Top 7 AI Tools for Skill Assessment

AI-powered tools are transforming how small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) assess skills, making hiring faster, more accurate, and less biased. With 75% of HR professionals agreeing that skills-based hiring is the future, these tools are now essential for staying competitive. Here’s a quick overview of the top 7 AI tools for skill assessment:

• iMocha: Real-time skill tests, 2,500+ skill library, and AI-driven analytics. Cuts hiring costs by 60%.
• Codility: Live coding assessments for engineers, with AI-powered reporting and a wide task library.
• HireVue: Video interviews analyzed by AI for verbal and non-verbal cues, reducing time-to-hire by up to 70%.
• Pymetrics: Game-based assessments to measure cognitive, social, and behavioral traits.
• TestGorilla: Over 300 assessments for coding, cognitive skills, and personality with anti-cheating tools.
• Mercer | Mettl: Proctored testing, coding simulators, and custom assessments for various industries.
• HackerRank: Pair programming and coding challenges for technical roles, with AI-driven insights.

Why These Tools Matter:

• Faster Hiring: AI reduces time-to-hire by up to 50%.
• Cost Savings: Companies report cutting recruitment costs by as much as 78%.
• Better Matches: AI improves candidate quality and diversity by analyzing skills objectively.

Quick Comparison

These tools are helping SMBs save time, reduce costs, and hire better talent. With 50% of employees needing reskilling by 2025, adopting AI tools for skill evaluation is no longer optional - it’s a necessity.

1. iMocha Skills Intelligence Cloud

Launched in 2023, iMocha's Skills Intelligence Cloud simplifies talent evaluation for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) by combining real-time skill assessments with actionable, data-driven insights.

Real-Time Skill Evaluation

iMocha offers a dynamic way to assess skills instantly. With coding tests covering over 35 programming languages and its AI-powered tool, AI-EnglishPro, the platform evaluates business communication skills in real time. For example, BRAC Bank managed to assess 33,600 candidates in just two days using iMocha’s automation tools. Similarly, Tata Advanced Systems Ltd. used the platform to automate recruitment, successfully shortlisting 80% of candidates for final interview rounds. Beyond hiring, iMocha enables businesses to conduct pre- and post-training evaluations, helping them monitor and improve employee competencies over time.

These real-time capabilities make it easier for businesses to design assessments tailored to their specific needs.

Industry-Specific Skill Libraries

iMocha takes its assessments a step further with its extensive skill library - the largest in the world, featuring over 2,500 skills. It also develops custom assessments tailored to specific job roles and requirements, ensuring every evaluation aligns with real-world business needs . Leading companies have used these tools to better prepare their teams and optimize their hiring processes .

AI-Powered Analytics and Reporting

The platform’s AI-driven analytics provide deep insights into workforce planning, skill-gap analysis, and performance improvement. Its features include skills matching, organizational skills inventory, AI-powered inference, and benchmarking. Amit Mishra, Founder & CEO of iMocha, highlighted the platform’s impact:

"By capturing detailed skills data and layering it with AI, our Skills Intelligence Cloud will revolutionize people analytics and skills-gap analysis, empowering enterprises to stay prepared for future and technological disruptions" .

These analytics drive tangible results. For instance, Capgemini upskilled over 3,500 new graduates while cutting training costs by 74%. Fujitsu saw a 50% reduction in reliance on its technical team and sped up hiring processes significantly .

Scalability for SMBs

iMocha equips SMBs to compete more effectively by reducing time-to-hire by 50%, lowering hiring costs by 60%, and improving the quality of candidates. Real-life examples illustrate its scalability: Qapitol QA slashed 80% of the time needed to hire software testing professionals, while Capgemini Engineering cut time-to-interview by 40% thanks to custom assessments and intelligent interview reports . With a G2 rating of 4.4/5 based on 261 reviews, users consistently praise its ability to evaluate skills, produce detailed reports, and integrate smoothly into existing systems. Considering that a single bad hire can reduce organizational growth by 5%, these results are critical.

Even Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, recognized the platform’s potential:

"iMocha's skilling API allows managers to increase the pace of hiring for the open job and the skill matching. So that's the type of innovation we are seeing".

2. Codility

Codility is a technical assessment platform that has evaluated over 16 million engineers in 68 countries, earning an impressive 96% customer satisfaction rating. Its live coding features and structured task libraries provide a reliable way to assess candidates' technical abilities.

