Applicant Tracking Systems: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Greenhouse led the Applicant Tracking Systems benchmark in August 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 5.8%, down from 53.6% in July 2026. Workable matched Greenhouse at 5.8% coverage in August 2026, down from 46.6% in July 2026, creating a tie at the top of the category with no coverage gap between the two leading brands.

The largest coverage decline belonged to Greenhouse, which fell 47.8 percentage points from 53.6% in July 2026 to 5.8% in August 2026. BambooHR recorded the second-largest drop, declining 31.9 percentage points from 34.2% in July 2026 to 2.3% in August 2026.

All ten tracked brands recorded declines in valid recommendation coverage between July and August 2026, and no brand recorded an increase.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 346 qualified observations in August 2026 after qualification.

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 Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

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 Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Largest Decline: Greenhouse

Greenhouse recorded the largest coverage decline in August 2026, falling 47.8 percentage points from 53.6% in July 2026 to 5.8% in August 2026. Presence dropped 77.1 percentage points from 91.8% in July 2026 to 14.7% in August 2026. Top-three rate fell 32.0 points from 36.3% to 4.3%, and rank-one rate declined 21.1 points from 25.1% to 4.0%. Despite the decline, Greenhouse remained the category leader in valid recommendation coverage and held the highest rank-one rate among tracked brands in August 2026.

Significant Decliners: Workable and Lever

Workable declined 40.8 percentage points from 46.6% in July 2026 to 5.8% in August 2026. Presence fell 56.1 points from 66.2% to 10.1%, and top-three rate dropped 19.7 points from 21.7% to 2.0%. Workable tied with Greenhouse for the highest coverage in August 2026.

Lever declined 35.7 percentage points from 40.9% in July 2026 to 5.2% in August 2026. Presence fell 57.3 points from 71.5% to 14.2%, and top-three rate dropped 17.1 points from 18.6% to 1.5%.

Significant Decliners: BambooHR, JazzHR, Workday Recruiting

BambooHR declined 31.9 percentage points from 34.2% in July 2026 to 2.3% in August 2026. Presence fell 49.0 points from 56.5% to 7.5%. Top-three rate and rank-one rate both fell to 0.0% from 6.7% and 4.2% respectively.

JazzHR declined 26.8 percentage points from 27.4% in July 2026 to 0.6% in August 2026. Presence fell 38.2 points from 38.8% to 0.6%. JazzHR held the lowest coverage of any tracked brand in August 2026.

Workday Recruiting declined 26.7 percentage points from 28.7% in July 2026 to 2.0% in August 2026. Presence fell 44.8 points from 55.5% to 10.7%. Workday Recruiting was the only brand other than Greenhouse to record any rank-one recommendations in August 2026, at 0.3%.

Significant Decliners: Ashby, iCIMS, SmartRecruiters, Bullhorn

Ashby declined 29.1 percentage points from 33.1% in July 2026 to 4.0% in August 2026. iCIMS declined 24.3 points from 29.8% to 5.5%. SmartRecruiters declined 19.2 points from 20.7% to 1.5%. Bullhorn declined 16.7 points from 17.9% to 1.2%, the smallest decline among tracked brands. All four recorded no rank-one recommendations in August 2026.

Category Leader: Greenhouse

Greenhouse led the category in valid recommendation coverage in August 2026 at 5.8%, tied with Workable. Greenhouse held the highest presence rate at 14.7%, the highest top-three rate at 4.3%, and the highest rank-one rate at 4.0%, with 14 rank-one recommendations out of 346 qualified observations.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. In August 2026, Greenhouse stood apart from the rest of the field in placement, holding the only meaningful rank-one rate.

Greenhouse and Workable matched on coverage at 5.8% in August 2026, but Greenhouse converted a far larger share of that coverage into first-position recommendations at 4.0% versus Workable at 0.0%. Close coverage can still hide very different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in August 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

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.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI 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 Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Authority Value

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