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September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since.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

Candidate assessment

Asked as “pre-employment assessment platform”, and as “skills testing tool for hiring”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 48 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
52%
Clear leader
52TestGorilla19Criteria Corp04Evalart25others

52% 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
01TestGorilla52%11%53endorsed leader
02Criteria Corp19%14%35accepted challenger
03HackerRank2%9%23accepted challenger
04Testlify2%8%12accepted challenger
05CodeSignal2%8%13accepted challenger
Show the seven products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
12HireVue0%32%19criticized challenger
11The Predictive Index0%20%15accepted challenger
10SHL0%15%13accepted challenger
07Codility0%13%15accepted challenger
06Vervoe0%4%25accepted challenger
08Bryq0%0%10accepted challenger
09Harver0%0%10accepted 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 fifteen head-to-head pages: the top six 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
12
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative70%
Key
01TestGorilla52%
02Criteria Corp19%
03HackerRank2%
04Testlify2%
05CodeSignal2%
06Vervoe0%
07Codility0%
08Bryq0%
09Harver0%
10SHL0%
11The Predictive Index0%
12HireVue0%

What they warned about

Four of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, 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.
TestGorilla
11%
6 of 53 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“**Why Avoid:** If you have a limited budget or require responsive technical support, this platform may lead to frustration.” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
HireVue
32%
6 of 19 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Facial analysis in video interviews flagged for bias FTC investigation... ACLU Colorado filed a complaint with the EEOC... against Intuit, Inc. and its AI vendor HireVue.†},{” Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt
ProctorU
100%
4 of 4 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Frequent reports of technical glitches, connection failures during exams... with an F rating on BBB” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Criteria Corp
14%
5 of 35 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“**Avoid:** Criteria Corp, Wonderlic, and HireVue if budget is a concern” Kimi K2, budget 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

70 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. 986 links across 267 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · TestGorilla36 answers · 56 citations · 12 models
vendor site · FirstHR32 answers · 35 citations · 10 models
22 answers · 26 citations · 8 models
vendor site · G221 answers · 40 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Bryq18 answers · 23 citations · 8 models
18 answers · 20 citations · 10 models
vendor site · AIHR18 answers · 18 citations · 7 models
18 answers · 18 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Pin17 answers · 17 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Cangrade16 answers · 16 citations · 7 models
vendor site · JobCannon15 answers · 19 citations · 11 models
15 answers · 18 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.

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 “assessment platforms”, “best pre-employment assessment platform”, “pre-employment assessment platform”. 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 daysBest Google position
TestGorilla testgorilla.com52%2534,40017058,548$46276
Criteria criteriacorp.com
Criteria Corp 19%
19%982,40039103,671 company$6,427633
Toggl toggl.com
Toggl Hire 4%
4%38701257,259 company30
Hirevire hirevire.com4%6521004440
Evalart4%
TestDome testdome.com4%398802234,7090
HackerRank hackerrank.com2%24833,1001,11658,69922
Testlify testlify.com2%45480643,58608
CodeSignal codesignal.com2%17314,800548152,420$5,32323
JobCannon jobcannon.io2%10700479,796

