GTM AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index Customer September 2026 Edition

Chatbots and conversational AI for support

Asked as “customer support chatbot platform”, and as “conversational AI tool for customer service”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 43 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Contested
35% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Intercom35%16%44endorsed leader
02Tidio21%4%27accepted challenger
03Freshdesk2%8%25accepted challenger
04Zendesk2%22%23accepted challenger
Show the six products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09Zendesk AI0%20%15accepted challenger
05Ada0%15%20accepted challenger
10Freshchat0%10%10accepted challenger
07Botpress0%8%13accepted challenger
06Gorgias0%7%15accepted challenger
08HubSpot Service Hub0%0%12accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
A05
06
07
08
09
10
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Intercom35%
02Tidio21%
03Freshdesk2%
04Zendesk2%
05Ada0%
06Gorgias0%
07Botpress0%
08HubSpot Service Hub0%
09Zendesk AI0%
10Freshchat0%

02What they warned about

Four of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2 and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Intercom
16%
7 of 44 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Avoid Intercom if you're a small business, need predictable costs, or can't tolerate usage-based billing surprises.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Zendesk
22%
5 of 23 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“What to Avoid on a Tight Budget: Zendesk - Starts at $55/agent/month, AI costs extra” Kimi K2, budget prompt
Zendesk AI
20%
3 of 15 labels negative · 3 of 12 models
“Zendesk is **significantly more expensive** ($55-169/agent/month + AI add-ons) and complex to configure” Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt
Ada
15%
3 of 20 labels negative · 2 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Platforms with Serious Red Flags (Avoid or Extreme Caution)... Ada... Described as a "complete scam company" by multiple users” Kimi K2, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: four of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

19 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 5 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 165 links across 91 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

vendor site · Zendesk7 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Capterra6 answers · 8 citations · 1 model
vendor site · Lindy5 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
5 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Fin.ai5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Freshworks5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Featurebase4 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
vendor site · ProProfs Chat3 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Assembled3 answers · 3 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Botpress3 answers · 3 citations · 1 model
vendor site · Intercom3 answers · 3 citations · 1 model

