# Workforce planning: what AI models recommend, September 2026 Gane Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "workforce planning software" and as "headcount planning tool", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/planning/workforce-planning/2026-09 This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/planning/workforce-planning/index.md **Standing:** ChartHop leads with 31% of first choices; verdict contested. 52 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts. ## First-choice share | Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | [ChartHop](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/charthop/index.md) | 31% | 3% | 37 | | 2 | [Homebase](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/homebase/index.md) | 17% | 0% | 11 | | 3 | [Rippling](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/rippling/index.md) | 10% | 8% | 26 | | 4 | [Workday Adaptive Planning](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/workday-adaptive-planning/index.md) | 8% | 21% | 39 | | 5 | [Planful](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/planful/index.md) | 8% | 4% | 23 | | 7 | [HiBob](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/hibob/index.md) | 4% | 7% | 14 | | 8 | [Abacum](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/abacum/index.md) | 4% | 0% | 11 | | 9 | [Visier Workforce Planning](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/visier-workforce-planning/index.md) | 2% | 22% | 27 | | 15 | [Pigment](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/pigment/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 13 | | 16 | [Paylocity](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/paylocity/index.md) | 0% | 8% | 13 | | 18 | [Orgvue](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/orgvue/index.md) | 0% | 9% | 11 | | 29 | [ADP Workforce Now](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/adp-workforce-now/index.md) | 0% | 30% | 10 | Rank is by share of first choices among all 86 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: ChartHop; alternatives Deel Workforce Planning, HiBob, Paylocity, Pigment - GPT-5.4 mini: HiBob; alternatives Anaplan, Rippling, Workday Adaptive Planning - Gemini 3.5 Flash: ChartHop; alternatives Abacum, Mosaic, Pigment, Rippling - Perplexity Sonar: Workday Adaptive Planning; alternatives Abacum, HiBob, Paylocity, Visier Workforce Planning - Grok 4.20: Rippling; alternatives ChartHop, Paylocity, Planful, Workday Adaptive Planning - Mistral Small: Workday Adaptive Planning; alternatives ADP Workforce Now, HiBob, Paylocity, Planful - DeepSeek V4 Flash: Planful, Workday Adaptive Planning; alternatives ADP Workforce Now, ChartHop, Paylocity, Pigment - Llama 4 Maverick: Workday Adaptive Planning; alternatives Abacum, HiBob, Paylocity, Planful - Qwen 3.7 Flash: Planful; alternatives Abacum, Orgvue, Paylocity, Visier Workforce Planning - Kimi K2: Rippling; alternatives ADP Workforce Now, HiBob, Paylocity, Pigment - GLM 4.7 FlashX: HiBob; alternatives Planful, Visier Workforce Planning - MiniMax M2.5: Dayforce, Visier Workforce Planning; alternatives Workday ## Sources the answers cite 67 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers: - learn.g2.com: 36 answers, 42 citations - guideflow.com: 33 answers, 38 citations - peoplemanagingpeople.com: 32 answers, 38 citations - hrtechsaas.com: 26 answers, 29 citations - selectsoftwarereviews.com: 26 answers, 26 citations - g2.com: 20 answers, 37 citations - cubesoftware.com: 20 answers, 23 citations - charthop.com: 17 answers, 18 citations Pages named in the most answers: - https://learn.g2.com/best-workforce-planning-software (33 answers) - https://peoplemanagingpeople.com/tools/best-workforce-planning-software (31 answers) - https://selectsoftwarereviews.com/buyer-guide/workforce-planning-software (26 answers) - https://hrtechsaas.com/blog/workforce-planning-software (24 answers) - https://guideflow.com/blog/workforce-planning-software (23 answers) - https://cubesoftware.com/blog/workforce-planning-software (18 answers) - https://charthop.com/resource/best-headcount-planning-software (17 answers) - https://articsledge.com/post/workforce-planning-software (14 answers) - https://resources.rework.com/tools/workforce-management/best-workforce-planning-software-2026 (13 answers) - https://g2.com/categories/workforce-planning (12 answers) ## Warned against - Workday Adaptive Planning: 8 of 39 labels negative. "you do not need the extreme complexity, high licensing costs, and long implementation times of enterprise legacy tools like Anaplan or Workday Adaptive Planning" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, direct prompt) - Anaplan: 15 of 34 labels negative. "Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) systems—such as Anaplan, Board, or IBM Planning Analytics... Why to be cautious: ... these tools can become a massive "spreadsheet on steroids" trap.:" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt) - Spreadsheets: 3 of 3 labels negative. "Avoid if: Your organization is beyond a small, stable team... Error-prone: Studies show up to 88% of spreadsheets contain errors" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt) - Visier Workforce Planning: 6 of 27 labels negative. "rather than a full enterprise suite like Visier (which is expensive and aimed at larger companies)" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt) ## Record - Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/methodology - License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, September 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/hr.