# Skills intelligence for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "skills intelligence platform" and as "skills taxonomy and inference tool", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/performance/skills-intelligence/smb

**Standing:** Skills Base leads with 55% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 60 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Skills Base](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/skills-base/index.md) | 55% | 0% | 48 |
| 2 | [MuchSkills](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/muchskills/index.md) | 7% | 0% | 35 |
| 4 | [SkillsDB](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/skillsdb/index.md) | 3% | 0% | 20 |
| 7 | [SkillPanel](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/skillpanel/index.md) | 2% | 5% | 19 |
| 9 | [iMocha](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/imocha/index.md) | 2% | 25% | 16 |
| 21 | [TalentLMS](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/talentlms/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 14 |
| 22 | [GoSkills](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/goskills/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 11 |
| 23 | [360Learning](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/360learning/index.md) | 0% | 9% | 11 |
| 75 | [Udemy Business](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/udemy-business/index.md) | 0% | 42% | 12 |
| 110 | [Coursera](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/coursera/index.md) | 0% | 40% | 10 |
| 154 | [Gloat](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/gloat/index.md) | 0% | 86% | 14 |
| 155 | [TechWolf](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/techwolf/index.md) | 0% | 100% | 12 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 156 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: Phenom; alternatives Eightfold AI, Pin, TalentGuard, iMocha
- GPT-5.4 mini: SkillPanel; alternatives 365Talents, iMocha
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: MuchSkills; alternatives DevSkiller, Lattice, Leapsome, Skills Base
- Perplexity Sonar: Skills Base; alternatives AG5, SkillPanel, iMocha
- Grok 4.20: Skills Base; alternatives MuchSkills
- Mistral Small: Skills Base; alternatives Disprz, MuchSkills, SkillPanel
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Skills Base; alternatives MuchSkills, SkillPanel
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Skills Base; alternatives MuchSkills, SkillPanel
- Kimi K2: Skills Base; alternatives MuchSkills, SkillsDB
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Skills Base; alternatives MuchSkills, SkillsDB, iMocha
- MiniMax M2.5: Skills Base; alternatives MuchSkills, SkillPanel, SkillsDB
- GPT-6 Luna: MuchSkills; alternatives SkillPanel, Skills Base
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Skills Base; alternatives MuchSkills, SkillPanel

## Sources the answers cite

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

- firsthr.app: 41 answers, 43 citations
- g2.com: 36 answers, 67 citations
- muchskills.com: 22 answers, 35 citations
- skills-base.com: 20 answers, 27 citations
- disprz.ai: 20 answers, 23 citations
- gane.ai/index: 20 answers, 20 citations
- goskills.com: 15 answers, 24 citations
- culturro.com: 13 answers, 13 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://firsthr.app/compare/training/skills-management-software (39 answers)
- https://gane.ai/index/hr/performance/skills-intelligence/smb (20 answers)
- https://disprz.ai/blog/skills-gap-analysis-software (17 answers)
- https://skills-base.com/pricing (15 answers)
- https://g2.com/categories/skills-management/small-business (12 answers)
- https://muchskills.com/ (12 answers)
- https://culturro.com/hr-software/skills-intelligence (11 answers)
- https://g2.com/categories/talent-intelligence/small-business (11 answers)
- https://goskills.com/resources/best-lms-small-business (10 answers)
- https://marketintelligencetools.com/rankings/skills-intelligence-platforms (10 answers)

## Warned against

- Eightfold AI: 18 of 19 labels negative. "Avoid tools that lock you into a custom enterprise contract from day one (e.g., Eightfold, 365Talents, TechWolf)" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, budget prompt)
- TechWolf: 12 of 12 labels negative. "Avoid tools that lock you into a custom enterprise contract from day one (e.g., Eightfold, 365Talents, TechWolf)" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, budget prompt)
- Gloat: 12 of 14 labels negative. "What to Avoid ... (like Eightfold AI, Gloat, Workday Skills Cloud) are designed for 1,000+ employees" (Kimi K2, budget prompt)
- Freelancer.com: 5 of 5 labels negative. "Widely criticized by small business owners and independent contractors for aggressive fee structures and low signal-to-noise ratio." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 13 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Skills Base at 55%.

- Skills Base: 45% to 55%, +10. Inside the floor by 3 points · rank 1 of 156, unchanged.
- SkillPanel: 11% to 2%, −9. Inside the floor by 4 points · rank 2 → 7 of 156.
- MuchSkills: 2% to 7%, +5. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 7 → 2 of 156.
- iMocha: 7% to 2%, −5. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 3 → 9 of 156.
- Eightfold AI: 4% to 0%, −4. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 6 → 156 of 156.
- SkillsDB: 0% to 3%, +3. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 21 → 4 of 156.
- Gloat: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 19 → 154 of 156.
- AG5: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 8 of 156, unchanged.
- TalentLMS: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 22 → 21 of 156.
- GoSkills: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 20 → 22 of 156.
- 360Learning: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 27 → 23 of 156.
- Pluralsight Skills: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 26 → 25 of 156.

## Record

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