§ The result
Lever leads Paycor on all 7 criteria.
Lever finishes 9 points ahead of Paycor under rubric v1.0, 49 to 40, both scored as ATS-integrated entries. Lever takes all 7 criteria from Paycor without a 20-point raw gap on any of them; the closest is Customer Documentation, Lever 58 to Paycor 55. The advantage Lever holds is spread out: Bias Audit Transparency is both the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing (Lever 42, Paycor 25, 18% weight), yet it supplies only 34% of the weighted points Lever gains across the 7 criteria it leads.
Vendor profile
Lever
Lever is an AI-powered applicant tracking system and recruiting CRM that centralizes sourcing, candidate relationship management, AI candidate matching (Talent Fit), and hiring analytics for high-growth employers.
Vendor profile
Paycor
Paycor, a Paychex company, sells a mid-market HR and payroll suite whose recruiting tools include the Paycor Recruiting ATS, Paycor Smart Sourcing (formerly Talenya), which uses AI to build a prioritized list of passive and active candidates for each role and automate outreach, and a WISE assistant that phone-screens candidates and scores their answers.
§ The record
Lever and Paycor are both filed under ATS-integrated AI. They also share 2 secondary categories: Sourcing and Screening.
Both are in scope of EU AI Act, NYC LL 144, Colorado AI Act and Illinois HB 3773.
| Record | Lever | Paycor |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Mid |
| Headquarters | US | US |
| Founded | 2012 | 1990 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 34% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Lever 42 · Paycor 25
3.1 weighted points to Lever
20% weight · 60% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Lever 52 · Paycor 40
2.4 weighted points to Lever
15% weight · 73% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Lever 58 · Paycor 50
1.2 weighted points to Lever
12% weight · 83% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Lever 45 · Paycor 38
0.8 weighted points to Lever
15% weight · 91% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
Lever 32 · Paycor 27
0.8 weighted points to Lever
12% weight · 97% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Lever 60 · Paycor 55
0.6 weighted points to Lever
8% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Lever 58 · Paycor 55
0.2 weighted points to Lever
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to +9.1 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 9.1 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads +9 beside that +9.1.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Lever minus Paycor.
| Category | Weight | Lever | Paycor | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 52 | 40 | +12 | +2.4 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 42 | 25 | +17 | +3.1 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 32 | 27 | +5 | +0.8 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 58 | 50 | +8 | +1.2 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 60 | 55 | +5 | +0.6 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 45 | 38 | +7 | +0.8 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 58 | 55 | +3 | +0.2 |
| Total | 100% | 49 (F) | 40 (F) | +9 | +9.1 |
§ 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 | Lever | Paycor | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 2 | 1 | Sources on a separate domain | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 2 | 1 | Sources on a separate domain | 3 | 1 | — |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 1 | 1 | Sources on a separate domain | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 4 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 2 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 6 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 13 | 6 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 24 | 6 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
Lever has 19 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 13 with a source URL, 6 documented absences; Paycor has 30 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 24 with a source URL, 6 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for Lever and Paycor sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 49 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 19 for Lever, across 2 distinct source domains, and 30 for Paycor, across 6 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Lever last reviewed
- June 7, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- Paycor 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