§ The result
HiringBranch leads Mercor on all 7 criteria.
Rubric v1.0 puts 29 points between HiringBranch (Assessment) and Mercor (Screening): 52 for HiringBranch, 23 for Mercor. HiringBranch leads every one of the 7 criteria and 5 of them by 20 raw points or more, Bias Audit Transparency among them; Mercor leads none. Bias Audit Transparency is the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing at once (HiringBranch 60, Mercor 10, 18% weight), but it accounts for only 31% of the weighted advantage HiringBranch holds across the 7 criteria on that side of the table.
Vendor profile
HiringBranch
HiringBranch is an AI skills-assessment platform that measures 50+ communication and soft skills from candidates' open-ended, conversational job-simulation responses (text and voice) to screen and rank applicants for customer-facing roles.
Vendor profile
Mercor
Mercor is an AI talent platform that runs automated 20-minute AI video interviews and semantic resume/profile matching to vet, score, and place candidates and expert contractors, and offers an enterprise applicant-screening product that scores employers' applicant pools against role rubrics with pass/fail recommendations.
§ The record
HiringBranch is filed under Assessment AI, Mercor under Screening AI. They record no secondary category in common.
Both are in scope of NYC LL 144, Illinois HB 3773, EU AI Act, Colorado AI Act and Mobley v. Workday.
| Record | HiringBranch | Mercor |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Enterprise | Enterprise |
| Headquarters | CA | US |
| Founded | 2014 | 2023 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 31% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
HiringBranch 60 · Mercor 10
9.0 weighted points to HiringBranch
20% weight · 57% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
HiringBranch 60 · Mercor 22
7.6 weighted points to HiringBranch
15% weight · 73% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
HiringBranch 55 · Mercor 22
5.0 weighted points to HiringBranch
12% weight · 82% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
HiringBranch 40 · Mercor 20
2.4 weighted points to HiringBranch
15% weight · 89% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
HiringBranch 35 · Mercor 20
2.3 weighted points to HiringBranch
8% weight · 96% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
HiringBranch 64 · Mercor 40
1.9 weighted points to HiringBranch
12% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
HiringBranch 52 · Mercor 42
1.2 weighted points to HiringBranch
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to +29.3 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 29.3 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads +29 beside that +29.3.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is HiringBranch minus Mercor.
| Category | Weight | HiringBranch | Mercor | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 60 | 22 | +38 | +7.6 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 60 | 10 | +50 | +9.0 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 35 | 20 | +15 | +2.3 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 55 | 22 | +33 | +5.0 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 52 | 42 | +10 | +1.2 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 40 | 20 | +20 | +2.4 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 64 | 40 | +24 | +1.9 |
| Total | 100% | 52 (F) | 23 (F) | +29 | +29.3 |
§ 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 | HiringBranch | Mercor | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | — |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 2 | — |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own 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 | — |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 3 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 13 | 6 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 10 | 8 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
HiringBranch has 19 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 13 with a source URL, 6 documented absences; Mercor has 16 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 10 with a source URL, 8 documented absences.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 35 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 19 for HiringBranch, across 1 distinct source domain, and 16 for Mercor, across 4 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- HiringBranch last reviewed
- July 17, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- Mercor 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