Real-Time Skill Evaluation Capabilities

Codility’s real-time coding environment allows candidates to showcase their coding abilities in scenarios that mirror real-world challenges. The platform’s interview mode lets interviewers observe problem-solving in action through live coding sessions. An automated evaluation system provides instant feedback on code correctness, performance, and edge case handling.

"Codility is the most important element of our selection process. It allows us to screen hundreds of candidates and pick the most talented ones based on their technical skills."
– Anna Paruch, HR Specialist, Asseco

Industry-Specific Skill Libraries

The platform includes a vast library of tasks designed to assess technical knowledge and practical skills across several domains. These include Application Security, Back-End, Big Data, Blockchain, Data Science, Design, Front-End, DevOps, and QA. For example:

• Front-End Engineers: React-based tasks
• Back-End Engineers: Spring-focused challenges
• .NET Developers: .NET-specific tasks

Codility also addresses emerging fields with assessments like Solidity for Blockchain and DevOps scenarios involving tools like Kubernetes, Docker, and Terraform. Additionally, Business Context tasks allow companies to create industry-specific challenges, with the flexibility to design custom assessments tailored to unique hiring needs.

AI-Driven Analytics and Reporting

Codility uses AI to enhance hiring accuracy by automating evaluations and generating detailed candidate reports. These reports include performance benchmarks, helping hiring teams make informed decisions with less bias. Companies like Amazon, Citi, Intel, PayPal, and Barclays rely on these analytics to refine their technical hiring processes. The platform also features an AI assistant to ensure consistent evaluations across all candidates.

"Codility helps us remove bias by ensuring a consistent, equal, and fair process for every candidate at LiveRamp."
– Erika Thorson, Head of Global Talent Acquisition, LiveRamp

Codility’s automation and detailed reporting make it an excellent choice for handling high-volume evaluations without compromising on fairness or accuracy.

Scalability for SMBs

Codility is designed to meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. Its remote-friendly setup and efficient grading system simplify the hiring process, allowing SMBs to evaluate candidates from anywhere in the world. GetApp users have rated Codility highly, with scores like 4.9/5 for Skills Assessment, 4.6/5 for Assessment Management, and 4.9/5 for Online Tests. The automated grading and comprehensive reporting save valuable time for smaller teams, making it a practical solution for managing large applicant pools efficiently.

3. HireVue

HireVue is an AI-driven assessment platform that has evaluated over one million job seekers for more than 100 employers. By leveraging advanced machine learning, it assesses candidates through video interviews, analyzing both verbal and non-verbal cues to predict job performance with impressive precision.

Real-Time Skill Evaluation Capabilities

HireVue's AI system examines verbal and non-verbal signals during video interviews, including speech patterns, word choice, facial expressions, and eye contact. These algorithms are designed to assess candidates' responses to work scenarios, using facial cues and verbal feedback as key indicators.

The platform generates detailed employability scores based on competence models built from historical interview data. Facial Action Units can contribute up to 29% of a candidate's overall score, while the remaining score is derived from verbal responses and audio features.

"HireVue's AI-powered platform pinpoints and validates the skills that drive job success." - HireVue

To enhance its accuracy, HireVue integrates Rev.ai, a speech transcription service that supports both native and non-native English speakers with a variety of accents. Its language model, adapted from the RoBERTa neural network, is specifically fine-tuned for interview scenarios, ensuring precise and contextually relevant evaluations. This combination of real-time analysis and tailored AI technology feeds directly into HireVue's robust analytics.

AI-Driven Analytics and Reporting

HireVue takes its real-time evaluations a step further by providing detailed dashboards with performance metrics and competency evaluations. After completing an assessment, candidates receive report cards that evaluate traits such as willingness to learn, conscientiousness, and personal stability.

The platform's predictive analytics enable organizations to make strategic hiring decisions while supporting diversity and inclusion efforts. Fairness is built into its model optimization during training, helping reduce biases in the hiring process.

"Human evaluations are inconsistent. They inject their subjectivity into the evaluations. But AI can database what the human processes in an interview, without bias. … And humans are now believing in machine decisions over human feedback." - Nathan Mondragon, HireVue's chief industrial-organizational psychologist

Organizations using HireVue report notable results, including a 50–70% reduction in time-to-hire, a 40–60% drop in recruitment costs, an 85% improvement in candidate quality, and a 92% boost in recruiter productivity. The platform also has a 79% overall satisfaction rate from 400 reviews and a perfect 100% renewal rate.

