Applicant Tracking Systems: AI Market Discovery Index

Tracking how AI platforms recommend applicant tracking systems. This public AI Market Discovery Index is updated monthly since July 2026.

By Mark Huntley, J.D.Growth Strategist & AI Discovery Analyst

6 minutes read

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On this page

01Benchmark Summary
02Current Benchmark at a Glance
03Research Scope and Qualification
04Current Brand Standings
05How to Read the Standings
06Recommendation Coverage Movement
07Largest Decline: Bullhorn
08Stable Brands
09Category Leader: Greenhouse
10Recommendation Placement Snapshot
11Buyer-Intent Distribution
12Historical Measurement Record

Benchmark Summary

Greenhouse led the Applicant Tracking Systems benchmark in September 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 53.4%, essentially unchanged from 53.6% in July 2026 — a movement of 0.2 points that stayed within normal month-to-month variation. Workable followed at 48.3% coverage, up 1.7 points from 46.6% in July 2026 and also within normal variation, leaving a 5.1 percentage point gap between the two leading brands.

Ashby recorded the largest baseline-to-current movement among the ten tracked brands, rising 3.7 percentage points from 33.1% in July 2026 to 36.8% in September 2026, though this remained within normal month-to-month variation. Bullhorn was the only brand with a significant baseline-to-current decline, falling 4.6 percentage points from 17.9% in July 2026 to 13.3% in September 2026.

Between August 2026 and September 2026, all ten tracked brands recorded a significant increase in valid recommendation coverage, breaking the sharp August decline and returning most brands to levels close to their July 2026 baseline. This monthly reversal leaves the cumulative July-to-September pattern largely unchanged for nine of the ten brands. Bullhorn is the exception: even after rising from its August low, its September coverage remains significantly below its July 2026 baseline — the only significant baseline-to-current movement recorded in the category this period.

The September 2026 measurement is based on 513 qualified observations, following 526 in July 2026.

AI recommendation trend

valid recommendation coverage, Jul 2026 to Sep 2026

Greenhouse53.4%
Workable48.3%
Lever37.4%
Ashby36.8%
BambooHR32.8%
iCIMS26.5%
Workday Recruiting26.3%
JazzHR25.9%
SmartRecruiters18.5%
Bullhorn13.3%

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Measure	Jul 2026	Sep 2026	Movement
Qualified benchmark observations	526	513	Down 13
Tracked brands	10	10	No change
Qualified surface breadth	6	6	No change
Recommendation-shaped answer share	37.6%	38.8%	Up 1.2 points
Valid recommendation shortlist share	55.5%	55.0%	Down 0.5 points
Leader by valid recommendation coverage	Greenhouse	Greenhouse	No change

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

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

Research stage	Jul 2026	Sep 2026	What it represents
Source prompt-surface observations	800	800	Total prompts issued across AI surfaces
Unique questions	515	556	Distinct questions after deduplication
Brand / competitor mentions	800	800	Prompts mentioning at least one tracked brand
Relevant observations	636	631	Prompts relevant to the benchmark scope
Irrelevant observations	164	169	Prompts outside the benchmark scope
Qualified benchmark observations	526	513	Public denominator for brand-level metrics

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.

Brand	Presence rate	Valid recommendation coverage	Top-three rate	Rank-one rate	Net sentiment
Greenhouse	93.0%	53.4%	34.9%	26.1%	0.7
Workable	72.9%	48.3%	21.8%	2.1%	0.8
Lever	68.8%	37.4%	16.6%	0.0%	0.6
Ashby	46.6%	36.8%	16.8%	2.5%	0.8
BambooHR	56.3%	32.8%	6.0%	3.3%	0.7
iCIMS	48.1%	26.5%	3.5%	0.4%	0.7
Workday Recruiting	55.6%	26.3%	4.3%	0.8%	0.6
JazzHR	34.5%	25.9%	5.3%	1.9%	0.8
SmartRecruiters	28.3%	18.5%	2.7%	0.2%	0.7
Bullhorn	22.0%	13.3%	4.1%	2.7%	0.8

