Applicant Tracking Systems: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Greenhouse led the Applicant Tracking Systems benchmark in October 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 58.8%, up from 53.6% in July 2026. Workable followed at 52.7% coverage, up from 46.6% in July 2026, leaving a 6.1 percentage point gap between the two leading brands.

Greenhouse recorded the largest baseline-to-current increase, rising 5.2 percentage points from 53.6% in July 2026 to 58.8% in October 2026, which remained within normal month-to-month variation. Workable also rose 6.1 percentage points from 46.6% in July 2026 to 52.7% in October 2026, also within normal month-to-month variation. SmartRecruiters recorded the only significant decline beyond normal variation, falling 4.9 percentage points from 20.7% in July 2026 to 15.8% in October 2026.

Among the other tracked brands, Ashby rose 1.3 percentage points from 33.1% in July 2026 to 34.4% in October 2026, Lever edged down 0.3 points from 40.9% to 40.6%, BambooHR fell 1.2 points from 34.2% to 33.0%, iCIMS declined 1.7 points from 29.8% to 28.1%, Workday Recruiting dropped 3.9 points from 28.7% to 24.8%, JazzHR fell 4.5 points from 27.4% to 22.9%, and Bullhorn slipped 0.9 points from 17.9% to 17.0%. All of these movements stayed within normal month-to-month variation.

The October 2026 measurement is based on 476 qualified observations, following 526 in July 2026.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Applicant Tracking Systems

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. See the AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which ATS brands lead the October 2026 standings on presence and valid recommendation coverage?
• How far apart are the leading brands on valid recommendation coverage?
• Which brands show a large gap between being mentioned and actually being recommended?

This table is the primary current-month benchmark view.

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned at all.
• Valid recommendation coverage: share of qualified observations where the brand receives a valid recommendation.
• Top-three rate: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in the top three recommended positions.
• Rank-one rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment: positive mentions minus negative mentions as a share of total mentions.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which ATS brands changed the most in valid recommendation coverage since July 2026?
• Which coverage movements fell outside normal month-to-month variation?

Between September 2026 and October 2026, Greenhouse rose 5.4 points from 53.4%, Workable gained 4.4 points from 48.3%, Lever rose 3.2 points from 37.4%, Bullhorn gained 3.7 points from 13.3%, iCIMS rose 1.6 points from 26.5%, and BambooHR edged up 0.2 points from 32.8%. Ashby declined 2.4 points from 36.8%, SmartRecruiters fell 2.7 points from 18.5%, JazzHR dropped 3.0 points from 25.9%, and Workday Recruiting declined 1.5 points from 26.3%. None of these single-month moves exceeded the normal variation threshold on its own; the baseline-to-current comparison remains the primary read on category standing.

Largest Decline: SmartRecruiters

SmartRecruiters recorded the only coverage decline beyond normal variation in the current benchmark, falling 4.9 percentage points from 20.7% in July 2026 to 15.8% in October 2026. Presence dropped 8.3 points from 30.6% to 22.3%, also beyond normal variation. Despite the coverage decline, SmartRecruiters' top-three rate rose 0.6 percentage points from 2.3% to 2.9%, and its rank-one rate rose 0.2 percentage points from 0.2% to 0.4%. SmartRecruiters declined from its September 2026 reading of 18.5%, breaking the prior month's gain.

Largest Increase: Workable

Workable recorded the largest baseline-to-current coverage increase among the ten tracked brands, rising 6.1 percentage points from 46.6% in July 2026 to 52.7% in October 2026, within normal month-to-month variation. Presence rose 4.0 points from 66.2% to 70.2%, and the top-three rate rose 4.1 points from 21.7% to 25.8%. Workable's rank-one rate edged up 0.4 points from 4.6% to 5.0%. Workable rose 4.4 points from its September 2026 reading of 48.3%, its second consecutive monthly increase, extending the baseline-to-current pattern.

Category Leader: Greenhouse

Greenhouse led the category in valid recommendation coverage in October 2026 at 58.8%, holding the top position in every measured month. Greenhouse also held the highest presence rate at 94.8%, the highest top-three rate at 39.1%, and the highest rank-one rate at 27.9%, with 133 rank-one recommendations out of 476 qualified observations. Greenhouse rose 5.4 points from its September 2026 reading of 53.4%, a second consecutive monthly increase that extends the baseline-to-current pattern.

Stable Brands

Seven of the remaining tracked brands held coverage within normal month-to-month variation between July and October 2026. Lever remained nearly flat at 40.6%, down 0.3 points from 40.9%, with presence at 70.4% and a rank-one rate of 0.2%. Ashby rose 1.3 points to 34.4%, supported by a 2.5 point increase in presence to 42.6%, though that move broke a prior single-month decline. BambooHR declined 1.2 points to 33.0%, though its rank-one rate fell 2.7 points from 4.2% to 1.5%.

iCIMS declined 1.7 points to 28.1%, while its presence rate fell 3.0 points to 46.2%. Workday Recruiting dropped 3.9 points to 24.8%, with its top-three rate falling 2.6 points to 5.0%, breaking a prior month's gain. JazzHR declined 4.5 points to 22.9%, with an 8.1 point drop in presence to 30.7%, also breaking a prior increase. Bullhorn slipped 0.9 points to 17.0%, but its rank-one rate rose 1.4 points from 0.9% to 2.3%.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How much of its coverage does each leading ATS brand convert into first-position recommendations?
• Why can similar coverage rates hide very different rank-one performance?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. In October 2026, Greenhouse converted a large share of its coverage into first-position recommendations.

Greenhouse and Workable held the two highest coverage rates in October 2026, but Greenhouse converted 27.9% of qualified observations into first-position recommendations versus 5.0% for Workable. Close coverage can still hide very different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• Which buyer-intent classes are represented in the current qualified observations?
• Which recommendation-discovery classes are not yet measured in this benchmark?

All qualified observations in October 2026 fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

The current public series measures Brand Recommendation discovery only and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

Questions This Section Answers

• How many qualified observations back each monthly measurement?
• Has the coverage leader changed across the recorded measurements?
• Which monthly measurement recorded the largest coverage swing?

This is an evergreen benchmark URL. New measurements are added to the same report.

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and, where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure market share, attributable sales, every possible AI response, organic-search ranking, social mention volume, private or sponsored channels, or causality from a metric movement alone.

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains were cited most often across the AI surfaces?
• How concentrated are citations across the top 10 domains?
• Which cited domain belongs to a tracked ATS brand?

The benchmark recorded 5,910 citations across 1,769 unique domains in October 2026.

Citations are broadly distributed across domains rather than concentrated in a few sources, with the top 10 domains accounting for a combined 28.2% of all citations. Greenhouse appears in the top 10 cited domains at rank 4 with 134 citations, making it the only tracked brand's own domain in the top 10. The cited domains include a mix of video platforms, community forums, search engines, review sites, and industry publications, with no single source type dominating.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index is a neutral, industry-level benchmark tracking how AI search and assistant surfaces present and recommend brands within a category. Research links:

• AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Visibility Authority Value

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