§ The result
Spark Hire leads Cognisess on all 7 criteria.
Under rubric v1.0, Spark Hire (Video interview) opens a 23-point lead on Cognisess (Assessment), 53 to 30. Cognisess leads none of the 7 criteria, and Spark Hire is ahead on 4 of them by 20 raw points or more, Bias Audit Transparency among them. The advantage Spark Hire holds is spread out: Bias Audit Transparency is both the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing (Cognisess 20, Spark Hire 62, 18% weight), yet it supplies only 32% of the weighted points Spark Hire 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
Spark Hire
Spark Hire is a hiring platform combining one-way (async) and live video interviewing with an applicant tracking system (via its Comeet acquisition), and adds AI features that score and rank candidates' resumes and one-way video responses to help recruiters prioritize submissions.
§ The record
Cognisess is filed under Assessment AI, Spark Hire under Video interview AI. They also share 1 secondary category: Screening.
Both are in scope of NYC LL 144, Illinois HB 3773, EU AI Act, Colorado AI Act and Mobley v. Workday.
| Record | Cognisess | Spark Hire |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Mid |
| Headquarters | GB | US |
| Founded | 2011 | 2012 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 32% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Cognisess 20 · Spark Hire 62
7.6 weighted points to Spark Hire
20% weight · 61% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Cognisess 25 · Spark Hire 58
6.6 weighted points to Spark Hire
15% weight · 72% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Cognisess 42 · Spark Hire 60
2.7 weighted points to Spark Hire
12% weight · 82% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Cognisess 42 · Spark Hire 62
2.4 weighted points to Spark Hire
8% weight · 91% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Cognisess 40 · Spark Hire 64
1.9 weighted points to Spark Hire
15% weight · 97% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
Cognisess 20 · Spark Hire 30
1.5 weighted points to Spark Hire
12% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Cognisess 32 · Spark Hire 38
0.7 weighted points to Spark Hire
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to -23.4 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 23.4 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 -23.4.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Cognisess minus Spark Hire.
| Category | Weight | Cognisess | Spark Hire | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 25 | 58 | -33 | -6.6 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 20 | 62 | -42 | -7.6 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 20 | 30 | -10 | -1.5 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 42 | 60 | -18 | -2.7 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 42 | 62 | -20 | -2.4 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 32 | 38 | -6 | -0.7 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 40 | 64 | -24 | -1.9 |
| Total | 100% | 30 (F) | 53 (F) | -23 | -23.4 |
§ 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 | Spark Hire | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | — | 3 | 0 | Audit reportSources on a separate domain |
| 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 | 3 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 5 | 0 | Sources on a separate domain | 3 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own 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% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 21 | 5 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 16 | 4 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
Cognisess has 26 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 21 with a source URL, 5 documented absences; Spark Hire has 20 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 16 with a source URL, 4 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for Cognisess and Spark Hire sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 46 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 26 for Cognisess, across 5 distinct source domains, and 20 for Spark Hire, across 2 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Cognisess last reviewed
- September 25, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- Spark Hire 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