§ The result
SmartRecruiters leads Paycom on 6 of the 7 criteria.
SmartRecruiters sits 12 points above Paycom under rubric v1.0, 62 (D) against 50 (F), with both filed under ATS-integrated. SmartRecruiters leads 6 of the 7 criteria and the remaining criterion is level, so Paycom is ahead on none of them; the closest of the 6 SmartRecruiters leads is Article 11 Technical Documentation, Paycom 68 to SmartRecruiters 70. Bias Audit Transparency is both the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing — Paycom 38, SmartRecruiters 78 — and at an 18% weight it carries 59% of the weighted advantage SmartRecruiters holds across the 6 criteria on that side of the table.
Vendor profile
Paycom
Paycom is a single-database human capital management and payroll platform whose applicant tracking system automates recruiting with resume parsing, keyword/knockout candidate filtering, automated correspondence, generative job-description writing, and a command-driven AI data-query engine (IWant).
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
Paycom and SmartRecruiters are both filed under ATS-integrated AI. They also share 1 secondary category: Screening.
Both are in scope of EU AI Act, NYC LL 144, Colorado AI Act and Illinois HB 3773.
| Record | Paycom | SmartRecruiters |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Enterprise | Enterprise |
| Headquarters | US | US |
| Founded | 1998 | 2010 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 59% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Paycom 38 · SmartRecruiters 78
7.2 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
15% weight · 78% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
Paycom 30 · SmartRecruiters 45
2.3 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
12% weight · 88% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Paycom 38 · SmartRecruiters 48
1.2 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
12% weight · 95% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Paycom 55 · SmartRecruiters 62
0.8 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
20% weight · 98% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Paycom 68 · SmartRecruiters 70
0.4 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
8% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Paycom 60 · SmartRecruiters 63
0.2 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 6 figures above sum to -12.1 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 12.1 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads -12 beside that -12.1.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Paycom minus SmartRecruiters.
| Category | Weight | Paycom | SmartRecruiters | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 68 | 70 | -2 | -0.4 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 38 | 78 | -40 | -7.2 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 30 | 45 | -15 | -2.3 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 62 | 62 | - | - |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 55 | 62 | -7 | -0.8 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 38 | 48 | -10 | -1.2 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 60 | 63 | -3 | -0.2 |
| Total | 100% | 50 (F) | 62 (D) | -12 | -12.1 |
§ 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 | Paycom | SmartRecruiters | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 2 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 0 | Audit reportSources on a separate domain |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 0 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 13 | 7 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 11 | 2 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
Paycom has 20 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 13 with a source URL, 7 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 SmartRecruiters sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 33 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 20 for Paycom, across 1 distinct source domain, and 13 for SmartRecruiters, across 2 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Paycom last reviewed
- July 17, 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