AI Indexes
HR AI Index
September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › Performance and talent management › September 2026 Edition

Performance management

Asked as “performance management software”, and as “performance review tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 56 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
43%
Clear leader
43Lattice12Effy AI11Zoho People34others

43% of first choices, clear leader.

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 twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Lattice43%11%56endorsed leader
02Zoho People11%0%11accepted challenger
0315Five9%4%50accepted challenger
04Leapsome5%0%36accepted challenger
05Teamflect5%9%11accepted challenger
06HiBob4%6%16accepted challenger
07Small Improvements2%0%11accepted challenger
Show the eight products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
15SAP SuccessFactors0%55%20criticized challenger
14Workday HCM Performance Management0%52%27criticized challenger
12BambooHR0%25%28criticized challenger
13Rippling0%10%10accepted challenger
10Betterworks0%8%25accepted challenger
09Culture Amp0%8%25accepted challenger
08PerformYard0%0%25accepted challenger
11Engagedly0%0%11accepted 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-eight head-to-head pages: the top eight 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 →
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Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Lattice43%
02Zoho People11%
0315Five9%
04Leapsome5%
05Teamflect5%
06HiBob4%
07Small Improvements2%
08PerformYard0%
09Culture Amp0%
10Betterworks0%
11Engagedly0%
12BambooHR0%
13Rippling0%
14Workday HCM Performance Management0%
15SAP SuccessFactors0%

What they warned about

Four of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2 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 HCM Performance Management
52%
14 of 27 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“here are the performance management platforms and approaches you should avoid or be cautious about... Multiple sources highlight significant concerns with Workday's native performance module” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
SAP SuccessFactors
55%
11 of 20 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Platforms with Notable Concerns ... SAP SuccessFactors ... Poor UI/UX – frequently described as "not user-friendly," "outdated," and "confusing"appear” Kimi K2, negative prompt
Lattice
11%
6 of 56 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“What to Avoid on a Limited Budget - **Lattice**... minimum commitments make it poor for tight budgets” Kimi K2, budget prompt
BambooHR
25%
7 of 28 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Too basic for scaling, poor customer support, limited depth... Who should avoid: Companies planning rapid growth” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt

What they cite

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

Sites the answers cite

76 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 997 links across 205 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · Betterworks40 answers · 75 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Workhuman36 answers · 38 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Rework30 answers · 40 citations · 10 models
29 answers · 35 citations · 11 models
vendor site · G229 answers · 31 citations · 13 models
vendor site · HiBob29 answers · 29 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Engagedly27 answers · 35 citations · 11 models
26 answers · 26 citations · 11 models
21 answers · 34 citations · 12 models
21 answers · 21 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Deel20 answers · 20 citations · 9 models
vendor site · G219 answers · 37 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.

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 performance management software”, “performance management platforms”, “performance management software”. 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 days
Lattice lattice.com43%66290,50013,900122,123$1,328120
Effy effy.ai
Effy AI 12%
12%116140340,950 company
Zoho parent site
Zoho People 11%
11%2776,60050
15Five 15five.com9%2966,6003232,36222
Leapsome leapsome.com5%2982,9003251,450$18,53160
Teamflect teamflect.com5%1498801212,59230
HiBob hibob.com4%33714,800154266,143$54120
Profit.co profit.co4%117590028,00026
Small Improvements small-improvements.com2%921,00013743,6571
AssessTEAM assessteam.com2%2614003,0975

