Payroll AI visibility leaderboard
Payroll tools help people teams pay employees accurately. Buyers increasingly start this search inside AI assistants, which narrow 46 vendors down to a shortlist of three to five.
- Gusto leads Payroll with an AI visibility score of 49.2 and appears in 62% of AI answers about Payroll (SlateIndex, Nov 3, 2026).
- AI engines named 46 Payroll brands; Gusto, ADP Workforce Now and Rippling hold 28% of all mentions.
- Gusto leads on all 3 engines.
- gusto.com is the most cited source for Payroll, with 6.3% of citations.
Data collected ·ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode·coverage 100%·next run
Where vendors stand in Payroll
8 brands shown: 1 Leader, 2 Authority Builders and 5 Challengers. Gusto is the only brand above both lines.
| Brand | Mention rate | Citation authority | Answers citing own site | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gusto | 61.7% | 58% | 29 of 50 | Leader |
| ADP Workforce Now | 49.4% | 40% | 14 of 35 | Authority Builder |
| QuickBooks Payroll | 44.4% | 0% | 0 of 36 | Challenger |
| Rippling | 43.2% | 25% | 8 of 32 | Challenger |
| Patriot Software | 34.6% | 33.3% | 9 of 27 | Challenger |
| Deel | 34.6% | 29.6% | 8 of 27 | Challenger |
| OnPay | 33.3% | 41.7% | 10 of 24 | Authority Builder |
| Paychex Flex | 30.9% | 28% | 7 of 25 | Challenger |
Leaderboard
Brands mentioned in AI answers in the weekly run of Nov 3. Every engine ranks Gusto first.
From audit to execution, Slate’s AEO team gets your brand into the answers buyers read.
Visibility score trend
Weekly runs over the last 60 days, top 8 brands. Click a name to hide or show its line.
Gusto leads Payroll at 49.2%. Changes appear after the second weekly run.
Prompts in Payroll
The buyer questions SlateIndex runs for this category every week.
Most cited sources
Where engines get their information when they answer Payroll prompts.
| Source | Type | Share of citations | Citations | Prompts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gusto.com | Brand site | 38 | 18 | |
| adp.com | Brand site | 23 | 15 | |
| intuit.com | Web | 19 | 11 | |
| paycom.com | Brand site | 19 | 10 | |
| peoplemanagingpeople.com | Web | 19 | 10 | |
| forbes.com | Media | 17 | 12 | |
| rippling.com | Brand site | 17 | 11 | |
| capterra.com | Review site | 16 | 10 | |
| onpay.com | Brand site | 14 | 11 | |
| ukg.com | Brand site | 14 | 9 | |
| g2.com | Review site | 11 | 7 | |
| softwareadvice.com | Review site | 11 | 6 | |
| zoho.com | Brand site | 11 | 8 | |
| patriotsoftware.com | Brand site | 10 | 7 | |
| pcmag.com | Media | 10 | 10 | |
| bamboohr.com | Brand site | 9 | 2 | |
| deel.com | Brand site | 9 | 9 | |
| leadchangegroup.com | Web | 9 | 8 | |
| apspayroll.com | Brand site | 8 | 2 | |
| dayforce.com | Brand site | 8 | 6 | |
| techrepublic.com | Web | 8 | 6 | |
| isg-one.com | Web | 7 | 2 | |
| paychex.com | Brand site | 7 | 7 | |
| selecthub.com | Web | 7 | 5 | |
| irs.gov | Web | 6 | 2 |
All vendors in Payroll
Every Payroll brand tracked by SlateIndex.
Compare the leaders
Payroll in AI answers: questions
Which Payroll software do AI assistants recommend most?
Gusto, ADP Workforce Now and Rippling are recommended most often. Gusto leads with an AI visibility score of 49.2 and appears in 62% of answers (data of Nov 3, 2026).
Which Payroll tool do ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Mode recommend?
ChatGPT puts Gusto first (50), Perplexity puts Gusto first (44.8) and Google AI Mode puts Gusto first (52.8).
Which sources do AI engines cite for Payroll?
gusto.com (6.3%), adp.com (3.8%) and intuit.com (3.2%) are cited most often in answers about Payroll.
How is the Payroll ranking calculated?
SlateIndex asks ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Mode 30 Payroll buyer questions every week and scores each brand by how often and how high it appears in their answers. The methodology page has the formulas.
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Cite as: SlateIndex, “Payroll AI visibility leaderboard”, https://slateindex.ai/category/payroll, data of Nov 3, 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.