§ The result
4 points separate SeekOut and Cognisess.
SeekOut holds a 4-point edge over Cognisess under rubric v1.0, 34 to 30, across the Sourcing and Assessment cohorts. The 7 criteria split 4 to 3 in favour of SeekOut: SeekOut is ahead on Bias Audit Transparency and Cognisess on Data Governance Disclosure. Bias Audit Transparency is both the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing — Cognisess 20, SeekOut 40 — and at an 18% weight it carries 54% of the weighted advantage SeekOut holds across the 4 criteria on that side of the table.
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
SeekOut
Sourcing platform aggregating public profile data into a searchable talent index, with AI-assisted candidate matching and outreach.
§ The record
Cognisess is filed under Assessment AI, SeekOut under Candidate sourcing AI. They record no secondary category in common.
Both are in scope of NYC LL 144, EU AI Act and Colorado AI Act. Only Cognisess is in scope of Illinois HB 3773 and Mobley v. Workday.
| Record | Cognisess | SeekOut |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Enterprise |
| Headquarters | GB | US |
| Founded | 2011 | 2017 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 40% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Cognisess 20 · SeekOut 40
3.6 weighted points to SeekOut
20% weight · 62% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Cognisess 25 · SeekOut 35
2.0 weighted points to SeekOut
15% weight · 74% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Cognisess 42 · SeekOut 35
1.1 weighted points to Cognisess
12% weight · 83% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Cognisess 32 · SeekOut 25
0.8 weighted points to Cognisess
15% weight · 92% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
Cognisess 20 · SeekOut 25
0.8 weighted points to SeekOut
8% weight · 96% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Cognisess 40 · SeekOut 35
0.4 weighted points to Cognisess
12% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Cognisess 42 · SeekOut 45
0.4 weighted points to SeekOut
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to -4.4 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 9.0 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads -4 beside that -4.4.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Cognisess minus SeekOut.
| Category | Weight | Cognisess | SeekOut | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 25 | 35 | -10 | -2.0 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 20 | 40 | -20 | -3.6 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 20 | 25 | -5 | -0.8 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 42 | 35 | +7 | +1.1 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 42 | 45 | -3 | -0.4 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 32 | 25 | +7 | +0.8 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 40 | 35 | +5 | +0.4 |
| Total | 100% | 30 (F) | 34 (F) | -4 | -4.4 |
§ 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 | SeekOut | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 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 | 0 | 1 | — |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 5 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 1 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 5 | 0 | Sources on a separate domain | 1 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 0 | 1 | — |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 1 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 21 | 5 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 5 | 4 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
Cognisess has 26 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 21 with a source URL, 5 documented absences; SeekOut has 9 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 5 with a source URL, 4 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 35 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 26 for Cognisess, across 5 distinct source domains, and 9 for SeekOut, across 1 distinct source domain.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Cognisess last reviewed
- September 25, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- SeekOut last reviewed
- May 21, 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