§ The result
SmartRecruiters leads Paylocity on all 7 criteria.
SmartRecruiters finishes 19 points clear of Paylocity inside the ATS-integrated cohort under rubric v1.0: 62 (D) against 43 (F). SmartRecruiters leads every one of the 7 criteria, Paylocity none of them, and the closest of the 7 is Customer Documentation, Paylocity 58 to SmartRecruiters 63. Bias Audit Transparency is both the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing — Paylocity 33, SmartRecruiters 78 — and at an 18% weight it carries 42% of the weighted advantage SmartRecruiters holds across the 7 criteria on that side of the table.
Vendor profile
Paylocity
Paylocity is a cloud-based HCM and payroll platform whose talent suite includes an applicant tracking system with generative-AI job-description and invite drafting, one-way video interviews, candidate self-scheduling, and a conversational "AI Assistant."
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
Paylocity 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. Only Paylocity is in scope of Mobley v. Workday.
| Record | Paylocity | SmartRecruiters |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Enterprise |
| Headquarters | US | US |
| Founded | 1997 | 2010 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 42% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Paylocity 33 · SmartRecruiters 78
8.1 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
20% weight · 69% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Paylocity 44 · SmartRecruiters 70
5.2 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
15% weight · 81% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
Paylocity 30 · SmartRecruiters 45
2.3 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
12% weight · 88% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Paylocity 50 · SmartRecruiters 62
1.4 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
15% weight · 94% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Paylocity 54 · SmartRecruiters 62
1.2 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
12% weight · 98% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Paylocity 42 · SmartRecruiters 48
0.7 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
8% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Paylocity 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 -19.3 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 19.3 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads -19 beside that -19.3.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Paylocity minus SmartRecruiters.
| Category | Weight | Paylocity | SmartRecruiters | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 44 | 70 | -26 | -5.2 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 33 | 78 | -45 | -8.1 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 30 | 45 | -15 | -2.3 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 54 | 62 | -8 | -1.2 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 50 | 62 | -12 | -1.4 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 42 | 48 | -6 | -0.7 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 58 | 63 | -5 | -0.4 |
| Total | 100% | 43 (F) | 62 (D) | -19 | -19.3 |
§ 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 | Paylocity | 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% | 1 | 1 | — | 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 | Audit reportSources 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% | 1 | 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% | 11 | 7 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 11 | 2 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
Paylocity has 18 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 11 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 31 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 18 for Paylocity, across 2 distinct source domains, and 13 for SmartRecruiters, across 2 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Paylocity 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