# Sales intelligence and contact data: what AI models recommend, September 2026

Gane Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "B2B contact data and sales intelligence platform" and as "B2B prospecting database", six framings each, to six frontier models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B software company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/sales/sales-intelligence-and-contact-data/2026-09-expanded

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 9, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/sales/sales-intelligence-and-contact-data/index.md

**Standing:** Apollo.io leads with 86% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 21 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Apollo.io](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/apollo-io/index.md) | 86% | 14% | 35 |
| 2 | [ZoomInfo SalesOS](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/zoominfo-salesos/index.md) | 10% | 29% | 31 |
| 3 | [Cognism](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/cognism/index.md) | 5% | 10% | 31 |
| 4 | [Lusha](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/lusha/index.md) | 0% | 17% | 23 |
| 5 | [Clay](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/clay/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 10 |
| 6 | [LinkedIn Sales Navigator](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/linkedin-sales-navigator/index.md) | 0% | 9% | 11 |
| 33 | [Seamless.AI](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/seamless-ai/index.md) | 0% | 64% | 11 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 33 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 Opus 5: Apollo.io; alternatives Cognism, ZoomInfo SalesOS
- Claude Opus 4.8: Apollo.io; alternatives Cognism, ZoomInfo SalesOS
- GPT-6 Astra: ZoomInfo SalesOS; alternatives Apollo.io, Cognism
- GPT-5.6 Sol: Apollo.io; alternatives 6sense Sales Intelligence, Cognism, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, ZoomInfo SalesOS
- Gemini 3.1 Pro: Apollo.io; alternatives Clay, Cognism, ZoomInfo SalesOS
- Perplexity Sonar Pro: Apollo.io; alternatives Amplemarket, Cognism, ZoomInfo SalesOS

## Sources the answers cite

31 of 36 answers came back with a source list, from 6 of 6 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- cognism.com: 21 answers, 39 citations
- pipeline.zoominfo.com: 15 answers, 44 citations
- apollo.io: 15 answers, 23 citations
- salesmotion.io: 12 answers, 22 citations
- g2.com: 12 answers, 14 citations
- cleanlist.ai: 9 answers, 14 citations
- lusha.com: 9 answers, 11 citations
- amplemarket.com: 9 answers, 10 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://autobound.ai/blog/best-b2b-contact-database-providers (6 answers)
- https://salesgenie.com/blog/top-b2b-contact-database-providers (6 answers)
- https://cognism.com/ (5 answers)
- https://moderninbound.com/blog/best-apollo-io-alternatives (5 answers)
- https://monday.com/blog/crm-and-sales/sales-intelligence-tools (5 answers)
- https://pipeline.zoominfo.com/sales/top-cognism-alternatives (5 answers)
- https://salesmotion.io/blog/best-b2b-contact-data-providers (5 answers)
- https://amplemarket.com/blog/best-b2b-contact-databases (4 answers)
- https://amplemarket.com/blog/best-sales-intelligence-platforms-2026 (4 answers)
- https://apollo.io/insights/apollo-vs-zoominfo (4 answers)

## Warned against

- ZoomInfo SalesOS: 9 of 31 labels negative. "platforms you should approach with heavy caution ... multiple class-action lawsuits ... "coercive auto-renew policies"" (Gemini 3.1 Pro, negative prompt)
- Seamless.AI: 7 of 11 labels negative. "Recommendation: Don’t sign unless the order form expressly provides... My strongest named cautions are Seamless.AI for contract risk" (GPT-5.6 Sol, negative prompt)
- Apollo.io: 5 of 35 labels negative. "in 2018, Apollo.io left an unprotected database containing billions of records and 125M unique email addresses" (Claude Opus 5, negative prompt)
- Lusha: 4 of 23 labels negative. "Avoid using Lusha for Italian contacts unless and until your privacy counsel confirms the enforcement order has been addressed." (GPT-5.6 Sol, 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.