§ The result
BrightHire leads Cognisess on all 7 criteria.
Under rubric v1.0, BrightHire (Screening) opens a 21-point lead on Cognisess (Assessment), 51 to 30. Cognisess leads none of the 7 criteria, and BrightHire is ahead on 3 of them by 20 raw points or more, Article 11 Technical Documentation among them. The widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing fall on different criteria: Bias Audit Transparency (BrightHire 50, Cognisess 20) and Article 11 Technical Documentation at 20% (BrightHire 52, Cognisess 25), the second being 26% of the weighted advantage BrightHire holds across the 7 criteria on that side of the table.
Vendor profile
BrightHire
BrightHire is an interview intelligence platform that records, transcribes and analyzes hiring interviews into competency-structured notes and ATS scorecards, and additionally runs AI-led screening interviews (BrightHire Screen) that score and rank candidates against customer-defined rubrics.
Vendor profile
Cognisess
UK talent-analytics platform that scores candidates and employees with 50+ game-based and questionnaire assessments and weighted job-fit 'profilers', can auto-pass or auto-reject applicants against score thresholds, and runs recorded video interviews with optional DeepLearn video analytics.
§ The record
BrightHire is filed under Screening AI, Cognisess under Assessment AI. They also share 1 secondary category: Video interview.
Both are in scope of EU AI Act, NYC LL 144, Illinois HB 3773, Colorado AI Act and Mobley v. Workday.
| Record | BrightHire | Cognisess |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | High | Mid |
| Headquarters | US | GB |
| Founded | 2019 | 2011 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
20% weight · 26% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
BrightHire 52 · Cognisess 25
5.4 weighted points to BrightHire
18% weight · 51% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
BrightHire 50 · Cognisess 20
5.4 weighted points to BrightHire
15% weight · 64% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
BrightHire 60 · Cognisess 42
2.7 weighted points to BrightHire
15% weight · 76% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
BrightHire 36 · Cognisess 20
2.4 weighted points to BrightHire
12% weight · 86% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
BrightHire 60 · Cognisess 42
2.2 weighted points to BrightHire
8% weight · 94% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
BrightHire 62 · Cognisess 40
1.8 weighted points to BrightHire
12% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
BrightHire 42 · Cognisess 32
1.2 weighted points to BrightHire
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to +21.0 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 21.0 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads +21 beside that +21.0.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is BrightHire minus Cognisess.
| Category | Weight | BrightHire | Cognisess | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 52 | 25 | +27 | +5.4 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 50 | 20 | +30 | +5.4 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 36 | 20 | +16 | +2.4 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 60 | 42 | +18 | +2.7 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 60 | 42 | +18 | +2.2 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 42 | 32 | +10 | +1.2 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 62 | 40 | +22 | +1.8 |
| Total | 100% | 51 (F) | 30 (F) | +21 | +21.0 |
§ 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 | BrightHire | Cognisess | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 2 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | — |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 5 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 5 | 0 | Sources on a separate domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 16 | 7 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 21 | 5 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
BrightHire has 23 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 16 with a source URL, 7 documented absences; Cognisess has 26 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 21 with a source URL, 5 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for Cognisess sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 49 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 23 for BrightHire, across 2 distinct source domains, and 26 for Cognisess, across 5 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- BrightHire last reviewed
- August 2, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- Cognisess 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