The most visible B2B HR and payroll tools on Google AI Overviews, October 2026

October 2026 · 12 questions asked in English, worldwide · Google AI Overviews · 18 answers read

Industry Asked from Brands from Audience Engine Month

Leader

Gusto

67%of answers name it

Most cited source

youtube.com

16citations

From Google AI Overviews

Where engines disagree most

One engine

This page reads Google AI Overviews only. Set Engine to All to compare them.

Brands

Rank	Brand	Heralded Score	Mentioned	Recommended	Mentioned by	Change
1#1 overall	Gusto US	63 , range 43–80	67%	33%	None	First reading
2#2 overall	Rippling US	57 , range 40–77	56%	33%	None	First reading
3#3 overall	BambooHR US	40 , range 24–61	33%	17%	None	First reading
= 4#4 overall	Deel US	37 , range 18–57	33%	11%	None	First reading
= 4#4 overall	HiBob US	37 , range 18–57	33%	11%	None	First reading
= 4#4 overall	Justworks US	37 , range 15–58	22%	22%	None	First reading
7#7 overall	Paylocity US	24 , range 2–45	17%	6%	None	First reading
= 8#8 overall	Factorial ES	13 , range 1–42	17%	0%	None	First reading
= 8#8 overall	Personio DE	13 , range 1–42	17%	0%	None	First reading
= 8#8 overall	Workday US	13 , range 1–42	17%	0%	None	First reading

“=” marks brands whose score ranges overlap, so the test cannot separate them. Every brand named in at least three answers is ranked. By engine has one dot per engine (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Google AI Mode), darker the more often it names the brand.

Most cited sources

Rank	Source	Type	Cited in	Engines	Pages cited	Brands its pages mention
1	brightsg.com	Vendor site	11.1%	1 of 4	1	0
2	digisme.in	Vendor site	11.1%	1 of 4	1	0
3	Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
4	Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
5	Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
6	Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
7	wellness360.co	Vendor site	11.1%	1 of 4	1	Not read
8	Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
9	Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.
10	Withheld. Run a full Snapshot to see it.

The questions, and who wins each

Question	Language	Wins it
best HR and payroll software for a scale-up company	English	BambooHR, Justworks and Rippling, tied
HR and payroll software recommendations for a people operations lead	English	Rippling
top HR and payroll software	English	ADP RUN and Gusto, tied
how to choose HR and payroll software	English	No brand recommended
what to look for in HR and payroll software	English	No brand recommended
HR and payroll software for a team of 20 to 200	English	Gusto and Rippling, tied
HR and payroll software that integrates with Slack	English	No brand recommended
HR and payroll software with GDPR-compliant hosting	English	No brand recommended
HR and payroll software for hospitality	English	Fourth
most reliable HR and payroll software	English	No brand recommended

Each engine's top three

Google AI Overviews

Method

Each month Heralded asks every engine the same buyer questions, twice each, and reads every answer. An answer counts 0 for a brand it leaves out, 50 for a brand it names and 100 for a brand it recommends, and the Heralded Score is built from those. A brand named in at least three answers gets a score and a place.

How the leaderboards are measured