§ The result
Plum takes the total, Textkernel takes more of the criteria.
Plum (Assessment) edges Textkernel (Sourcing) by 3 points under rubric v1.0, 54 to 51. Textkernel leads more of the criteria than Plum — 4 to 3 — but Bias Audit Transparency, which Plum leads, carries 18% of the rubric, and the weighted sum still falls to Plum. Bias Audit Transparency is both the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing — Plum 83, Textkernel 55 — and at an 18% weight it carries 88% of the weighted advantage Plum holds across the 3 criteria on that side of the table.
Vendor profile
Plum
Plum is a pre-employment talent assessment platform that uses a Five-Factor (Big Five) psychometric Discovery Survey and a Talent Match model to score and rank candidates on behavioral "durable skills" for role fit, hiring, and development.
Vendor profile
Textkernel
Textkernel provides AI-powered CV/resume and job parsing, semantic search, and candidate-job matching technology (including the acquired Sovren engine) embedded inside ATS, job board, and HR systems.
§ The record
Plum is filed under Assessment AI, Textkernel under Candidate sourcing AI. They also share 1 secondary category: Screening.
Both are in scope of NYC LL 144, Illinois HB 3773, EU AI Act and Colorado AI Act. Only Plum is in scope of Mobley v. Workday.
| Record | Plum | Textkernel |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Mid | Enterprise |
| Headquarters | CA | NL |
| Founded | 2012 | 2001 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 64% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Plum 83 · Textkernel 55
5.0 weighted points to Plum
12% weight · 76% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Plum 52 · Textkernel 60
1.0 weighted points to Textkernel
20% weight · 83% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
Plum 58 · Textkernel 55
0.6 weighted points to Plum
15% weight · 91% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
Plum 28 · Textkernel 32
0.6 weighted points to Textkernel
12% weight · 97% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Plum 36 · Textkernel 40
0.5 weighted points to Textkernel
15% weight · 99% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Plum 54 · Textkernel 55
0.1 weighted points to Textkernel
8% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Plum 63 · Textkernel 62
0.1 weighted points to Plum
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to +3.5 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 7.9 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads +3 beside that +3.5.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Plum minus Textkernel.
| Category | Weight | Plum | Textkernel | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 58 | 55 | +3 | +0.6 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 83 | 55 | +28 | +5.0 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 28 | 32 | -4 | -0.6 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 54 | 55 | -1 | -0.1 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 52 | 60 | -8 | -1.0 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 36 | 40 | -4 | -0.5 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 63 | 62 | +1 | +0.1 |
| Total | 100% | 54 (F) | 51 (F) | +3 | +3.5 |
§ 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 | Plum | Textkernel | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 3 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 3 | 0 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 0 | 1 | — | 1 | 1 | — |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 2 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 3 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 15 | 4 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 13 | 5 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
Plum has 19 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 15 with a source URL, 4 documented absences; Textkernel has 18 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 13 with a source URL, 5 documented absences.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 37 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 19 for Plum, across 1 distinct source domain, and 18 for Textkernel, across 1 distinct source domain.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Plum last reviewed
- June 7, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- Textkernel 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