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

Gane Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "conversation intelligence and call recording platform" and as "call recording and conversation intelligence tool", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/sales/conversation-intelligence/2026-10/smb

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/sales/conversation-intelligence/smb/index.md

**Standing:** Fireflies.ai leads with 32% of first choices; verdict contested. 59 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Fireflies.ai](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/fireflies-ai/index.md) | 32% | 3% | 61 |
| 2 | [Fathom](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/fathom/index.md) | 29% | 6% | 51 |
| 3 | [Avoma](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/avoma/index.md) | 24% | 4% | 50 |
| 4 | [CloudTalk](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/cloudtalk/index.md) | 2% | 0% | 17 |
| 5 | [CallRail](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/callrail/index.md) | 2% | 8% | 12 |
| 12 | [Chorus by ZoomInfo](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/chorus-by-zoominfo/index.md) | 2% | 87% | 45 |
| 13 | [Jiminny](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/jiminny/index.md) | 0% | 7% | 14 |
| 14 | [tl;dv](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/tl-dv/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 11 |
| 15 | [Grain](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/grain/index.md) | 0% | 8% | 12 |
| 17 | [Otter.ai](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/otter-ai/index.md) | 0% | 31% | 13 |
| 66 | [Gong](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/gong/index.md) | 0% | 90% | 62 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 66 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: Avoma; alternatives Fathom, Fireflies.ai, Grain
- GPT-5.4 mini: Fireflies.ai; alternatives Gong, HubSpot Sales Hub
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Avoma; alternatives Clari Copilot, Fathom, Fireflies.ai, Jiminny
- Perplexity Sonar: Avoma; alternatives CloudTalk, Fathom, Grain
- Grok 4.20: Fathom; alternatives CallRail, Fireflies.ai
- Mistral Small: Fireflies.ai; alternatives Outreach Kaia
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Fathom; alternatives Avoma, Fireflies.ai, Jiminny, Sybill
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Avoma, Fathom; alternatives Clari Copilot, HubSpot Sales Hub, Jiminny
- Kimi K2: Fathom, Fireflies.ai; alternatives Avoma
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Avoma; alternatives Fireflies.ai, Quo
- MiniMax M2.5: Avoma; alternatives CloudTalk, JustCall
- GPT-6 Luna: Avoma; alternatives Fathom, Fireflies.ai
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Fireflies.ai; alternatives Avoma, CallHippo, Fathom, Nimitai

## Sources the answers cite

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

- cloudtalk.io: 50 answers, 69 citations
- cirrusinsight.com: 44 answers, 52 citations
- avoma.com: 30 answers, 47 citations
- marketintelligencetools.com: 30 answers, 30 citations
- pipeline.zoominfo.com: 29 answers, 40 citations
- coffee.ai: 27 answers, 40 citations
- fireflies.ai: 24 answers, 37 citations
- blog.hubspot.com: 23 answers, 29 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://cirrusinsight.com/conversation-intelligence-software (37 answers)
- https://cloudtalk.io/blog/best-conversation-intelligence-software (30 answers)
- https://marketintelligencetools.com/rankings/conversation-intelligence-software (30 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-conversation-intelligence-software (18 answers)
- https://softwaresuggest.com/conversation-intelligence-software (17 answers)
- https://avoma.com/blog/best-conversation-intelligence-software (14 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/conversation-intelligence-software (13 answers)
- https://pipeline.zoominfo.com/sales/best-conversation-intelligence-software (13 answers)
- https://quo.com/blog/call-recording-ai (13 answers)
- https://revalign.io/best/best-call-intelligence-software-for-b2b (13 answers)

## Warned against

- Gong: 56 of 62 labels negative. "Frequently cited as excellent for large revenue teams but overkill for SMBs... Avoid if you're not ready for a sales demo marathon (e.g., Gong, Chorus)" (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)
- Chorus by ZoomInfo: 39 of 45 labels negative. "Chorus is priced strictly for mid-market and enterprise organizations... highly inefficient for an agile small business." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)
- Otter.ai: 4 of 13 labels negative. "Otter is strong for note-taking and transcription, but it's usually not the best choice if your goal is sales coaching, call scoring, or deep conversation analytics." (GPT-5.4 mini, comparative prompt)
- Observe.AI: 3 of 3 labels negative. "They are a complete mismatch for standard B2B sales coaching or simple internal meeting summaries." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Fathom at 30%.

- Fathom: 40% to 30%, −10. Inside the floor by 1 point · rank 1 of 63, unchanged.
- Otter.ai: 4% to 0%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 5 → 16 of 63.
- Fireflies.ai: 25% to 28%, +3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 2 of 63, unchanged.
- Avoma: 21% to 24%, +3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 3 of 63, unchanged.
- CloudTalk: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 4 of 63, unchanged.
- CallRail: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 36 → 5 of 63.
- Chorus by ZoomInfo: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 76 → 12 of 63.
- Dialpad: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 6 of 63, unchanged.
- Jiminny: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 11 → 13 of 63.
- Grain: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 10 → 14 of 63.
- tl;dv: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 9 → 15 of 63.
- Aircall: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 15 → 46 of 63.

## Record

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