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

Brand	Jul 2026	Sep 2026	Movement since baseline
Ashby	33.1%	36.8%	Up 3.7 points
BambooHR	34.2%	32.8%	Down 1.4 points
Bullhorn	17.9%	13.3%	Down 4.6 points
Greenhouse	53.6%	53.4%	Down 0.2 points
iCIMS	29.8%	26.5%	Down 3.3 points
JazzHR	27.4%	25.9%	Down 1.5 points
Lever	40.9%	37.4%	Down 3.5 points
SmartRecruiters	20.7%	18.5%	Down 2.2 points
Workable	46.6%	48.3%	Up 1.7 points
Workday Recruiting	28.7%	26.3%	Down 2.4 points

Every tracked brand recorded a substantial rise from August 2026 to September 2026. Ashby climbed 32.8 points from 4.0% in August 2026, BambooHR rose 30.5 points from 2.3%, and Workable gained 42.5 points from 5.8%. These sharp prior-to-current moves returned most brands to their July 2026 levels rather than signaling new highs.

Largest Decline: Bullhorn

Bullhorn recorded the only coverage decline beyond normal month-to-month variation in September 2026, falling 4.6 percentage points from 17.9% in July 2026 to 13.3% in September 2026. Presence slipped 2.1 points from 24.1% to 22.0%. Despite the decline in coverage, Bullhorn's top-three rate rose 1.4 percentage points from 2.7% to 4.1%, and its rank-one rate rose 1.8 percentage points from 0.9% to 2.7%. Bullhorn rose 12.1 points from its August 2026 reading of 1.2%.

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Stable Brands

Nine brands held coverage within normal month-to-month variation between July and September 2026. Greenhouse led at 53.4%, essentially unchanged from 53.6%, with its top-three rate easing 1.4 points to 34.9% and its rank-one rate rising 1.0 point to 26.1%. Workable rose 1.7 points to 48.3%, supported by a 6.7 point increase in presence to 72.9%. Ashby gained 3.7 points to 36.8%, with increases in presence to 46.6% and top-three rate to 16.8%. Lever declined 3.5 points to 37.4%, iCIMS fell 3.3 points to 26.5%, Workday Recruiting dropped 2.4 points to 26.3%, SmartRecruiters eased 2.2 points to 18.5%, JazzHR slipped 1.5 points to 25.9%, and BambooHR declined 1.4 points to 32.8%. iCIMS also recorded a 2.8 point decline in top-three rate to 3.5%, while Workday Recruiting's top-three rate fell 3.3 points to 4.3%.

Category Leader: Greenhouse

Greenhouse led the category in valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 at 53.4%, holding the top position in every month of the series. Greenhouse also held the highest presence rate at 93.0%, the highest top-three rate at 34.9%, and the highest rank-one rate at 26.1%, with 134 rank-one recommendations out of 513 qualified observations.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

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

Brand	Sep 2026 top-three rate	Sep 2026 rank-one rate	Jul 2026 top-three rate	Jul 2026 rank-one rate
Greenhouse	34.9%	26.1%	36.3%	25.1%
Workable	21.8%	2.1%	21.7%	4.6%
Ashby	16.8%	2.5%	12.2%	1.3%

Greenhouse and Workable held the two highest coverage rates in September 2026, but Greenhouse converted 26.1% of observations into first-position recommendations versus 2.1% for Workable. Close coverage can still hide very different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

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

Buyer-intent class	Jul 2026	Sep 2026
Brand Recommendation	526	513
Pricing & Value	0	0
Multi-Brand Comparison	0	0
Total qualified observations	526	513

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.

Measurement	Qualified observations	Coverage leader	Leader coverage	Largest coverage movement
Jul 2026	526	Greenhouse	53.6%	Greenhouse down 47.8 points in Aug
Aug 2026	346	Greenhouse	5.8%	Greenhouse down 47.8 points since Jul
Sep 2026	513	Greenhouse	53.4%	Bullhorn down 4.6 points since Jul

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:

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