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September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since.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 › 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. 49 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
31%
Contested · Workable 22%
31Manatal22Workable10Greenhouse37others

31% of first choices, contested.

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
01Manatal31%0%24endorsed leader
02Workable22%4%26accepted challenger
03Greenhouse10%23%26accepted challenger
04Zoho Recruit8%0%13accepted challenger
05Gem6%0%13accepted challenger
06Humanly4%10%10accepted challenger
07Ashby4%17%12accepted challenger
08Juicebox2%0%10accepted challenger
09HireVue2%35%23criticized challenger
10Eightfold AI2%38%26criticized challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
15Workday Recruiting0%75%12criticized challenger
13Paradox0%22%27accepted challenger
14Lever0%20%20accepted challenger
12hireEZ0%6%18accepted challenger
11SeekOut0%0%18accepted 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 →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
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Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Manatal31%
02Workable22%
03Greenhouse10%
04Zoho Recruit8%
05Gem6%
06Humanly4%
07Ashby4%
08Juicebox2%
09HireVue2%
10Eightfold AI2%
11SeekOut0%
12hireEZ0%
13Paradox0%
14Lever0%
15Workday Recruiting0%

What 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, Grok 4.1 Fast, 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 Recruiting
75%
9 of 12 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“Mobley v. Workday, Inc., has drawn national attention, where the plaintiff alleged that Workday's AI-powered applicant screening tools discriminated against applicants based on race, age, and disability.” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
HireVue
35%
8 of 23 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“HireVue is one of the vendors named in ongoing FCRA investigations and in a 2025 disability / race complaint.” Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt
Eightfold AI
38%
10 of 26 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Eightfold AI and Workday's AI screening modules currently carry the most significant legal and reputational risk based on active litigation.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Paradox
22%
6 of 27 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Critics argue that interpreting text messages for personality traits lacks scientific rigor” Qwen 3.7 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

77 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. 1024 links across 315 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · Pin34 answers · 48 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Lever24 answers · 26 citations · 11 models
23 answers · 25 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Greenhouse23 answers · 24 citations · 11 models
vendor site · HeroHunt.ai20 answers · 31 citations · 10 models
18 answers · 25 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Recruiterflow17 answers · 19 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Guideflow16 answers · 16 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Zapier16 answers · 16 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Metaview15 answers · 18 citations · 7 models
vendor site · Juicebox15 answers · 17 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Rework15 answers · 16 citations · 11 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 “ai recruiter”, “ai recruiting tools”, “best ai recruiter”. 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
Manatal manatal.com31%2942,40026773,150120
Workable workable.com22%30814,800520698,499$14,56277
Greenhouse greenhouse.com10%419301,00052,27362,551$5,54574
Zoho zoho.com
Zoho Recruit 8%
8%3222,900461,216,894 company$51,031119
Gem gem.com6%209246,000225,11616,29110
Humanly humanly.io4%212,9001,22518,39211
Ashby ashbyhq.com4%16049,5003,112216,82016
Juicebox juicebox.ai2%8749,50097640,220$2,85088
Hirevire hirevire.com2%6521004440
Breezy breezy.hr
Breezy HR 2%
2%1893,60059178,670 company$5625

