---
title: "Conversation Intelligence: Definition and Examples"
description: "Conversation intelligence is software that records sales and customer calls, transcribes them and uses AI to analyze what was said, such as talk ratio..."
path: /glossary/conversation-intelligence
family: glossary
updated: 2026-10-17
html: /glossary/conversation-intelligence
sources:
  - "https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/conversation-intelligence"
  - "https://www.salesforce.com/sales/conversation-intelligence/"
  - "https://www.hubspot.com/products/conversation-intelligence"
facts:
  term: "Conversation intelligence"
  also_called: "conversation intelligence software, call intelligence, conversational intelligence, call recording and analysis"
  category: "AI and Agents"
---

# Conversation intelligence

Conversation intelligence is software that records sales and customer calls, transcribes them and uses AI to analyze what was said, such as talk ratio, topics, objections, competitor mentions and next steps, to coach reps and inform deals.

## What Is Conversation Intelligence?

**In short:** A conversation intelligence platform connects to your calendar, video calls and phone system, records each customer conversation and transcribes it.

Natural language processing then pulls out talk ratio, questions asked, tracked keywords such as pricing, a competitor or security, sentiment, objections and next steps, and the results sync to the CRM. Salesforce's version analyzes emails and meetings as well as calls.

The difference from an AI notetaker is scope. A notetaker helps the person on the call with notes and follow-ups. Conversation intelligence works across every call a team makes, so managers can coach from evidence, spot deals at risk and find which talk tracks come before closed-won deals.

## Conversation Intelligence Example

For example, a sales manager filters last quarter's 600 recorded discovery calls for a main competitor's name and finds it in 140. Calls where the rep asked about the current tool in the first 10 minutes reached a second meeting 48% of the time, against 31% for the rest, so the team adds that question to its discovery script.

## Conversation Intelligence in Practice

Sales leaders use it to build a library of good calls for onboarding, review a few calls per rep each week, track how often competitors come up and feed real customer language back into messaging. In outbound, the words prospects use on discovery calls are some of the best raw material for cold email copy. Accuracy has limits: IBM notes that speech recognition and sentiment analysis are not always 100% accurate.

## FAQ

### What does conversation intelligence software do?

It records, transcribes and analyzes sales and customer conversations, flags keywords, objections, competitor mentions, sentiment and next steps, and syncs the results to the CRM for coaching and deal reviews.

### What is the difference between conversation intelligence and an AI notetaker?

A notetaker produces notes and follow-ups for one meeting. Conversation intelligence analyzes all of a team's conversations to improve coaching, forecasting and messaging.

### How do managers use conversation intelligence for coaching?

They review recordings, jump to key moments such as pricing or objections, leave feedback on those moments, and compare top performers' calls with the rest of the team's.

### Is conversation intelligence accurate?

Mostly, not perfectly. Crosstalk, accents and audio quality affect transcripts, and IBM notes that speech recognition and sentiment analysis might not always be 100% accurate. Treat scores as prompts for review, not verdicts.

## Related

- [GTM Glossary](/glossary): Every GTM term, grouped by topic.
- [AI notetaker](/glossary/ai-notetaker)
- [Sales enablement](/glossary/sales-enablement)
- [Objection handling](/glossary/objection-handling)
- [Discovery call](/glossary/discovery-call)
- [Competitive intelligence](/glossary/competitive-intelligence)
- [Sales intelligence](/glossary/sales-intelligence)
- [Ken features](/features)

## Sources

| Source | URL | Checked |
| --- | --- | --- |
| IBM: What is conversation intelligence? | https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/conversation-intelligence | 2026-10-17 |
| Salesforce: Conversation intelligence | https://www.salesforce.com/sales/conversation-intelligence/ | 2026-10-17 |
| HubSpot: Conversation intelligence | https://www.hubspot.com/products/conversation-intelligence | 2026-10-17 |

## Changelog

- 2026-10-17: Page published.