§ The result
SmartRecruiters leads Textkernel on all 7 criteria.
SmartRecruiters sits 11 points above Textkernel under rubric v1.0 — 62 (D) against 51 (F) — with SmartRecruiters filed under ATS-integrated and Textkernel under Sourcing. SmartRecruiters leads every one of the 7 criteria, Textkernel none of them, and the closest of the 7 is Customer Documentation, SmartRecruiters 63 to Textkernel 62. Bias Audit Transparency is the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing at once (SmartRecruiters 78, Textkernel 55, 18% weight), but it accounts for only 36% of the weighted advantage SmartRecruiters holds across the 7 criteria on that side of the table.
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.
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
SmartRecruiters is filed under ATS-integrated AI, Textkernel under Candidate sourcing 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 | SmartRecruiters | Textkernel |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | Enterprise | Enterprise |
| Headquarters | US | NL |
| Founded | 2010 | 2001 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 36% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
SmartRecruiters 78 · Textkernel 55
4.1 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
20% weight · 63% of the movement so far
Article 11 Technical Documentation
SmartRecruiters 70 · Textkernel 55
3.0 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
15% weight · 80% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
SmartRecruiters 45 · Textkernel 32
1.9 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
15% weight · 89% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
SmartRecruiters 62 · Textkernel 55
1.1 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
12% weight · 97% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
SmartRecruiters 48 · Textkernel 40
1.0 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
12% weight · 99% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
SmartRecruiters 62 · Textkernel 60
0.2 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
8% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
SmartRecruiters 63 · Textkernel 62
0.1 weighted points to SmartRecruiters
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 7 figures above sum to +11.4 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 11.4 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads +11 beside that +11.4.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is SmartRecruiters minus Textkernel.
| Category | Weight | SmartRecruiters | Textkernel | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 70 | 55 | +15 | +3.0 |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 78 | 55 | +23 | +4.1 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 45 | 32 | +13 | +1.9 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 62 | 55 | +7 | +1.1 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 62 | 60 | +2 | +0.2 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 48 | 40 | +8 | +1.0 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 63 | 62 | +1 | +0.1 |
| Total | 100% | 62 (D) | 51 (F) | +11 | +11.4 |
§ 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 | SmartRecruiters | Textkernel | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 2 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 1 | 0 | Audit reportSources on a separate domain | 2 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | — |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 2 | 0 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 2 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 1 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 2 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 11 | 2 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 13 | 5 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
SmartRecruiters has 13 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 11 with a source URL, 2 documented absences; Textkernel has 18 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 13 with a source URL, 5 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: 13 for SmartRecruiters, across 2 distinct source domains, and 18 for Textkernel, across 1 distinct source domain.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- SmartRecruiters 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