HR AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Talent acquisition › AI recruiting assistants › Enterprise › September 2026 Edition

AI recruiting assistants for enterprise buyers

Asked as “AI recruiter”, and as “AI-powered candidate screening tool”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 40 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Eightfold AI
Contested
32% 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 businessManatal25%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketGoPerfect19%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseEightfold AI32%ContestedThis page

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Eightfold AI32%21%47endorsed leader
02HireVue12%19%36accepted challenger
03Workable10%0%11accepted challenger
04Greenhouse8%20%20accepted challenger
05Paradox5%20%30accepted challenger
06iCIMS5%8%12accepted challenger
07SeekOut2%0%12accepted challenger
08SmartRecruiters2%7%15accepted challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10Beamery0%9%11accepted challenger
09Phenom0%0%16accepted 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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Eightfold AI32%
02HireVue12%
03Workable10%
04Greenhouse8%
05Paradox5%
06iCIMS5%
07SeekOut2%
08SmartRecruiters2%
09Phenom0%
10Beamery0%

02What they warned about

Three of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, 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
21%
10 of 47 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“In *Kistler v. Eightfold AI*, a class-action lawsuit asserted that Eightfold AI acted as an unregistered Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA) under the FCRA.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Workday
67%
6 of 9 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“In the landmark class-action lawsuit *Mobley v. Workday*, a federal court ruled that job seekers could sue both the software provider and the employers utilizing it.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
HireVue
19%
7 of 36 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Faced 2020 bias lawsuits over facial recognition and body-language AI... Still criticized for impersonal experiences” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Paradox
20%
6 of 30 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“**Caveat**: **No published pricing** — requires sales negotiation; costs scale by location and volume, which may reduce predictability” Kimi K2, budget 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. 5 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 929 links across 294 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

greenhouse.com
vendor site · Greenhouse29 answers · 33 citations · 10 models
hiretruffle.com
24 answers · 27 citations · 10 models
pin.com
vendor site · Pin23 answers · 32 citations · 9 models
goperfect.com
vendor site · GoPerfect21 answers · 27 citations · 9 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow21 answers · 21 citations · 9 models
metaview.ai
vendor site · Metaview16 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
phenom.com
vendor site · Phenom16 answers · 17 citations · 9 models
lindy.ai
15 answers · 15 citations · 7 models
herohunt.ai
vendor site · HeroHunt.ai14 answers · 17 citations · 8 models
thehirehub.ai
vendor site · TheHireHub.AI12 answers · 14 citations · 8 models
christianandtimbers.com
11 answers · 11 citations · 9 models
resources.workable.com
vendor site · Workable11 answers · 11 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.

