§ The result
Gem leads Stepstone on all 7 criteria.
Under rubric v1.0, Gem, filed under Sourcing, finishes on 55 and Stepstone, filed under Screening, on 49, 6 points apart. Gem takes all 7 criteria from Stepstone without a 20-point raw gap on any of them; the closest is Data Governance Disclosure, Gem 57 to Stepstone 55. Bias Audit Transparency is both the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing — Gem 66, Stepstone 50 — and at an 18% weight it carries 46% of the weighted advantage Gem holds across the 7 criteria on that side of the table.
Vendor profile
Gem
Gem is an AI-first recruiting platform combining a talent CRM, AI sourcing and outreach automation, candidate engagement, and a newer applicant tracking system with AI-powered application review and ranking.
Vendor profile
Stepstone
Stepstone is a German job marketplace whose Stepstone Recruit employer platform includes an AI Screening Agent, which rates each application against requirements taken from the job ad, and a Talent Finder, which recommends candidates from a CV database of more than 4 million profiles.
§ The record
Gem is filed under Candidate sourcing AI, Stepstone under Screening AI. They record no secondary category in common.
Both are in scope of EU AI Act, NYC LL 144, Colorado AI Act and Illinois HB 3773.
| Record | Gem | Stepstone |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | High | Mid |
| Headquarters | US | DE |
| Founded | 2017 | 1996 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 46% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Gem 66 · Stepstone 50
2.9 weighted points to Gem
12% weight · 63% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Gem 47 · Stepstone 38
1.1 weighted points to Gem
15% weight · 75% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
Gem 35 · Stepstone 30
0.8 weighted points to Gem
20% weight · 84% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Gem 58 · Stepstone 55
0.6 weighted points to Gem
12% weight · 90% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Gem 61 · Stepstone 58
0.4 weighted points to Gem
8% weight · 95% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Gem 62 · Stepstone 58
0.3 weighted points to Gem
15% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Gem 57 · Stepstone 55
0.3 weighted points to Gem
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to +6.3 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 6.3 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads +6 beside that +6.3.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Gem minus Stepstone.
| Category | Weight | Gem | Stepstone | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 58 | 55 | +3 | +0.6 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 66 | 50 | +16 | +2.9 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 35 | 30 | +5 | +0.8 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 57 | 55 | +2 | +0.3 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 61 | 58 | +3 | +0.4 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 47 | 38 | +9 | +1.1 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 62 | 58 | +4 | +0.3 |
| Total | 100% | 55 (F) | 49 (F) | +6 | +6.3 |
§ 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 | Gem | Stepstone | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 2 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 5 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 3 | 0 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 3 | 1 | Audit reportSources on a separate domain |
| 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 | 0 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 6 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 3 | 0 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 5 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 3 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 3 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 5 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 19 | 2 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 29 | 4 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
Gem has 21 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 19 with a source URL, 2 documented absences; Stepstone has 33 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 29 with a source URL, 4 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for Gem and Stepstone sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 54 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 21 for Gem, across 2 distinct source domains, and 33 for Stepstone, across 6 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Gem last reviewed
- June 7, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- Stepstone 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