§ The result
SmartRecruiters leads Covey on all 7 criteria.
SmartRecruiters finishes 15 points clear of Covey under rubric v1.0 — 62 (D) against 47 (F) — across the ATS-integrated and Sourcing cohorts. SmartRecruiters leads every one of the 7 criteria, Covey none of them, and the closest of the 7 is Customer Documentation, Covey 58 to SmartRecruiters 63. Article 11 Technical Documentation is the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing at once (Covey 40, SmartRecruiters 70, 20% weight), but it accounts for only 39% of the weighted advantage SmartRecruiters holds across the 7 criteria on that side of the table.
Vendor profile
Covey
Covey is an AI recruiting platform whose Covey Scout product trains generative-AI bots from plain-language hiring criteria to source, evaluate, and rank candidate profiles for outbound sourcing and inbound applicant screening.
Vendor profile
SmartRecruiters
SmartRecruiters is an enterprise applicant tracking system and talent acquisition suite whose AI layer (the Winston assistant plus SmartAssistant/Winston Match) screens, ranks, and matches candidates to requisitions to support recruiter decisions.
§ The record
Covey is filed under Candidate sourcing AI, SmartRecruiters under ATS-integrated AI. They also share 1 secondary category: Screening.
Both are in scope of EU AI Act, Colorado AI Act, NYC LL 144 and Illinois HB 3773.
| Record | Covey | SmartRecruiters |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Enterprise |
| Headquarters | US | US |
| Founded | 2018 | 2010 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
20% weight · 39% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Covey 40 · SmartRecruiters 70
6.0 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
15% weight · 59% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
Covey 25 · SmartRecruiters 45
3.0 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
12% weight · 73% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Covey 30 · SmartRecruiters 48
2.2 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
15% weight · 83% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Covey 52 · SmartRecruiters 62
1.5 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
12% weight · 90% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Covey 52 · SmartRecruiters 62
1.2 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
18% weight · 97% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Covey 72 · SmartRecruiters 78
1.1 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
8% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Covey 58 · SmartRecruiters 63
0.4 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to -15.3 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 15.3 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads -15 beside that -15.3.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Covey minus SmartRecruiters.
| Category | Weight | Covey | SmartRecruiters | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 40 | 70 | -30 | -6.0 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 72 | 78 | -6 | -1.1 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 25 | 45 | -20 | -3.0 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 52 | 62 | -10 | -1.5 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 52 | 62 | -10 | -1.2 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 30 | 48 | -18 | -2.2 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 58 | 63 | -5 | -0.4 |
| Total | 100% | 47 (F) | 62 (D) | -15 | -15.3 |
§ 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 | Covey | SmartRecruiters | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 2 | 0 | Audit reportSources on a separate domain | 1 | 0 | Audit reportSources on a separate domain |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 0 | 1 | — | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 0 | 1 | — | 2 | 0 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 0 | 1 | — | 1 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 2 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 6 | 5 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 11 | 2 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
Covey has 11 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 6 with a source URL, 5 documented absences; SmartRecruiters has 13 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 11 with a source URL, 2 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for Covey and SmartRecruiters sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 24 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 11 for Covey, across 2 distinct source domains, and 13 for SmartRecruiters, across 2 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Covey last reviewed
- June 7, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- SmartRecruiters 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