The Week 28 HR Software Report

Week 28 Is the Baseline

This report covers Cooper's first official HR software hub snapshot: ten category-relative Overall AIQ rankings measured across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity during July 6–12, 2026, under scoring version aiq-v2. Each section is its own market record, so the scores and ranks belong inside that category rather than on a combined HR leaderboard.

Week 28 is Cooper's first official tracked edition, so week-over-week movement is not yet available. Return for the next edition to see the first recorded movers.

The baseline contains two unanimous leaders: Employer of Record and Time Tracking. Performance Management includes a displayed product without two assistant ranks, while every displayed Employee Engagement product has no Perplexity category rank in this scope. These are placement differences inside separate markets, not a cross-category performance comparison.

How to Read This Report

Overall AIQ is category-relative and combines Cooper's Best, Most affordable, and Easiest to set up questions. The assistant columns show each product's published category rank inside that Overall scope. An em dash means there was no category rank in this scope; it does not describe the assistant's intent.

Each compact table shows the category's first three products. Sources counts distinct verified source domains for a product, while Mentions counts distinct cited pages verified as naming that product. The category totals in the prose cover the full category snapshot. Neither evidence measure is presented as the cause of a rank.

Rising AIQ is a separate measurement dimension and is not included in this Overall analysis. Readers looking for emerging-product results can open the separate Week 28 Rising AIQ report.

What Week 28 Establishes

Across the ten category snapshots, Employer of Record and Time Tracking have unanimous assistant leaders. Performance Management and Employee Engagement include displayed products with absent assistant ranks, with every displayed Employee Engagement row missing a Perplexity rank.

Evidence order differs visibly from Overall order in Recruiting, Payroll, Employer of Record, Performance Management, Learning Management, Employee Engagement, Employee Scheduling, and Employee Recognition. These are baseline observations, not cross-category performance comparisons or causal conclusions. A later official edition is required before this report can identify persistent patterns or movement. The category links above open the complete rankings, and the Week 28 Rising AIQ report keeps emerging-product analysis separate from Overall AIQ.