# Employee engagement surveys: what AI models recommend, October 2026

Gane Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "employee engagement survey platform" and as "employee pulse survey tool", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/experience/employee-engagement-surveys/2026-10

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/experience/employee-engagement-surveys/index.md

**Standing:** Culture Amp leads with 37% of first choices; verdict contested. 60 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Culture Amp](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/culture-amp/index.md) | 37% | 17% | 42 |
| 2 | [Workleap Officevibe](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/workleap-officevibe/index.md) | 13% | 6% | 35 |
| 3 | [Leapsome](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/leapsome/index.md) | 12% | 6% | 17 |
| 4 | [Lattice Engagement](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/lattice-engagement/index.md) | 10% | 6% | 31 |
| 5 | [15Five Engage](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/15five-engage/index.md) | 5% | 0% | 28 |
| 6 | [FeedbackPulse](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/feedbackpulse/index.md) | 5% | 0% | 10 |
| 8 | [Microsoft Viva Glint](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/microsoft-viva-glint/index.md) | 2% | 0% | 10 |
| 15 | [Qualtrics EmployeeXM](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/qualtrics-employeexm/index.md) | 2% | 36% | 11 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 57 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Culture Amp; alternatives 15Five Engage, Lattice Engagement, Quantum Workplace
- GPT-5.4 mini: Culture Amp; alternatives Explorance Blue, Qualtrics EmployeeXM, WTW Engage, WorkTango
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Culture Amp, Lattice Engagement; alternatives 15Five Engage, Leapsome, Teamflect
- Perplexity Sonar: Culture Amp; alternatives 15Five Engage, CultureMonkey, Leapsome
- Grok 4.20: Culture Amp; alternatives 15Five Engage, CultureMonkey, Lattice Engagement, Quantum Workplace
- Mistral Small: Culture Amp, Workleap Officevibe; alternatives Eletive, Leapsome
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Culture Amp; alternatives 15Five Engage, Lattice Engagement, Microsoft Viva Glint
- Llama 4 Maverick: Leapsome; alternatives CultureMonkey, Workleap Officevibe
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Lattice Engagement; alternatives 15Five Engage
- Kimi K2: Lattice Engagement; alternatives 15Five Engage, Culture Amp, Quantum Workplace, Workleap Officevibe
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Culture Amp, Lattice Engagement; alternatives Leapsome
- MiniMax M2.5: Culture Amp; alternatives 15Five Engage, Lattice Engagement, Qualtrics EmployeeXM, Workday Peakon Employee Voice
- GPT-6 Luna: Culture Amp; alternatives Lattice Engagement, Workleap Officevibe
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Culture Amp; alternatives 15Five Engage, Lattice Engagement, Microsoft Viva Glint, Quantum Workplace

## Sources the answers cite

69 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- feedbackpulse.com: 33 answers, 49 citations
- culturemonkey.io: 28 answers, 49 citations
- betterworks.com: 26 answers, 26 citations
- peoplemanagingpeople.com: 21 answers, 36 citations
- eletive.com: 19 answers, 25 citations
- engagedly.com: 19 answers, 20 citations
- hrcloud.com: 17 answers, 17 citations
- capterra.com: 16 answers, 19 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://betterworks.com/magazine/best-employee-engagement-software (26 answers)
- https://feedbackpulse.com/resources/best-employee-survey-software (19 answers)
- https://formgrid.com/blog/employee-engagement-survey-tools (16 answers)
- https://hrcloud.com/blog/best-employee-survey-platform (14 answers)
- https://capterra.com/resources/best-employee-engagement-software-reviews-analysis (13 answers)
- https://culturemonkey.io/employee-engagement/employee-engagement-survey-tools (13 answers)
- https://eletive.com/blog/best-employee-engagement-tools (12 answers)
- https://culturemonkey.io/guides/employee-engagement-survey-questions/employee-engagement-survey-vendors/top-employee-engagement-survey-vendors-to-choose-from (11 answers)
- https://firsthr.app/compare/performance/employee-engagement-platform (11 answers)
- https://peoplemanagingpeople.com/tools/best-employee-survey-tools (11 answers)

## Warned against

- Culture Amp: 7 of 42 labels negative. "Avoid platforms like Culture Amp, Leapsome, or Qualtrics—they're excellent but priced for enterprise" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt)
- Qualtrics EmployeeXM: 4 of 11 labels negative. "Avoid platforms like Culture Amp, Leapsome, or Qualtrics" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt)
- SurveyMonkey: 3 of 7 labels negative. "Limitation: 10-question cap makes it restrictive for comprehensive engagement surveys" (Kimi K2, budget prompt)
- Lattice Engagement: 2 of 31 labels negative. "avoid platforms with $4,000+ annual minimums like Lattice/Culture Amp" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, budget prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 13 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Culture Amp at 35%.

- Leapsome: 0% to 13%, +13. Cleared the floor by 0 points · rank 13 → 2 of 52.
- FeedbackPulse: 12% to 4%, −8. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 3 → 6 of 52.
- Culture Amp: 40% to 35%, −5. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 1 of 52, unchanged.
- Lattice Engagement: 10% to 12%, +2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 4 of 52, unchanged.
- 15Five Engage: 6% to 4%, −2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 6 → 5 of 52.
- Qualtrics EmployeeXM: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 45 → 14 of 52.
- Workleap Officevibe: 12% to 12%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 2 → 3 of 52.
- Workday Peakon Employee Voice: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 47 → 28 of 52.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, October 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/hr.