§ The result
Spark Hire leads Paylocity by 10 points.
Spark Hire sits 10 points above Paylocity under rubric v1.0 — 53 against 43 — with Spark Hire filed under Video interview and Paylocity under ATS-integrated. Spark Hire leads 5 of the 7 criteria, including Bias Audit Transparency, while Paylocity leads 1, including Post-Market Monitoring, and 1 is level. Bias Audit Transparency is both the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing — Paylocity 33, Spark Hire 62 — and at an 18% weight it carries 48% of the weighted advantage Spark Hire holds across the 5 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
Spark Hire
Spark Hire is a hiring platform combining one-way (async) and live video interviewing with an applicant tracking system (via its Comeet acquisition), and adds AI features that score and rank candidates' resumes and one-way video responses to help recruiters prioritize submissions.
§ The record
Paylocity is filed under ATS-integrated AI, Spark Hire under Video interview AI. They also share 1 secondary category: Screening.
Both are in scope of EU AI Act, NYC LL 144, Colorado AI Act, Illinois HB 3773 and Mobley v. Workday.
| Record | Paylocity | Spark Hire |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Mid |
| Headquarters | US | US |
| Founded | 1997 | 2012 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 46% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Paylocity 33 · Spark Hire 62
5.2 weighted points to Spark Hire
20% weight · 71% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Paylocity 44 · Spark Hire 58
2.8 weighted points to Spark Hire
12% weight · 84% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Paylocity 50 · Spark Hire 62
1.4 weighted points to Spark Hire
15% weight · 92% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Paylocity 54 · Spark Hire 60
0.9 weighted points to Spark Hire
12% weight · 96% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Paylocity 42 · Spark Hire 38
0.5 weighted points to Paylocity
8% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Paylocity 58 · Spark Hire 64
0.5 weighted points to Spark Hire
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 6 figures above sum to -10.4 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 11.3 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads -10 beside that -10.4.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Paylocity minus Spark Hire.
| Category | Weight | Paylocity | Spark Hire | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 44 | 58 | -14 | -2.8 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 33 | 62 | -29 | -5.2 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 30 | 30 | - | - |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 54 | 60 | -6 | -0.9 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 50 | 62 | -12 | -1.4 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 42 | 38 | +4 | +0.5 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 58 | 64 | -6 | -0.5 |
| Total | 100% | 43 (F) | 53 (F) | -10 | -10.4 |
§ 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 | Spark Hire | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 1 | 1 | — | 3 | 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 | 3 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 11 | 7 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 16 | 4 | 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; Spark Hire has 20 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 16 with a source URL, 4 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for Spark Hire sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 38 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 18 for Paylocity, across 2 distinct source domains, and 20 for Spark Hire, across 2 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Paylocity last reviewed
- July 17, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- Spark Hire 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