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 18 sites; 3 of them are among the sites the models cited here (engagedly.com, forbes.com, learn.g2.com). The first result for “best performance management software” is learn.g2.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 performance management software for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which performance review tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top performance management platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best performance management software for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a performance management software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which performance management platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Lattice
Three alternatives15Five, Leapsome, PerformYard
LatticeHeld
Four alternatives15Five, Engagedly, HiBob, Leapsome
Lattice
Four alternatives15Five, Culture Amp, Leapsome, PerformYard
Effy AI, Zoho People
One alternativeSmall Improvements
against: AssessTEAM
no first choiceagainst: ADP Workforce Now, Betterworks, Culture Amp, Lattice, Microsoft Viva, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday HCM Performance Management
GPT-5.4 miniHiBob
Three alternativesLattice, Leapsome, Rippling
LatticeChanged
Four alternativesBambooHR, HiBob, Paylocity, Rippling
no first choiceAssessTEAM
Two alternativesHrider, Teamflect
against: Lattice
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashLattice
Three alternatives15Five, Leapsome, PerformYard
against: SAP SuccessFactors, Workday HCM Performance Management
LeapsomeChanged
Three alternatives15Five, Lattice, Teamflect
Lattice
Six alternatives15Five, Betterworks, Culture Amp, Leapsome, PerformYard, Teamflect
Teamflect
Four alternativesEffy AI, Small Improvements, ThriveSparrow, Zoho People
against: Culture Amp, Lattice
Lattice
Seven alternatives15Five, BambooHR, Culture Amp, HiBob, Leapsome, PerformYard, Rippling
against: SAP SuccessFactors, Workday HCM Performance Management
against: ADP Workforce Now, Dayforce, Hubstaff, Monitask, Paycor, SAP SuccessFactors, Teramind, Workday HCM Performance Management
Perplexity SonarLattice
Four alternativesClearCompany, Culture Amp, Engagedly, PerformYard
LatticeHeld
Four alternatives15Five, BambooHR, HiBob, PerformYard
no first choice
Seven alternatives15Five, Culture Amp, Engagedly, Lattice, Leapsome, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday HCM Performance Management
Zoho People
One alternative15Five
no first choiceagainst: 15Five, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday HCM Performance Management
Grok 4.1 Fast15Five, Lattice
Three alternativesCulture Amp, Deel, HiBob
against: BambooHR, Workday HCM Performance Management
LatticeChanged
Three alternatives15Five, Leapsome, PerformYard
against: Betterworks
no first choiceEffy AI
Five alternativesPerformYard, Small Improvements, Teamflect, Workleap Officevibe, Zoho People
against: 15Five, BambooHR, Lattice
no first choice
Six alternatives15Five, Betterworks, HiBob, Lattice, Leapsome, Paylocity
against: BambooHR, Deel, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday HCM Performance Management
Mistral Small15Five, LatticeLatticeChanged
One alternativeQuantive
no first choiceEffy AI, Leapsome, Teamflect, Zoho People
Two alternativesKeka, Small Improvements
no first choiceagainst: Engage
DeepSeek V4 FlashLattice
Three alternatives15Five, Betterworks, Leapsome
LatticeHeld
Four alternatives15Five, Culture Amp, Engagedly, Leapsome
Lattice
Six alternatives15Five, BambooHR, Betterworks, Leapsome, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday HCM Performance Management
Effy AI
Four alternatives15Five, PerformYard, Small Improvements, Zoho People
against: Lattice
no first choiceagainst: ADP, BambooHR, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, Oracle Taleo, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday HCM Performance Management
Llama 4 MaverickLattice
One alternativeBetterworks
Workhuman ConversationsChanged
One alternativeOrdio
no first choiceProfit.co
Three alternatives15Five, Keka, Zoho People
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashLeverage
Four alternativesBetterworks, BigDeals, Lattice, Spiff
against: Varicent, Xactly
LatticeChanged
Two alternatives15Five, HiBob
against: Lighthouse, Workday HCM Performance Management
Lattice
Seven alternatives15Five, Betterworks, Culture Amp, Gtmhub, Leapsome, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday HCM Performance Management
Effy AI, Zoho People
Four alternatives15Five, AssessTEAM, PeopleGoal, Small Improvements
no first choiceagainst: Oracle, SAP SuccessFactorsagainst: ActivTricks, BambooHR, Blackbaud, Cornerstone OnDemand, Hubstaff, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, Paylocity, SAP SuccessFactors, Teramind, Time Doctor, Workday HCM Performance Management
Kimi K2Lattice
Four alternatives15Five, Culture Amp, Leapsome, PerformYard
15Five, LatticeChanged
Two alternativesCulture Amp, Leapsome
Lattice
Six alternatives15Five, BambooHR, Betterworks, Culture Amp, Leapsome, Workday HCM Performance Management
15Five, Effy AI
Five alternativesAssembly, OrangeHRM, PerformYard, Small Improvements, Workleap Officevibe
against: BambooHR, Lattice
no first choiceagainst: SAP SuccessFactors, Workday HCM Performance Management
GLM 4.7 FlashXLattice
Four alternatives15Five, Culture Amp, Engagedly, Leapsome
LatticeHeld
Two alternativesBetterworks, Quantive
Betterworks
Six alternatives15Five, Culture Amp, Engagedly, Lattice, Leapsome, ThriveSparrow
Leapsome, Profit.co, Teamflect
Five alternatives15Five, AssessTEAM, Engagedly, Lattice, Small Improvements
no first choiceagainst: Teamflect, Workday HCM Performance Management
MiniMax M2.5Lattice
Two alternativesBetterworks, PerformYard
HiBob, LatticeChanged
Four alternatives15Five, Engagedly, PerformYard, Primalogik
Workday HCM Performance Management
Five alternatives15Five, BambooHR, Betterworks, Quantive, Reflektive
Small Improvements
Four alternatives15Five, Leapsome, Teamflect, Trakstar
against: Google Sheets
no first choiceagainst: BambooHR, Gusto
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
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 10:47yes189 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:33yes24 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 10:46yes1925 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 08:23yes203 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 11:13yes2311 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 07:51yes108 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:44yes2232 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 09:12yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:42no034 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 09:06yes1926 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 08:06yes1537 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 11:18yes1836 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 10:11yes98 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 11:17yes26 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 07:54yes1923 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 09:03yes192 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:37yes219 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 08:25yes53 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 07:44yes2325 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 09:28yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 10:27yes923 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:59no021 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 10:52yes1260 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 11:07yes1019 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 10:08yes1010 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:41yes48 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 11:27yes1423 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 09:48yes208 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:43yes2215 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 10:39yes710 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:11yes2337 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 11:47yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 08:10yes1536 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:53yes1428 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 08:23yes1766 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 09:22yes1018 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 10:38yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:36yes14 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:49yes2220 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 10:13yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 07:38yes2013 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 08:42yes87 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:46yes2129 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:36yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:54yes521 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 11:38yes1226 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 08:33yes829 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:08yes821 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 10:41no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 09:03no05 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:37no017 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 09:43yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:37yes1210 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 09:18no09 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:46yes1757 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 11:29yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 11:03no032 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 12:10yes1526 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 08:05yes15153 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:00yes512 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 09:13yes1711 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:16yes27 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 09:06yes2432 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 09:49yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 08:03yes228 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:19yes54 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:01yes2446 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:06yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 07:36no045 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 11:05yes2426 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 09:32yes24104 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 11:36yes1928 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.

