# Skills intelligence: what AI models recommend, October 2026

HR AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "skills intelligence platform" and as "skills taxonomy and inference tool", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://hr-ai-index.com/performance/skills-intelligence/

**Standing:** Skills Base leads with 18% of first choices; verdict contested. 55 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Skills Base | 18% | 0% | 16 |
| 2 | TalentGuard | 13% | 0% | 14 |
| 3 | iMocha | 9% | 5% | 19 |
| 4 | 365Talents | 7% | 0% | 11 |
| 5 | TechWolf | 7% | 0% | 11 |
| 6 | MuchSkills | 5% | 0% | 11 |
| 7 | Fuel50 | 4% | 0% | 14 |
| 8 | Gloat | 4% | 48% | 23 |
| 9 | Degreed | 2% | 0% | 11 |
| 10 | Workday Skills Cloud | 2% | 24% | 17 |
| 11 | Eightfold AI | 2% | 55% | 31 |
| 12 | Coursera | 0% | 10% | 21 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: INOP; alternatives Fuel50, Skillsoft Percipio
- GPT-5.4 mini: 365Talents; alternatives Eightfold AI, SkillPanel
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: iMocha; alternatives Fuel50, Retrain.ai, TalentGuard
- Perplexity Sonar: 365Talents; alternatives Docebo, Workday Skills Cloud
- Grok 4.1 Fast: TalentGuard, iMocha; alternatives 365Talents, Engagedly, Fuel50, Gloat
- Mistral Small: Fuel50, Neobrain; alternatives TalentGuard, TechWolf
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: TalentGuard; alternatives Lightcast Open Skills, iMocha
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: TalentGuard, TechWolf; alternatives AG5, Eightfold AI, Gloat, iMocha
- Kimi K2: TalentGuard; alternatives 365Talents, Fuel50, TechWolf, iMocha
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: iMocha; alternatives 365Talents, Fuel50
- MiniMax M2.5: Fuel50, iMocha Skills Intelligence Cloud; alternatives Bryq, Engagedly, TalentGuard WorkforceGPT
- GPT-6 Luna: Workday Skills Cloud; alternatives TechWolf
- Muse Glimmer 30B: TalentGuard; alternatives Eightfold AI, SAP SuccessFactors Skills, Skills Base, Workday Skills Cloud

## Sources the answers cite

76 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- firsthr.app: 25 answers, 27 citations
- hrtechsaas.com: 24 answers, 34 citations
- g2.com: 21 answers, 28 citations
- skillpanel.com: 21 answers, 23 citations
- guideflow.com: 19 answers, 21 citations
- fuel50.com: 18 answers, 27 citations
- linkedin.com: 17 answers, 30 citations
- skywork.ai: 16 answers, 17 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://firsthr.app/compare/training/skills-management-software (24 answers)
- https://hrtechsaas.com/blog/skills-intelligence-software (22 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/skills-assessment-software (14 answers)
- https://fuel50.com/blog/skills-intelligence-platforms (11 answers)
- https://365talents.com/en/resources/skills-intelligence-platform-buyers-guide (10 answers)
- https://coursebox.ai/blog/best-online-learning-platforms (9 answers)
- https://pin.com/blog/talent-intelligence-software (9 answers)
- https://docebo.com/learning-network/blog/skills-intelligence-platforms (8 answers)
- https://engagedly.com/blog/best-talent-mobility-softwares (8 answers)
- https://cloudassess.com/blog/best-skills-intelligence-platforms (7 answers)

## Warned against

- Gloat: 11 of 23 labels negative. "avoid Eightfold AI, Gloat, and Firefly Talent unless you have over $1M in annual HR spend" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- Eightfold AI: 17 of 31 labels negative. "Option C: Avoid for mid-sized B2B ... Powerful but enterprise-priced; six-figure minimums; overkill for mid-market" (Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt)
- Skillshare: 8 of 14 labels negative. "Skillshare — Approach with Caution ... Called a "complete scam" by multiple users" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- Udemy Business: 7 of 21 labels negative. "Open Marketplace Platforms (e.g., Udemy) - Quality varies widely between instructors since anyone can create and sell courses" (MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 13 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
New leader: TalentGuard (19%) to Skills Base (16%). Margin 6 points, within noise.

- TalentGuard: 19% to 10%, −9. Inside the floor by 4 points · rank 1 → 3 of 117.
- Lightcast Open Skills: 9% to 4%, −4. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 4 → 8 of 117.
- Gloat: 0% to 4%, +4. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 160 → 10 of 117.
- Eightfold AI: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 8 → 22 of 117.
- Degreed: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 30 → 11 of 117.
- Fuel50: 2% to 4%, +2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 9 → 7 of 117.
- 365Talents: 6% to 8%, +2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 6 → 4 of 117.
- iMocha: 9% to 10%, +2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 3 → 2 of 117.
- Skills Base: 17% to 16%, −1. Inside the floor by 12 points · rank 2 → 1 of 117.
- TechWolf: 9% to 8%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 5 of 117, unchanged.
- Coursera: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 22 → 23 of 117.
- LinkedIn Learning: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 20 → 24 of 117.

## Record

- Method: https://hr-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://hr-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as HR AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, hr-ai-index.com.