Scalability for SMBs

HireVue is designed to scale effectively, catering to the needs of both large enterprises and small-to-medium businesses (SMBs). The Essentials Package starts at $35,000. For instance, Hilton International has reduced its average hiring time from six weeks to just five days, while Unilever has saved 100,000 hours of interview time and approximately $1 million annually in recruiting costs.

"Using HireVue's assessments we have been able to optimize speed, quality, quantity, and experience. We can manage and review a much larger volume of candidates, and confidently recommend the best talent to the business. We have built validated talent pools for each department, so in some cases we have a zero time to fill. HireVue has been a phenomenal partner, supporting us and challenging our thinking." - Manal Al Soori, Senior Vice President of HR Group Recruitment, Emirates

While the platform's advanced features may require careful budget consideration for smaller companies, organizations with high-volume hiring demands often find the investment worthwhile.

4. Pymetrics

Pymetrics takes a unique approach to skill assessment by using neuroscience-based games. These consist of 16 game-based assessments - 12 core games and 4 focused on numerical and logical reasoning - to evaluate over 90 cognitive, social, and behavioral traits. Throughout the process, the platform collects more than a thousand behavioral data points for each candidate [47,48].

Real-Time Skill Evaluation Capabilities

The core games are designed to measure soft skills and emotional intelligence, while the numerical and logical reasoning games focus on quantitative abilities. Together, they assess 91 traits across nine categories, including attention, decision-making, and risk tolerance. As candidates play, the system gathers behavioral data that highlights competencies like risk-taking, endurance, and perseverance. This provides employers with a clear picture of how individuals handle challenges.

What makes Pymetrics stand out is its continuous data collection during gameplay, offering real-time insights into candidate behavior.

AI-Driven Analytics and Reporting

Pymetrics leverages AI algorithms that have been audited to minimize ethnic and gender biases in the assessment process [46,47]. Instead of relying on basic numerical scores, its AI generates detailed behavioral profiles. These profiles allow companies to make better hiring decisions by reviewing comprehensive reports that align candidates with specific job requirements. This aligns with the growing demand for real-time, AI-powered tools to enhance talent evaluation.

"Pymetrics offers a fresh approach to assessment, but it's a significant investment." – Rachel Thompson, Enterprise Talent Leader

The platform also integrates digital interview analysis with its game data. This approach replaces traditional resumes with science-backed performance metrics, offering a more objective way to evaluate candidates.

Scalability for SMBs

Pymetrics doesn’t just focus on assessments - it also helps streamline the hiring process, reducing the time it takes to find the right talent [50,51]. Its game-based approach makes it possible to evaluate large candidate pools efficiently without sacrificing quality. For small and medium-sized businesses, however, the cost may be a consideration. Pricing starts at $10,000 annually for enterprise plans, with custom quotes based on the scale of implementation [41,51].

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5. TestGorilla

TestGorilla makes hiring easier for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with a library of 300 assessments that evaluate coding, personality traits, cognitive abilities, language proficiency, and situational judgment skills.

Real-Time Skill Evaluation Capabilities

This platform allows employers to assess candidates' abilities in real time, covering key areas like coding, cognitive reasoning, and language skills. To ensure fairness, TestGorilla employs anti-cheating measures such as full-screen mode and webcam monitoring .

"I've been looking for a tool to easily send assessments to job applicants during the recruitment process and I found TestGorilla. I appreciate its simplicity and the ability to create an assessment in minutes. The system sends an email to applicants and walks them through the process." - Kevin N

Industry-Specific Skill Libraries

TestGorilla’s extensive library includes assessments tailored to various job roles and industries. This means SMBs can select pre-built tests that align with specific job requirements, eliminating the need for custom development. The platform is particularly well-suited for remote hiring and global talent acquisition. Businesses can also customize tests to reflect their unique needs, ensuring assessments are relevant while saving valuable time. These tests feed into detailed analytics, helping companies make smarter hiring decisions.

AI-Driven Analytics and Reporting

Using advanced data analytics, TestGorilla identifies skill gaps and provides actionable insights for better talent management. Instead of just offering pass/fail results, the platform delivers detailed performance reports across various skill areas. This enables SMBs to make objective hiring decisions, improve the quality of their hires, and provide candidates with valuable feedback, fostering transparency and engagement.

Scalability for SMBs

TestGorilla offers flexible pricing options tailored to SMBs:

With a 4.3/5 user rating, TestGorilla is praised for its broad test selection, user-friendly design, and efficiency in streamlining the hiring process. However, some users have mentioned concerns about the pricing being less accessible for smaller businesses and limited customization in the lower-tier plans. Despite these drawbacks, with an 84% satisfaction score from 179 reviews, TestGorilla is helping SMBs shift toward skills-based hiring, reducing reliance on traditional resumes and cover letters .

