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:01yes3220 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:35yes55 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 18:15yes2765 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:11yes83 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:16yes935 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:22yes1023 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:02yes1044 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:55yes510 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:17no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:41no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:59yes1257 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:24yes206 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:32yes159 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:37no09 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:47yes1524 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:34yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:40no030 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:25yes1056 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:22yes2953 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:55yes1025 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:58yes1810 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:22yes66 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:02yes2627 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:46yes2011 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:11yes4116 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:38yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:02yes2858 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:03yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:53yes537 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:28yes2033 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:05yes3240 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:00yes1027 s

Noise floor in this category

Flips between the edition run and its calibration repeat. Six prompts per model is a small sample; the index-wide floor is the number to trust.

Claude Haiku 4.5
2 of 4 flipped
GPT-5.4 mini
2 of 3 flipped
Gemini 3.5 Flash
4 of 4 flipped
Perplexity Sonar
1 of 3 flipped
Grok 4.1 Fast
0 of 3 flipped
Mistral Small
4 of 4 flipped
DeepSeek V4 Flash
3 of 5 flipped
Llama 4 Maverick
1 of 3 flipped
Qwen 3.7 Flash
3 of 3 flipped
Kimi K2
4 of 4 flipped
GLM 4.7 FlashX
5 of 5 flipped
MiniMax M2.5
3 of 3 flipped

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
Amazon's AI Recruitment Tool read as Amazon
Eightfold read as Eightfold AI
Greenhouse AI read as Greenhouse
HiredScore AI for Recruiting read as HiredScore
Mokka read as MokaHR
iCIMS Talent Cloud read as iCIMS
Unresolved, counted raw
Amazon Connect Talent
A·Minds
Fireflies
GPT-4
Hubert
KitaHQ
Moonhub
Mya
Olibr
Qualifi
Serra
Spott
Xor.AI
Zoom assistants
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in talent acquisition

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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