§ The result
3 points separate Textkernel and Sova Assessment.
Textkernel (Sourcing) edges Sova Assessment (Assessment) by 3 points under rubric v1.0, 51 to 48. Textkernel leads 3 of the 7 criteria, including Bias Audit Transparency, while Sova Assessment leads 1, including FRIA Support, and 3 are level. Bias Audit Transparency is both the widest raw gap and the heaviest weighted swing — Sova Assessment 38, Textkernel 55 — and at an 18% weight it carries 74% of the weighted advantage Textkernel holds across the 3 criteria on that side of the table.
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
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
Sova Assessment 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 Sova Assessment is in scope of Mobley v. Workday.
| Record | Sova Assessment | Textkernel |
|---|---|---|
| Price tier | High | Enterprise |
| Headquarters | GB | NL |
| Founded | 2015 | 2001 |
§ What decides it
The criteria that move the gap, heaviest swing first.
18% weight · 58% of the movement so far
Bias Audit Transparency
Sova Assessment 38 · Textkernel 55
3.1 weighted points to Textkernel
15% weight · 80% of the movement so far
FRIA Support
Sova Assessment 40 · Textkernel 32
1.2 weighted points to Sova Assessment
12% weight · 92% of the movement so far
Human Oversight Design
Sova Assessment 55 · Textkernel 60
0.6 weighted points to Textkernel
15% weight · 100% of the movement so far
Data Governance Disclosure
Sova Assessment 52 · Textkernel 55
0.4 weighted points to Textkernel
Weighted delta is the raw difference times the criterion weight, so the 4 figures above sum to -2.9 — the difference between the two totals before either is rounded. Shares are of 5.3 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 -2.9.
§ Category-by-category
Raw score per criterion, with weighted delta.
Δ is Sova Assessment minus Textkernel.
| Category | Weight | Sova Assessment | Textkernel | Δ raw | Δ weighted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 55 | 55 | - | - |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 38 | 55 | -17 | -3.1 |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 40 | 32 | +8 | +1.2 |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 52 | 55 | -3 | -0.4 |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 55 | 60 | -5 | -0.6 |
| Post-Market Monitoring | 12% | 40 | 40 | - | - |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 62 | 62 | - | - |
| Total | 100% | 48 (F) | 51 (F) | -3 | -2.9 |
§ 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 | Textkernel | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | Cited | Absences | Audit / hosting | ||
| Article 11 Technical Documentation | 20% | 3 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Bias Audit Transparency | 18% | 4 | 2 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 2 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
| FRIA Support | 15% | 2 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 1 | 1 | — |
| Data Governance Disclosure | 15% | 4 | 1 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Human Oversight Design | 12% | 5 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain | 3 | 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 | 1 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domain |
| Customer Documentation | 8% | 6 | 1 | Sources on the vendor's own domainSources on a separate domain | 3 | 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 | 13 | 5 | Audit reportSources on the vendor's own domain |
Sova Assessment has 34 evidence rows across 7 of 7 criteria — 28 with a source URL, 8 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 Sova Assessment sit on a domain separate from the vendor's own site.
Provenance
The scores above are documented by 52 evidence rows on file for these two vendors: 34 for Sova Assessment, across 3 distinct source domains, and 18 for Textkernel, across 1 distinct source domain.
- Rubric
- v1.0
- Sova Assessment last reviewed
- August 2, 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