§ The result
Paylocity leads Cognisess on all 7 criteria.
Paylocity, filed under ATS-integrated, comes out 13 points above Cognisess, filed under Assessment: 43 against 30 under rubric v1.0. Paylocity takes all 7 criteria from Cognisess without a 20-point raw gap on any of them; the closest is Human Oversight Design, Cognisess 42 to Paylocity 50. The advantage Paylocity holds is spread out: Article 11 Technical Documentation is both the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing (Cognisess 25, Paylocity 44, 20% weight), yet it supplies only 29% of the weighted points Paylocity gains across the 7 criteria it leads.
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.
Vendor profile
Paylocity
Paylocity is a cloud-based HCM and payroll platform whose talent suite includes an applicant tracking system with generative-AI job-description and invite drafting, one-way video interviews, candidate self-scheduling, and a conversational "AI Assistant."
§ The record
Cognisess is filed under Assessment AI, Paylocity under ATS-integrated AI. They also share 2 secondary categories: Video interview and Screening.
Both are in scope of NYC LL 144, Illinois HB 3773, EU AI Act, Colorado AI Act and Mobley v. Workday.
| Record | Cognisess | Paylocity |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Mid |
| Headquarters | GB | US |
| Founded | 2011 | 1997 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
20% weight · 29% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Cognisess 25 · Paylocity 44
3.8 weighted points to Paylocity
18% weight · 47% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Cognisess 20 · Paylocity 33
2.3 weighted points to Paylocity
15% weight · 61% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Cognisess 42 · Paylocity 54
1.8 weighted points to Paylocity
15% weight · 72% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
Cognisess 20 · Paylocity 30
1.5 weighted points to Paylocity
8% weight · 83% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Cognisess 40 · Paylocity 58
1.4 weighted points to Paylocity
12% weight · 93% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Cognisess 32 · Paylocity 42
1.2 weighted points to Paylocity
12% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Cognisess 42 · Paylocity 50
1.0 weighted points to Paylocity
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to -13.0 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 13.0 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads -13 beside that -13.0.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Cognisess minus Paylocity.
| Category | Weight | Cognisess | Paylocity | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 25 | 44 | -19 | -3.8 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 20 | 33 | -13 | -2.3 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 20 | 30 | -10 | -1.5 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 42 | 54 | -12 | -1.8 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 42 | 50 | -8 | -1.0 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 32 | 42 | -10 | -1.2 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 40 | 58 | -18 | -1.4 |
| Total | 100% | 30 (F) | 43 (F) | -13 | -13.0 |
§ 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 | Cognisess | Paylocity | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | — | 1 | 1 | — |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 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 | 2 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 5 | 0 | Sources on a separate domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 21 | 5 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 11 | 7 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
Cognisess has 26 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 21 with a source URL, 5 documented absences; Paylocity has 18 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 11 with a source URL, 7 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 44 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 26 for Cognisess, across 5 distinct source domains, and 18 for Paylocity, across 2 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Cognisess last reviewed
- September 25, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- Paylocity last reviewed
- July 17, 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