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 18 sites; 3 of them are among the sites the models cited here (aihr.com, hiretruffle.com, peoplemanagingpeople.com). The first result for “assessment platforms” is testportal.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 pre-employment assessment platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which skills testing tool for hiring would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top assessment platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best pre-employment assessment platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a pre-employment assessment platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which assessment platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceHackerRank, TestDomeChanged
Five alternativesCodility, Criteria Corp, Outset, Pymetrics, Vervoe
no first choiceTestGorilla
Three alternativesEmployTest, Testlify, Toggl Hire
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniTestGorilla
Three alternativesCodility, HackerRank, Mercer | Mettl
TestGorillaHeld
Two alternativesCodility, HackerRank
no first choiceTestGorilla
One alternativePrevue Assessments
against: Indeed Hiring Platform, Testlify, The Predictive Index
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashTestGorilla
Three alternativesCriteria Corp, The Predictive Index, Vervoe
TestGorillaHeld
Three alternativesCriteria Corp, Testlify, Vervoe
no first choiceJobCannon
Three alternativesCoderbyte, Testlify, Toggl Hire
against: CodeSignal, HackerRank, TestGorilla
no first choiceagainst: ExamSoft, HireVue, Honorlock, ProctorU, Proctorio, Respondus LockDown Browser
Perplexity SonarCriteria Corp
Three alternativesHireVue, TestGorilla, The Predictive Index
TestGorillaChanged
Four alternativesBryq, SHL, TestDome, iMocha
no first choiceTestlify
One alternativeTestGorilla
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastCriteria Corp
Three alternativesHireVue, TestGorilla, The Predictive Index
TestGorillaChanged
One alternativeHackerRank
against: Codility, Vervoe, eSkill
TestGorilla
Four alternativesHackerRank, Harver, HireVue, SHL
TestGorilla
Five alternativesEmployTest, HackerRank, Testlify, Toggl Hire, Vervoe
no first choiceagainst: Coderbyte, Educational Testing Service, ProctorU, TestGorilla
Mistral SmallCriteria Corp, Evalart
One alternativeAdaface
TestGorillaChanged
Two alternativesEvalart, iMocha
Mercer | Mettl, TestGorilla
Six alternativesBryq, Hirevire, Manatal, Vervoe, VidCruiter, Workday
Hirevire, Toggl Hire
Two alternativesCanditech, Vervoe
no first choiceagainst: Kahoot!, Nearpod, Quizizz, TestGorilla
DeepSeek V4 FlashCriteria Corp
Two alternativesTestGorilla, eSkill
against: Indeed Assessments, Mercer | Mettl
TestGorillaChanged
Three alternativesBryq, Criteria Corp, Vervoe
HackerRank, TestGorilla
Eight alternativesBlackboard, Canvas LMS, Codility, Criteria Corp, Mercer | Mettl, Moodle, ProProfs Quiz Maker, eSkill
against: Quizlet
TestGorilla
Four alternativesEmployTest, Testlify, Toggl Hire, Vervoe
against: Criteria Corp, HireVue, The Predictive Index
no first choiceagainst: Enneagram, HireVue, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceCodeSignal, Criteria CorpChanged
One alternativeTestGorilla
no first choiceTestGorillano first choiceagainst: TestGorilla
Qwen 3.7 FlashTestGorilla
Three alternativesCodeSignal, HireVue, Humantic AI
against: Criteria Corp
TestGorillaHeld
Two alternativesHackerRank, Vervoe
HackerRank, TestGorilla
Five alternativesCanditech, CodeSignal, CoderPad, Truffle, Vervoe
Pin
Three alternativesCoderPad, JobCannon, Testlify
against: Criteria Corp, SHL, The Predictive Index
no first choiceagainst: CCPA, Cut-e, Examity, HireVue, ModernMetric, Paradox, ProctorU, Respondus LockDown Browser, Spark Hire, TestGorilla
Kimi K2Criteria Corp
Four alternativesTestGorilla, The Predictive Index, Vervoe, Wonderlic
TestGorillaChanged
Five alternativesCriteria Corp, HackerRank, Vervoe, eSkill, iMocha
TestGorilla
Six alternativesBryq, Codility, Criteria Corp, HackerRank, Harver, Vervoe
Hirevire, TestGorilla
Three alternativesBryq, Testlify, Vervoe
against: Criteria Corp, HireVue, Wonderlic
Criteria Corp, Plum
One alternativeTestGorilla
against: ETS, Mercer | Mettl, TestLibrary.com
GLM 4.7 FlashXTestGorilla
Two alternativesTestlify, Vervoe
TestGorillaHeld
Six alternativesBryq, Canditech, Codility, HackerRank, Harver, Hirevire
no first choiceTestGorilla
Two alternativesToggl Hire, Vervoe
no first choiceagainst: Amira Learning, AssessPrep, Edsby, TestGorilla, i-Ready
MiniMax M2.5Evalart, Toggl HireTestGorillaChanged
Four alternativesBryq, CodeSignal, HireVue, iMocha
no first choice
Four alternativesCanvas, ExamSoft, Kahoot!, Quizizz
against: Google Forms, Microsoft Forms, Moodle
TestDome
Two alternativesTestGorilla, Toggl Hire
no first choiceagainst: ExamSoft, Examity, Honorlock, ProctorU, Proctorio, Proctortrack, Respondus LockDown Browser
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 07:51no05 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:12yes47 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:45yes1331 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 07:47yes193 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 08:37yes258 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 07:48yes126 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 11:29yes2234 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:45yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 10:43no028 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:03yes1428 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 10:28yes22238 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 09:35yes510 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 10:45no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 09:22yes46 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:21yes1020 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 08:54yes203 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 09:02yes227 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:36yes137 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 09:49yes2438 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:27yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 11:16no030 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 11:55yes2024 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 10:55yes1526 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 07:57yes1027 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 07:36yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 11:56yes68 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:18yes1420 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 08:35yes173 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 08:09yes2410 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:52yes98 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 09:22yes2433 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 11:15yes51 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 08:14yes1047 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 09:25yes1521 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 07:49yes2149 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 09:27yes1326 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 10:37yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 09:46yes35 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:08yes1521 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 09:15yes203 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 11:38yes1510 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 10:12yes249 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 09:44yes2222 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 11:35yes51 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 10:47yes529 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 11:50yes2235 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 08:14yes1117 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:59yes1024 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 09:14no08 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:35no05 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 09:24no014 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 09:48yes336 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:59yes139 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 09:06no09 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 11:50yes1737 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:37yes52 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:56no030 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 12:06yes2239 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 08:33yes1185 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 09:27no07 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 10:35no02 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:55no02 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 10:01yes2125 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 10:34yes243 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 09:14yes248 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 08:01yes54 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 11:36yes2547 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 09:11yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 08:15no040 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:55yes1014 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 09:35yes24295 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:22yes1533 s

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
Criteria read as Criteria Corp
Criteria (HireSelect) read as Criteria Corp
Criteria (formerly CritiCorp) read as Criteria Corp
Hogan read as Hogan Assessments
Unresolved, counted raw
ACIS IQ Test
AhaSlides
Amira Learning
Big Five (OCEAN)
Brilliant Assessments
C-Factor AI
CCPA (Cornell University / Pearson)
Culture Index
Cut-e (by Aon)
ETS (Educational Testing Service)
Edcafe AI
Edsby
Educational Testing Service (ETS, e.g., TOEFL/TOEIC proctored tests)
Exam.net
Humantic AI
Indeed Assessments
Kforce
Mercer Assessments
ModernMetric
NWEA MAP Growth
Nexam
Otus
Outset
Pear Assessment
Pearson
Proctortrack
Pysh
Revision Village
TestLibrary.com
Toddle
Wayground
i-Ready (Curriculum Associates)
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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