6. Mercer | Mettl

Mercer | Mettl is a talent assessment platform designed to meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). It provides secure proctored testing, supports global hiring, and identifies skill gaps with customizable, data-focused tools. The platform delivers real-time insights to help businesses address these gaps effectively.

Real-Time Skill Evaluation Capabilities

Mercer | Mettl enables real-time candidate assessments through a secure, proctored environment. Features like video monitoring and identity verification ensure the integrity of tests, making it ideal for remote and distributed teams. Beyond traditional formats, the platform incorporates coding simulators and case studies to evaluate practical, hands-on skills, offering a more comprehensive assessment of candidates.

"When you have an assessment platform such as Mercer | Mettl, you have done your homework. You know the candidate is good enough. So you are saving time." - Varun Berry, Managing Partner, Operations, Chordify & CEO, Intulog

Industry-Specific Skill Libraries

Mercer | Mettl provides pre-made assessments tailored to industries like Sales, Marketing, IT, Finance, Operations, HR, and Customer Support. Its extensive library includes over 100,000 technical questions covering more than 300 skills. Users can also create custom tests by setting difficulty levels, combining multiple skills, and adding their own questions to match specific needs. The platform has earned a rating of 4.7/5 from 442 reviews, reflecting its effectiveness and user satisfaction.

AI-Driven Analytics and Reporting

Mercer | Mettl takes skill validation a step further with advanced analytics. Its Skill Intelligence Cloud, introduced in 2023, uses data-driven insights to identify skill gaps and validate abilities. These analytics help HR teams design targeted upskilling programs and align hiring processes with the competencies their organizations need.

Scalability for SMBs

The platform has proven its scalability through success stories like Telkom Indonesia, which revamped its strategy using Mercer | Mettl's assessments. Similarly, a major IT services company conducted over 650 evaluations spanning 500+ skills.

"Mettl's assessments have been the biggest filter in our recruitment process. Their platform has helped us reach out to a higher volume of applicants. Mettl constantly keeps innovating on their products and tries to introduce a new aspect to everything." - Suvarna Kartha, Recruiter, SAP

While specific pricing details for SMBs aren't disclosed, Mercer | Mettl's ability to streamline hiring and reduce time-to-hire makes it a worthwhile investment.

7. HackerRank

HackerRank is a widely used platform for technical skill assessments, connecting over 2,500 companies with tech talent worldwide. With 40% of developers globally using the platform, it’s a go-to resource for hiring and skill development. The platform focuses on evaluating coding expertise, problem-solving abilities, and technical skills through practical scenarios and detailed analytics.

Real-Time Skill Evaluation

HackerRank transforms technical assessments with its real-time pair programming environment and virtual whiteboard. These tools support a range of technical interviews, from basic coding tasks to complex full-stack development challenges. This setup allows teams to assess candidates' problem-solving approaches, systems design knowledge, and communication abilities.

The platform’s editor, powered by Monaco (the same technology behind Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code), supports over 40 programming languages and includes built-in audio and video chat. This seamless integration extends to a library of preset challenges tailored for various roles, making it easier to evaluate technical skills in real-time.

Role-Specific Question Libraries

HackerRank provides a library of over 2,100 pre-built coding challenges designed for roles like software development and data science. Recruiters can customize these assessments to fit specific job requirements, ensuring a standardized evaluation process that minimizes hiring bias. This approach is particularly useful for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) managing large applicant pools. Automated scoring further enhances efficiency, delivering consistent candidate evaluations.

These assessments also generate detailed analytics, giving recruiters a deeper understanding of each candidate’s strengths and areas for improvement.

AI-Powered Insights and Reporting

HackerRank’s AI capabilities have evolved significantly, with its AI Interviewer conducting over 12,000 interviews as of 2025. This feature evaluates candidates on their knowledge depth, problem-solving strategies, code quality, and familiarity with AI technologies, offering comprehensive insights.

The platform also includes Proctor mode, which provides full-session replays to detect suspicious activity, and the Engage Assistant, which helps organizations reconnect with previous candidates and source new talent based on specific skills.

In March 2025, HackerRank introduced the HR-ASTRA benchmark to evaluate large language models on real-world software development challenges. This benchmark measures key factors like correctness, consistency, efficiency, cost, and communication. Results are reported at both the skill level and through a global leaderboard.