greenhouse.com/blog/best-ai-recruiting-software
27 answers · 10 models
guideflow.com/blog/ai-recruiting-software
21 answers · 9 models
hiretruffle.com/blog/ai-recruiting-software
20 answers · 9 models
goperfect.com/blog/8-best-ai-recruiting-software-platforms-for-enterprise-t…
17 answers · 9 models
pin.com/blog/best-ai-recruiting-tools-enterprise
16 answers · 8 models
lindy.ai/blog/best-ai-recruiting-tools-2024
14 answers · 6 models
christianandtimbers.com/insights/top-ai-recruiting-software-pricing-2026-li…
11 answers · 9 models
resources.workable.com/inside-hr/the-best-ai-powered-applicant-tracking-sys…
11 answers · 8 models
anywherer.com/best-ai-recruiting-tools
10 answers · 7 models
joveo.com/blog/best-ai-candidate-screening-tools
9 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 AI recruiter for an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which AI-powered candidate screening tool would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade AI recruiting tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best AI recruiter for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Negative“Which AI recruiting tools should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Workable
Three alternativesEightfold AI, GoodTime, Insight Global
GreenhouseChanged
Three alternativesEightfold AI, HireVue, Paradox
no first choiceGoPerfectagainst: Eightfold AI, Workday Recruiting, iCIMSagainst: Amazon
GPT-5.4 miniSeekOut
Three alternativesEightfold AI, Greenhouse, Workday + HiredScore/Recruiting Agent
GreenhouseChanged
Three alternativesEightfold AI, SeekOut, Workable
against: SmartRecruitersEightfold AI
Five alternativesHireVue, Paradox, Phenom, SmartRecruiters, iCIMS
TalVista
One alternativeHireQuotient
nothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashEightfold AI
Five alternativesFindem, GoodTime, Paradox, Phenom, hireEZ
Eightfold AIHeld
Four alternativesFindem, HireVue, HiredScore, Paradox
Eightfold AI
Seven alternativesGem, HireVue, Metaview, SAP SuccessFactors, SeekOut, Workday, hireEZ
candidate.fyi
Four alternativesEightfold AI, Manatal, Paradox, Phenom
against: Eightfold AI, Workday
Perplexity SonarEightfold AI
Two alternativesGreenhouse, Workday Recruiting
against: Paradox, PinHireVueChanged
One alternativeEightfold AI
no first choiceSmartRecruiters
One alternativeIndeed Smart Sourcing
against: Eightfold AI, LinkedIn Hiring Assistant, Paradoxnothing named
Grok 4.1 FastEightfold AI
Three alternativesBeamery, LinkedIn Recruiter, Phenom
Eightfold AIHeld
Two alternativesHireVue, Workday Recruiting
no first choiceWorkableagainst: Eightfold AI, GoPerfect, Greenhouse, HireVue, Lever, Manatal, Noon, Paradoxagainst: Amazon, Eightfold AI, HireVue, Pymetrics, Workday
Mistral SmallEightfold AI
Four alternativesFindem, Greenhouse, HireVue, Phenom
Eightfold AI, HireVueChangedno first choiceGoPerfect
One alternativeWorkable
nothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashGreenhouse
Four alternativesEightfold AI, Gem, SeekOut, hireEZ
against: ParadoxHireVueChanged
Five alternativesEightfold AI, HiredScore, Paradox, SAP SuccessFactors, VidCruiter
no first choice
Six alternativesEightfold AI, Greenhouse, HireVue, Paradox, Phenom, SeekOut
against: BeameryGoPerfect
Three alternativesNoon, SenseHire Enterprise, Workable
against: Eightfold AI, Fetcher, Greenhouse, HireVue, Lever, LinkedIn Recruiter, Manatalagainst: Ashby, Eightfold AI, Greenhouse, HireVue, Lever, Workday
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceHireVue, Paradox, Sapia.aiChangedPin
One alternativeGem
GoPerfect
Two alternativesLever, Workable
nothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashEightfold AI, Gem
Five alternativesGreenhouse, Paradox, SeekOut, SmartRecruiters, Workday Recruiting
Eightfold AIChanged
Three alternativesHireVue, Paradox, iCIMS
GoPerfect
Seven alternativesEightfold AI, Fetcher, Gem, Greenhouse, HiredScore, Phenom, Pin
GoPerfect
Two alternativesManatal, RightMatch
against: Amazon, Cognisess, Eightfold AI, HireVue, Workday
Kimi K2Eightfold AI
Six alternativesHireVue, Paradox, Pin, SmartRecruiters, Workday Recruiting, iCIMS
Eightfold AIHeld
Two alternativesHireVue, Paradox
no first choiceWorkable, iCIMSagainst: Greenhouse, Lever, Paradoxagainst: Eightfold AI, HireVue, Workday
GLM 4.7 FlashXEightfold AI
Four alternativesBeamery, Paradox, Phenom, SmartRecruiters
HireVueChanged
Four alternativesEightfold AI, Greenhouse, VidCruiter, Workable
Eightfold AI
Eleven alternativesBeamery, BrightHire, Fountain, Gem, Greenhouse, Joveo, Paradox, Phenom, SeekOut, Workable, iCIMS
against: AshbyWorkable
Four alternativesEightfold AI, GoPerfect, HireVue, SeekOut
against: Eightfold AI, HireVue, Paradox, Workday
MiniMax M2.5no first choiceParadoxChanged
Three alternativesEightfold AI, HireVue, Metaview
no first choice
Two alternativesHiredScore, SeekOut
Eightfold AI, iCIMS
Two alternativesParadox, candidate.fyi
against: Huntlonothing named
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 18:32yes1512 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:02yes46 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 20:03yes2122 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:34yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:03yes4021 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:01yes1512 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:21yes1416 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:20yes54 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:53yes517 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:06yes918 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:27yes33111 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:42yes517 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:36yes98 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:07yes55 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:09yes1825 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:49yes206 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:48yes3917 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:36yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:24yes1915 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:24yes54 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:31yes526 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:28yes1020 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:52yes1092 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:34yes525 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:10yes1713 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:51yes1316 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:09yes1227 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:05yes2012 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:08yes2715 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:15yes1913 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:43yes2944 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:46yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:25yes522 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:50yes2040 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:20yes22199 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:05yes1015 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:29yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:27yes24 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:01yes1660 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:54yes207 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:32yes3421 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:33yes59 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:43yes1620 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:56yes84 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:34yes1066 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:54yes2529 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:23yes822 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:38yes1550 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:53yes1812 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:40no019 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:04no046 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:00yes2010 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:10yes1914 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:56no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:25yes1725 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:02yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:23no028 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:38yes2143 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:31yes1250 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:06yes516 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:37yes1811 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:24yes57 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 20:15yes1931 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:42yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:00yes2416 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:40yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:06yes2846 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:01yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:19yes1982 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:02yes1533 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:29yes27124 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:47yes1059 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
Eightfold read as Eightfold AI
SAP (incorporating SmartRecruiters & Winston AI) read as SAP SuccessFactors
Workday Talent Acquisition read as Workday Recruiting
iCIMS Talent Cloud read as iCIMS
Unresolved, counted raw
Cognisess
Indeed Smart Sourcing
Insight Global
LinkedIn Recruiter with Hiring Assistant
RightMatch
SenseHire Enterprise
TalVista
Workday + HiredScore/Recruiting Agent
Workday Paradox
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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