§ The result
Brainner leads Mercor on all 7 criteria.
The Screening cohort pairing of Brainner and Mercor comes out 46 to 23 under rubric v1.0, a 23-point lead for Brainner. Brainner leads every one of the 7 criteria and 4 of them by 20 raw points or more, Article 11 Technical Documentation among them; Mercor leads none. Bias Audit Transparency is the widest raw gap (Brainner 42, Mercor 10) but not the heaviest weighted swing, which is Article 11 Technical Documentation at 20% (Brainner 52, Mercor 22), 26% of the weighted advantage Brainner builds across the 7 criteria it leads.
Vendor profile
Brainner
Brainner is an AI screening layer for applicant tracking systems that scores and ranks applicants against recruiter-weighted criteria with per-criterion justifications, and flags suspected fake applicants using third-party identity and fraud data.
Vendor profile
Mercor
Mercor is an AI talent platform that runs automated 20-minute AI video interviews and semantic resume/profile matching to vet, score, and place candidates and expert contractors, and offers an enterprise applicant-screening product that scores employers' applicant pools against role rubrics with pass/fail recommendations.
§ The record
Brainner and Mercor are both filed under Screening AI. They also share 1 secondary category: Sourcing.
Both are in scope of EU AI Act, NYC LL 144, Colorado AI Act and Illinois HB 3773. Only Mercor is in scope of Mobley v. Workday.
| Record | Brainner | Mercor |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Low | Enterprise |
| Headquarters | US | US |
| Founded | 2023 | 2023 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
20% weight · 26% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Brainner 52 · Mercor 22
6.0 weighted points to Brainner
18% weight · 50% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Brainner 42 · Mercor 10
5.8 weighted points to Brainner
15% weight · 70% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Brainner 53 · Mercor 22
4.6 weighted points to Brainner
12% weight · 83% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Brainner 45 · Mercor 20
3.0 weighted points to Brainner
15% weight · 90% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
Brainner 30 · Mercor 20
1.5 weighted points to Brainner
8% weight · 96% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Brainner 58 · Mercor 40
1.4 weighted points to Brainner
12% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Brainner 50 · Mercor 42
1.0 weighted points to Brainner
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to +23.3 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 23.3 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads +23 beside that +23.3.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Brainner minus Mercor.
| Category | Weight | Brainner | Mercor | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 52 | 22 | +30 | +6.0 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 42 | 10 | +32 | +5.8 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 30 | 20 | +10 | +1.5 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 53 | 22 | +31 | +4.6 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 50 | 42 | +8 | +1.0 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 45 | 20 | +25 | +3.0 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 58 | 40 | +18 | +1.4 |
| Total | 100% | 46 (F) | 23 (F) | +23 | +23.3 |
§ Evidence
Cited sources and documented absences, criterion by criterion.
An absence is a finding, not a blank: the reviewer looked for a named artefact and recorded that it is not located. Where a source sits is a fact about hosting only.
| Criterion | Weight | Brainner | Mercor | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 6 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 1 | 1 | — |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 2 | — |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 6 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 6 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | — |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 33 | 4 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 10 | 8 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
Brainner has 37 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 33 with a source URL, 4 documented absences; Mercor has 16 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 10 with a source URL, 8 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for Brainner sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 53 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 37 for Brainner, across 2 distinct source domains, and 16 for Mercor, across 4 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Brainner last reviewed
- September 25, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- Mercor last reviewed
- June 7, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
HireAIScore scores are editorial research, not legal advice, and no vendor pays for placement, scoring or removal — see the methodology, conflicts policy and terms.
§ Where next