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Claude Haiku 4.5
2 of 4 flipped
GPT-5.4 mini
2 of 3 flipped
Gemini 3.5 Flash
3 of 5 flipped
Perplexity Sonar
0 of 3 flipped
Grok 4.1 Fast
5 of 6 flipped
Mistral Small
3 of 4 flipped
DeepSeek V4 Flash
2 of 5 flipped
Llama 4 Maverick
1 of 3 flipped
Qwen 3.7 Flash
3 of 4 flipped
Kimi K2
3 of 4 flipped
GLM 4.7 FlashX
3 of 4 flipped
MiniMax M2.5
3 of 4 flipped

Normalization in this category

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

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Category-scoped readings
Cornerstone read as Cornerstone OnDemand
Deel HR read as Deel
HiBob HRIS read as HiBob
Oracle HCM read as Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM
Workday read as Workday HCM Performance Management
Workday (Performance Module specifically) read as Workday HCM Performance Management
Workday (native performance module) read as Workday HCM Performance Management
Workday HCM read as Workday HCM Performance Management
Workday Performance read as Workday HCM Performance Management
Workday Performance Management read as Workday HCM Performance Management
Workleap read as Workleap Officevibe
Unresolved, counted raw
ActivTricks
BigDeals
Breathe
Odoo Appraisals
Vantage 360
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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