§ The result
1 point separates Stepstone and Sova Assessment.
Stepstone (Screening) edges Sova Assessment (Assessment) by 1 point under rubric v1.0, 49 to 48. Sova Assessment and Stepstone each lead 3 of the 7 criteria, with 1 level, though the side of the split Stepstone holds (headed by Bias Audit Transparency) adds up to more weighted points. One criterion, Bias Audit Transparency, is both the widest raw gap (Sova Assessment 38, Stepstone 50) and the heaviest weighted swing, and at 18% weight it makes up 73% of the weighted advantage Stepstone holds across the 3 criteria it leads.
Vendor profile
Sova Assessment
Sova Assessment is a UK-based enterprise talent assessment platform combining personality questionnaires, cognitive and ability tests, situational judgement, video interviews, virtual assessment centres and AI-led role simulations into a single occupational-psychology-validated candidate scoring workflow.
Vendor profile
Stepstone
Stepstone is a German job marketplace whose Stepstone Recruit employer platform includes an AI Screening Agent, which rates each application against requirements taken from the job ad, and a Talent Finder, which recommends candidates from a CV database of more than 4 million profiles.
§ The record
Sova Assessment is filed under Assessment AI, Stepstone under Screening AI. They record no secondary category in common.
Both are in scope of NYC LL 144, Illinois HB 3773, EU AI Act and Colorado AI Act. Only Sova Assessment is in scope of Mobley v. Workday.
| Record | Sova Assessment | Stepstone |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | High | Mid |
| Headquarters | GB | DE |
| Founded | 2015 | 1996 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 43% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Sova Assessment 38 · Stepstone 50
2.2 weighted points to Stepstone
15% weight · 73% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
Sova Assessment 40 · Stepstone 30
1.5 weighted points to Sova Assessment
15% weight · 82% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Sova Assessment 52 · Stepstone 55
0.4 weighted points to Stepstone
12% weight · 89% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Sova Assessment 55 · Stepstone 58
0.4 weighted points to Stepstone
8% weight · 95% of the movement so far
Customer Documentation
Sova Assessment 62 · Stepstone 58
0.3 weighted points to Sova Assessment
12% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Post-Market Monitoring
Sova Assessment 40 · Stepstone 38
0.2 weighted points to Sova Assessment
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 6 figures above sum to -0.9 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 5.0 points of movement counted without direction. The table below rounds each side to a whole number first, so its Δ raw total reads -1 beside that -0.9.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Sova Assessment minus Stepstone.
| Category | Weight | Sova Assessment | Stepstone | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 55 | 55 | - | - |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 38 | 50 | -12 | -2.2 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 40 | 30 | +10 | +1.5 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 52 | 55 | -3 | -0.4 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 55 | 58 | -3 | -0.4 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 40 | 38 | +2 | +0.2 |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 62 | 58 | +4 | +0.3 |
| Total | 100% | 48 (F) | 49 (F) | -1 | -0.9 |
§ 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 | Sova Assessment | Stepstone | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 5 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 4 | 2 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 1 | Audit reportSources on a separate domain |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 4 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 6 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 5 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 5 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 4 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 6 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 5 | 0 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| All criteria | 100% | 28 | 8 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 29 | 4 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain |
Sova Assessment has 34 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 28 with a source URL, 8 documented absences; Stepstone has 33 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 29 with a source URL, 4 documented absences; some documentation or audit rows for Sova Assessment and Stepstone sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 67 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 34 for Sova Assessment, across 3 distinct source domains, and 33 for Stepstone, across 6 distinct source domains.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Sova Assessment last reviewed
- August 2, 2026 · HireAIScore editorial team
- Stepstone last reviewed
- September 25, 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