§ The result
Braintrust AIR leads softgarden on all 7 criteria.
Under rubric v1.0, Braintrust AIR (Screening) opens a 17-point lead on softgarden (ATS-integrated), 59 to 42. Of the 7 criteria softgarden wins none, and the narrowest lead Braintrust AIR holds is on Data Governance Disclosure, Braintrust AIR 56 to softgarden 54. Bias Audit Transparency is both the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing — Braintrust AIR 75, softgarden 22 — and at an 18% weight it carries 57% of the weighted advantage Braintrust AIR holds across the 7 criteria on that side of the table.
Vendor profile
Braintrust AIR
Braintrust AIR is an enterprise AI interviewer that runs recorded conversational voice interviews, scores the transcribed answers against recruiter-editable rubric criteria, and sends ranked scorecards, transcripts and recordings to the employer's ATS for human review.
Vendor profile
softgarden
softgarden is a German cloud applicant tracking system (multiposting, career sites, applicant management and onboarding) with optional AI features: AI-Assisted Applicant Matching, which highlights applicants who closely match a job's requirements, and a newer LLM-based Screening Assistant, which scores each applicant against screening criteria.
§ The record
Braintrust AIR is filed under Screening AI, softgarden under ATS-integrated AI. They record no secondary category in common.
Both are in scope of EU AI Act, NYC LL 144, Illinois HB 3773 and Colorado AI Act. Only Braintrust AIR is in scope of Mobley v. Workday.
| Record | Braintrust AIR | softgarden |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Enterprise | Mid |
| Headquarters | US | DE |
| Founded | 2018 | 2001 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 57% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Braintrust AIR 75 · softgarden 22
9.5 weighted points to Braintrust AIR
20% weight · 76% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Braintrust AIR 58 · softgarden 42
3.2 weighted points to Braintrust AIR
12% weight · 89% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Braintrust AIR 62 · softgarden 44
2.2 weighted points to Braintrust AIR
15% weight · 93% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
Braintrust AIR 35 · softgarden 30
0.8 weighted points to Braintrust AIR
12% weight · 96% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Braintrust AIR 62 · softgarden 58
0.5 weighted points to Braintrust AIR
8% weight · 98% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Braintrust AIR 63 · softgarden 58
0.4 weighted points to Braintrust AIR
15% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Braintrust AIR 56 · softgarden 54
0.3 weighted points to Braintrust AIR
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to +16.8 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 16.8 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads +17 beside that +16.8.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Braintrust AIR minus softgarden.
| Category | Weight | Braintrust AIR | softgarden | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 58 | 42 | +16 | +3.2 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 75 | 22 | +53 | +9.5 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 35 | 30 | +5 | +0.8 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 56 | 54 | +2 | +0.3 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 62 | 58 | +4 | +0.5 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 62 | 44 | +18 | +2.2 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 63 | 58 | +5 | +0.4 |
| Total | 100% | 59 (F) | 42 (F) | +17 | +16.8 |
§ 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 | Braintrust AIR | softgarden | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 6 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 5 | 0 | Audit reportSources on a separate domain | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 5 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 7 | 0 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 5 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 5 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 4 | 0 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 5 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 29 | 3 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 31 | 5 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
Braintrust AIR has 32 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 29 with a source URL, 3 documented absences; softgarden has 36 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 31 with a source URL, 5 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for Braintrust AIR sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 68 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 32 for Braintrust AIR, across 4 distinct source domains, and 36 for softgarden, across 3 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Braintrust AIR last reviewed
- September 25, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- softgarden last reviewed
- September 25, 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