The 2025 Playbook: How to Choose and Roll Out the Right Conversation Intelligence Tool

By
Azeem Sadiq
March 27, 2024
min read
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The conversation-intelligence (CI) space has exploded. That’s great for innovation—less so for making a clear decision. Gong, Velocity AI, CallMiner, Avoma, Observe.ai, Jiminny… each promises “AI-powered insights.” But which one actually solves your biggest sales challenge?

This guide cuts through the noise. We’re not here to list features—you’ve seen the pitch decks. Instead, we walk you through how to align each platform’s strength to your needs, test it properly, and roll it out without chaos.

Let’s dive in.

Gong: Your Go-To for Pipeline and Forecasting Clarity

Think of Gong as the all-seeing eye of revenue teams. It connects every call, email, and meeting into a single view of deal health. Better still, it benchmarks your reps’ behavior against top performers—then highlights what’s working, what’s not, and what’s about to derail your quarter.

Best for: Sales leaders who want to improve forecast accuracy, coaching, and deal review without relying on gut feel.

Be aware: Gong is powerful, but setup isn’t instant. Plan for hands-on onboarding and invest time upfront if this is your team’s first CI tool.

Velocity AI: Live Coaching That Scales with Your Team

Velocity AI is built for action. Reps get real-time prompts—“Ask for next steps,” “Mention pricing”—while they’re still on the call. Managers set trigger rules and get pinged only when something needs attention.

Best for: Fast-growing teams where enablement can’t be in every meeting. New reps ramp faster, and senior reps get sharp feedback without micromanagement.

Watch out for: Velocity’s magic relies on tight integrations. Make sure your dialers, video tools, and CRM are all connected from day one.

CallMiner: Emotion, Effort, and Compliance on Every Channel

CallMiner doesn’t stop at sales calls. It analyzes voice, chat, social, and email interactions. You’ll uncover customer frustration, compliance risks, and missed opportunities—often before they show up in churn data.

Best for: Contact-center-heavy orgs or any business with complex, multi-channel support and sales models.

One tip: The feature set is deep. Don’t rush the rollout. Start with one channel (like voice) and build from there.

Avoma: Meetings Made Easy—Before, During, and After

Avoma is more than CI. It’s a meeting productivity hub. It handles agendas, records conversations, auto-generates notes, and assigns follow-ups. That’s gold if your customers speak with sales, success, and product teams across the journey.

Best for: Cross-functional teams that want a shared system of record for customer conversations.

Heads-up: If all you need is analytics, Avoma may offer more than necessary.

Observe.ai: Real-Time Compliance for Large Support Teams

Built for enterprise contact centers, Observe.ai helps you stay audit-ready while improving agent performance. It redacts sensitive info, flags policy violations, and delivers QA scorecards—live.

Best for: Regulated industries where compliance matters as much as performance.

Caveat: This isn’t a sales-focused tool. It shines in support environments, not sales pipelines.

Jiminny: Coaching Without the Clutter

Jiminny keeps it simple. Reps can share call snippets, get feedback, and track improvement—all without navigating complex dashboards. It’s lightweight, fast to adopt, and team-friendly.

Best for: SMBs and lean sales teams that want to coach without heavy admin.

Heads-up: If you need deep analytics or enterprise-grade controls, you might outgrow it.

How to Roll Out CI Without Regret

Start with a single goal
What’s your top priority—faster ramp, better forecasting, or tighter compliance? Don’t chase “all-in-one.” Choose a tool that excels at one thing.

Audit your tools
Make sure your CRM, dialers, and meeting platforms are compatible. Pre-built integrations save time and money.

Run a 30-day pilot
Track current KPIs (like win rates, talk ratios, or compliance flags). Measure again after rollout. Use real data to prove impact.

Train and reinforce
Build a “best calls” library. Host weekly playback sessions. Encourage reps to use the platform every day. Adoption drives ROI.

Final Word: Pick Your Lane, Run Your Test, Scale What Works

Every CI platform promises AI. The winners solve real problems.

👉 Choose the one that aligns to your top gap
👉 Test it with clear KPIs
👉 Build habits around usage

Do that, and CI won’t just record your calls. It’ll power the way you win.

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