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 20 sites; 5 of them are among the sites the models cited here (hiretruffle.com, metaview.ai, peoplemanagingpeople.com, recruiterflow.com, zapier.com). The first result for “ai recruiter” is reddit.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 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
Five alternativesAshby, Greenhouse, Manatal, Pin, hireEZ
no first choiceChangedHeyMilo
Eight alternativesEightfold AI, HireVue, Maki People, Metaview, Paradox, SeekOut Recruit, Textio, hireEZ
Manatal, Zoho Recruit
Four alternativesHiredAI, JazzHR, Pin, Recooty
no first choiceagainst: Workday Recruiting, iTutorGroup
GPT-5.4 miniGem
Two alternatives100Hires, Greenhouse
GreenhouseChanged
Four alternativesHireVue, Lever, Paradox, Workable
no first choice
Four alternativesEightfold AI, Paradox, SeekOut, Workable
Workableagainst: Humanlyno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashGem
Four alternativesJuicebox, Metaview, Moonhub, hireEZ
HumanlyChanged
Three alternativesCodeSignal, TestGorilla, Workable
against: HiredScore, Paradox
Paradox
Eight alternativesFindem, Gem, HireVue, Humanly, Juicebox, LinkedIn"s Hiring Assistant, Manatal, Truffle
against: Eightfold AI
Manatal
Four alternativesBreezy HR, Juicebox, Recooty, Zoho Recruit
against: Eightfold AI, LinkedIn Recruiter, Paradox, hireEZ
no first choiceagainst: Ashby, Eightfold AI, Greenhouse, HireVue, Lever, Workday Recruiting
Perplexity SonarWorkable
Three alternativesLinkedIn Hiring Assistant, Paradox, SeekOut
against: Greenhouse
WorkableHeld
Three alternativesHumanly, Manatal, Pin
no first choiceManatal
Two alternativesAvaHR, Truffle
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastWorkable
Four alternativesGreenhouse, Lever, Manatal, Pin
ManatalChanged
Three alternativesHirevire, Recruitee, Skima AI
no first choiceManatal
Two alternativesQureos, Zoho Recruit
Manatal
Two alternativesJuicebox, Monday Agents
against: Amazon’s Recruiting AI, Eightfold AI, Paradox, Workday Recruiting
Mistral SmallWorkable
Three alternativesGreenhouse, SeekOut, hireEZ
Eightfold AI, Skima AIChanged
Two alternativesRecruitee, VidCruiter
no first choiceManatal, Zoho Recruitno first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashGem
Two alternativesWorkable, hireEZ
against: Paradox
WorkableChanged
Three alternativesGoPerfect, Lever, Manatal
against: Greenhouse
no first choiceagainst: Eightfold AI, HireVueManatal
Three alternativesBreezy HR, Huntlo, Zoho Recruit
no first choiceagainst: Amazon's AI Recruiting Tool, Eightfold AI, HireVue, Workday Recruiting
Llama 4 MaverickGreenhouse
Three alternativesSeekOut, Workable, hireEZ
no first choiceChangedno first choiceManatal
One alternativeZoho Recruit
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashWorkable
Three alternativesGreenhouse, SeekOut, hireEZ
HirevireChanged
Two alternativesGreenhouse, Paradox
Eightfold AI, Paradox, SeekOut
Three alternativesGem, HireVue, hireEZ
against: Modern Hire
Manatal, Zoho Recruitagainst: Greenhouse, Leverno first choiceagainst: Checkster, Greenhouse, HireVue, Lever, Paradox, Pymetrics, Workday Recruiting
Kimi K2Greenhouse, Workable
Two alternativesLever, Paradox
WorkableChanged
Two alternativesBreezy HR, Recruitee
against: Lever
no first choice
Eight alternativesEightfold AI, Gem, HireVue, Juicebox, Paradox, Phenom, SeekOut, hireEZ
Manatal
Two alternativesHiredAI, Zoho Recruit
no first choiceagainst: Amazon, Eightfold AI, HireVue, Workday Recruiting
GLM 4.7 FlashXGreenhouse
Seven alternativesAlex, Ashby, BrightHire, Gem, Humanly, Lever, Manatal
ManatalChanged
Three alternativesHirevire, Skima AI, Workable
no first choiceManatal
Three alternativesMetaview, Qureos, Zoho Recruit
against: Workable
no first choiceagainst: Amazon’s Past "Recruiting Engine", CVViZ, Eightfold AI, HireVue, Ideal, Skillate, Workday Recruiting
MiniMax M2.5Workable
Four alternativesGreenhouse, Humanly, Lever, SeekOut
HireVue, JuiceboxChanged
Two alternativesMetaview, Pymetrics
no first choiceManatal, Zoho Recruit
One alternativeHirevire
no first choiceagainst: Paradoxagainst: Amazon's AI Recruiting Tool, Workday Recruiting
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 11:32yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:56yes25 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:37yes1929 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 09:29yes203 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 07:50yes228 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 07:43yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 11:16yes2529 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 09:58yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 07:59yes522 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 10:08yes2026 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 10:01yes2536 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:42yes723 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 09:59no04 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:03yes68 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 07:58yes1827 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 07:59yes203 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:48yes247 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 08:10yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 09:33yes2324 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 08:31yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 10:22yes1056 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:28yes2022 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 08:05yes1566 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 11:21yes510 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 10:49yes1512 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 08:05yes812 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 10:17yes924 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 09:24yes195 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 09:57yes229 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:34yes86 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:22yes2229 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 08:18yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 10:59no030 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 10:39yes1528 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 10:27yes2077 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:22yes1525 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 09:58yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 08:49yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:51yes1421 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 07:49yes202 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:52yes237 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 07:49yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 12:08yes2422 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 08:34yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 11:49yes518 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 09:51yes913 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 10:18yes21142 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:41yes513 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 11:08no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 08:01no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 09:56yes1227 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 11:41yes204 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 08:50yes147 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 08:58no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 07:58yes2434 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:05yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:51no028 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:11yes1015 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 08:46yes1571 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:44yes514 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 08:42yes189 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 08:37yes68 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:54yes2326 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 11:40yes295 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 08:39yes2410 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 09:42yes57 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:05yes2345 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:00yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 08:18no040 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:00yes2428 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 12:12yes24139 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:50yes1028 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.

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

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Eightfold read as Eightfold AI
Workday read as Workday Recruiting
Workday (AI-powered recruiting module) read as Workday Recruiting
Workday Talent Acquisition read as Workday Recruiting
Unresolved, counted raw
AiRA chat
Amazon's abandoned recruiting engine
Amazon’s Past "Recruiting Engine"
Closely
JusRecruit
Lever By Employ
LinkedIn"s Hiring Assistant
Maki People
Mya
Scout Talent Fetcher
Skillate
Sonia
TextKernel
Workday AI screening
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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