"AI is changing what it means to be a software developer - to be an orchestrator of AI agents. AI also impacts trust in the hiring process - did the candidate follow the instructions? This means the skills you need to build and the way you hire and upskill needs to change." - Matt McDougall, HackerRank

Tailored Solutions for SMBs

HackerRank’s features are designed to scale effectively for SMBs. Customizable interviewer scorecards allow teams to define key skills and gather structured feedback during interviews. The platform’s automated grading system and in-depth analytics provide SMBs with enterprise-level tools, enabling them to compete with larger organizations.

Conclusion

AI-driven skill assessment tools are reshaping how small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) approach hiring and talent management. The platforms discussed in this guide show that cutting-edge hiring technology is no longer limited to large corporations. These tools empower SMBs to compete more effectively in talent markets, offering capabilities that were once out of reach.

The financial and operational benefits are clear. Companies leveraging AI in hiring can save up to $8 million annually. For SMBs, 91% report increased revenue after adopting AI, and 90% experience improved operational efficiency. These shifts are changing the way businesses operate and compete.

AI also brings a structured approach to workforce strategy. Real-time assessments enable quick, accurate evaluations, while centralized data provides a clear view of skills across teams, supporting objective decision-making. Beyond efficiency, AI helps reduce unconscious bias in hiring. Companies using AI tools see an 80% improvement in diversity hiring outcomes, with candidate diversity increasing by up to 90% compared to traditional methods. AI filtering can review approximately 40% of applications before human involvement, focusing solely on skills and qualifications rather than demographic details.

Guillaume Roy, Chief Innovation Officer at Workleap, highlights the value of AI for SMBs: "This limited scope makes it easier for them to gather and analyze meaningful insights from their workplace data". To get started, businesses should conduct an AI readiness assessment to evaluate infrastructure, data management, and team capabilities. Taking a step-by-step approach ensures AI tools are implemented securely and aligned with business goals. Naomi Lariviere from ADP advises: "Businesses need to be very clear and transparent around their policies and procedures for using AI".

The results speak for themselves. SMBs adopting AI to improve efficiency report a 20–30% boost in key performance metrics within the first year. With 75% of SMBs already investing in AI and over a third fully integrating it into their operations, the focus is no longer on whether to adopt AI but on how quickly it can be implemented effectively.

The tools outlined in this guide offer proven, measurable benefits. For SMBs committed to attracting and retaining top talent, AI-powered skill assessment tools are not just helpful - they’re becoming indispensable. Competitive pressures demand action, and those who embrace this technology are positioning themselves for long-term success.

FAQs

How can AI tools for skill assessment reduce hiring bias and promote diversity?

AI tools designed for skill assessment play a key role in reducing hiring bias by relying on objective, data-based evaluations instead of subjective opinions. These tools assess candidates' skills and qualifications using predefined criteria, which helps limit the impact of unconscious biases tied to factors like gender, ethnicity, or personal background.

By ensuring fair and consistent evaluations, these tools also align with diversity goals, focusing solely on candidates' abilities. This method not only helps businesses create more inclusive teams but also enhances the quality of their hiring decisions.

What should small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) look for when selecting an AI tool for skill assessment?

When choosing an AI tool for skill assessment, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) should focus on a few critical factors to ensure it aligns with their goals and contributes to growth.

Start with cost-effectiveness. Look closely at the pricing to ensure the tool fits within your budget while delivering a solid return on investment. Next, think about ease of use and how well the tool can integrate with your existing systems. A smooth setup and compatibility with your current workflow can help avoid unnecessary disruptions.

Another key consideration is scalability. The tool should be able to grow alongside your business, adapting to your changing needs over time. Don’t overlook security features either - protecting sensitive data is non-negotiable. Finally, check for reliable customer support to address any technical issues or questions that may arise.

By choosing the right AI tool, you can streamline processes, cut costs, and improve overall efficiency, setting your business up for long-term success.

How can AI tools improve the hiring process for small and medium-sized businesses?

AI tools are transforming how small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) approach hiring by streamlining tedious tasks like resume screening and candidate matching. These systems can sift through a mountain of applications to pinpoint candidates whose skills and experience fit the job description, cutting down on time and minimizing human bias.

On top of that, AI-powered platforms improve candidate communication by automating processes like sending updates, scheduling interviews, and delivering feedback promptly. This not only enhances the candidate's experience but also helps SMBs build a strong reputation. Leveraging AI allows SMBs to compete with larger companies, simplify recruitment efforts, and create opportunities for a more diverse workforce.

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