# Conversational intelligence and call recording for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, September 2026

Gane Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "conversation intelligence and call recording platform" and as "call recording and conversation intelligence tool", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/sales/conversation-intelligence/2026-09/smb

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 15, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/sales/conversation-intelligence/smb/index.md

**Standing:** Fathom leads with 40% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 52 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Fathom](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/fathom/index.md) | 40% | 0% | 48 |
| 2 | [Fireflies.ai](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/fireflies-ai/index.md) | 25% | 7% | 61 |
| 3 | [Avoma](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/avoma/index.md) | 21% | 4% | 52 |
| 4 | [CloudTalk](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/cloudtalk/index.md) | 4% | 8% | 24 |
| 5 | [Otter.ai](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/otter-ai/index.md) | 4% | 18% | 34 |
| 6 | [Dialpad](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/dialpad/index.md) | 2% | 10% | 20 |
| 9 | [tl;dv](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/tl-dv/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 12 |
| 10 | [Grain](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/grain/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 10 |
| 15 | [Aircall](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/aircall/index.md) | 0% | 30% | 10 |
| 76 | [Chorus by ZoomInfo](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/chorus-by-zoominfo/index.md) | 0% | 83% | 36 |
| 77 | [Gong](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/gong/index.md) | 0% | 87% | 47 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 77 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: Fathom; alternatives Avoma, Fireflies.ai
- GPT-5.4 mini: Fireflies.ai; alternatives Dialpad, Otter.ai
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Fathom; alternatives Avoma, Fireflies.ai, HubSpot Sales Hub, Jiminny
- Perplexity Sonar: Avoma; alternatives CloudTalk, Fathom, HubSpot Sales Hub
- Grok 4.20: Fathom; alternatives Avoma, Fireflies.ai, Otter.ai
- Mistral Small: Fireflies.ai; alternatives Avoma, CloudTalk, Dialpad, Fathom
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Fathom; alternatives Avoma, Fireflies.ai
- Llama 4 Maverick: Convo; alternatives Avoma, Fireflies.ai
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Dialpad, JustCall; alternatives Avoma, Fathom, OpenPhone
- Kimi K2: Fathom, Fireflies.ai; alternatives Avoma
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Fathom; alternatives Avoma, Fireflies.ai, Grain, tl;dv
- MiniMax M2.5: Avoma; alternatives Fireflies.ai, Grain, tl;dv

## Sources the answers cite

22 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- cirrusinsight.com: 12 answers, 14 citations
- coffee.ai: 10 answers, 16 citations
- assemblyai.com: 10 answers, 11 citations
- avoma.com: 10 answers, 11 citations
- learn.g2.com: 10 answers, 10 citations
- cloudtalk.io: 8 answers, 19 citations
- g2.com: 7 answers, 8 citations
- pipeline.zoominfo.com: 7 answers, 7 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://assemblyai.com/blog/conversation-intelligence-software (10 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-conversation-intelligence-software (10 answers)
- https://cirrusinsight.com/conversation-intelligence-software (9 answers)
- https://avoma.com/blog/best-conversation-intelligence-software (6 answers)
- https://getmaxiq.com/blog/best-conversation-intelligence-software (6 answers)
- https://alpharun.com/blog/conversational-intelligence-software (5 answers)
- https://cirrusinsight.com/blog/call-recording-software-for-business (5 answers)
- https://cloudtalk.io/blog/best-conversation-intelligence-software (5 answers)
- https://cloudtalk.io/blog/conversation-analytics-software (5 answers)
- https://cresta.com/guides/best-conversation-intelligence-platforms (5 answers)

## Warned against

- Gong: 41 of 47 labels negative. "Platforms to Avoid for Small B2B (Too Expensive) ... Enterprise-focused; ~$1,400-1,600/user/year + $5K-50K platform fee" (Kimi K2, direct prompt)
- Chorus by ZoomInfo: 30 of 36 labels negative. "Chorus by ZoomInfo is similarly priced and often packaged with expensive, multi-year ZoomInfo data contracts." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)
- Otter.ai: 6 of 34 labels negative. "Platforms with Documented Legal/Security Issues ... Otter.ai — Active Class Action ... alleges unauthorized recording and AI training on meeting data without participant consent" (MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt)
- Fireflies.ai: 4 of 61 labels negative. "offering "adequate but shallow" analytics compared to platforms like Gong or Chorus, lacking deal risk scoring" (Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt)

## Record

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