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best customer support chatbot platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which conversational AI tool for customer service would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top customer support chatbot platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best customer support chatbot platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a customer support chatbot platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which customer support chatbot platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Plain
Two alternativesFreshdesk, TeamSupport
against: Zendesk
Intercom, ZendeskChanged
Four alternativesDrift, Freshchat, Freshdesk, HubSpot Service Hub
against: Microsoft Bot Framework/Azure Bot Service
Intercom
Five alternativesAda, Freshdesk, Salesforce Agentforce, Tidio, Zendesk AI Agents
Tidio
Three alternativesChatbase, Chatling, eesel.ai
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniIntercom
Three alternativesFreshdesk, Freshworks Freddy AI Agent, Zendesk
IntercomHeld
One alternativeZendesk
Zendesk AI
Seven alternativesAda, Freshchat, Freshdesk, Freshworks Freddy AI Agent, Gorgias, Intercom, Salesforce Service Cloud
Tidio
Two alternativesCrisp, Zoho SalesIQ
against: Intercom, Zendesk AI / chatbot add-ons
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashPylon
Three alternativesAda, Intercom, TeamSupport
Intercom, Worknet AIChanged
Three alternativesClearFeed, Forethought, Zendesk AI
Intercom
Five alternativesAda, Botpress, Gorgias, Zendesk AI, Zowie
Tidio
Four alternativesBotpress, Chatbase, ManyChat, Quidget
no first choice
Seven alternativesAda, Intercom, Kustomer KIQ, Sierra, Solvemate, Thankful, Zendesk AI
against: Intercom's Fin AI
Perplexity SonarIntercom
Two alternativesTeamSupport, Zendesk
against: Freshworks Freddy AI Agent
IntercomHeld
Two alternativesFront, Pylon
Zendesk
Six alternativesAda, Freshchat, Freshworks Freddy AI Agent, Gorgias, Intercom, Tidio
Tidio
Two alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Quidget
no first choiceagainst: Sobot
Grok 4.1 FastIntercom
Three alternativesAda, Tidio, Zendesk AI
against: Drift
IntercomHeld
Three alternativesFreshdesk, Pylon, Zendesk AI
no first choiceTidio
Six alternativesChatbase, Chatling, Freshchat, HubSpot Service Hub, ProProfs Chat, eesel AI
against: Intercom, ManyChat, Zendesk
no first choice
Four alternativesAda, Infobip, Sierra, Zendesk AI
against: Crisp, Drift, Intercom, LivePerson, ManyChat, Paradox.ai, Tidio, Yellow.ai
Mistral SmallIntercom
Four alternativesFreshdesk, Fulcrum by Simple Machines, HubSpot Service Hub, Zendesk
HelplyChanged
Two alternativesBotpress, Plain
against: Zendesk AI
no first choiceChatsy
Five alternativesFreshchat, ProProfs Chat, Tidio, Zoho SalesIQ, tawk.to
no first choiceagainst: Character.AI, ConverseNow Technologies, Google Cloud Contact Center AI
DeepSeek V4 FlashFreshdesk (Freshworks) — Freddy AI
Two alternativesIntercom, Zendesk AI
against: Ada
IntercomChanged
Three alternativesBotpress, Freshworks Freddy AI Agent, TeamSupport
against: Zendesk AI
Intercom
Eleven alternativesAda, Botpress, Freshdesk, Gorgias, HubSpot Service Hub, Kore.ai, Rasa, Salesforce Agentforce, Sierra, Tidio, Zendesk AI Agents
Tidio, Zoho Desk
Three alternativesChatbase, Chatling, Freshdesk
Intercom
Four alternativesAda, Freshdesk, Freshworks Freddy AI Agent, Zendesk
against: Chatfuel, Intercom, Zendesk AI Agents
Llama 4 MaverickTeamSupport
Three alternativesAda, Intercom, Tidio
no first choiceChangedno first choiceHelp Scout, Tidio, Zoho Deskno first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashTeamSupport
Three alternativesIntercom, Plain, Zendesk
PylonChanged
Two alternativesIntercom, Plain
Gorgias, Intercom
Six alternativesAda, Chatbase, Freshdesk, Invent, Sierra, Zendesk AI
Zoho SalesIQ
Three alternativesFreshdesk, ManyChat, Tidio
against: Lindy, Zendesk
no first choiceagainst: Botpress, Chatfuel, Chatwoot, Drift, Freshdesk, HubSpot Conversations, Intercom, ManyChat, Rocket.Chat, Salesforce Service Cloud, Zoho Desk
Kimi K2Freshdesk
Three alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Plain
against: Zendesk
IntercomChanged
Two alternativesFreshdesk, Salesforce Agentforce
against: Zendesk AI
Intercom
Four alternativesAda, Freshdesk Freddy AI, Gorgias, Zendesk AI
against: Salesforce Agentforce, Tidio Lyro
Tidio
One alternativeZoho SalesIQ
against: Intercom, Zendesk
Intercom
Six alternativesBotsonic, Freshdesk, Freshworks Freddy AI Agent, HubSpot Breeze, SiteGPT, Zendesk
against: Ada, Decagon, Sierra
against: Ada, Chatbot.com / Chatbot.app, DeepChat / Zenith AI / Sunly AI, Freshchat, Freshdesk, Gorgias, Intercom, Vyro / Chatly / Imagine.art
GLM 4.7 FlashXIntercom
Three alternativesAissist.io, Decagon, Zendesk AI
IntercomHeld
One alternativeZendesk
Ada, Intercom, Tidio
Twelve alternativesBotpress, Crisp, Google Dialogflow CX, Gorgias, HubSpot Service Hub, IBM Watson Assistant, Kore.ai, Rasa, Sierra, Zendesk, Zoho Desk, eesel AI
Zoho Desk
Four alternativesChatling, Freshdesk, Tidio, eesel.ai
no first choiceagainst: ServiceNow Now Assist, WotNot Platform
MiniMax M2.5Decagon, YourGPT
Three alternativesIntercom, TeamSupport, Zendesk
HubSpot Service Hub + Breeze Customer AgentChanged
One alternativeZobot
Intercom
Eight alternativesBotpress, Freshdesk Freddy AI, Gorgias, Kore.ai, Rasa, Salesforce Agentforce, Tidio Lyro, Zendesk AI Agents
Tidio
Four alternativesCrisp, HubSpot Free Tier, ManyChat, Zoho SalesIQ
no first choicenothing named
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:09yes129 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:10yes37 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:03yes1725 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:14yes207 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-14 23:57yes09 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:30yes010 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:01yes063 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:09yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:00yes026 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 22:57yes031 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:09yes064 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:53yes012 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:10no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:34yes25 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:20yes1630 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:04yes206 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 05:01yes011 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:01yes07 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 04:14yes043 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 22:53yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:00yes037 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:54yes025 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:30yes017 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:10yes017 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:51yes78 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:27yes37 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:30yes2121 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:16yes2014 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:35yes05 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:18yes07 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:42yes031 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:33yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:10yes023 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:27yes031 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:49yes020 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:51yes015 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:28yes79 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:26no02 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:14yes1018 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:53yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:18yes07 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:55yes07 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:10yes014 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:22yes01 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:00yes017 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:39yes027 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:39yes049 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:29yes011 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:59no08 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:50no012 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:03no016 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:39yes207 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:37yes09 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:29no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:32yes019 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:22yes03 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:42yes032 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:57yes078 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:06yes022 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:40yes012 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:33yes78 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:35yes48 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:51yes2525 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:28yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:27yes08 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:33yes09 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:37yes035 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:28yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:10no042 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:28yes062 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:38yes042 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 05:03yes023 s

Noise floor in this category

Flips between the edition run and its calibration repeat. Six prompts per model is a small sample; the index-wide floor is the number to trust.

Claude Haiku 4.5
2 of 4 flipped
GPT-5.4 mini
2 of 4 flipped
Gemini 3.5 Flash
3 of 4 flipped
Perplexity Sonar
1 of 4 flipped
Grok 4.1 Fast
3 of 5 flipped
Mistral Small
4 of 4 flipped
DeepSeek V4 Flash
3 of 5 flipped
Llama 4 Maverick
2 of 2 flipped
Qwen 3.7 Flash
4 of 4 flipped
Kimi K2
6 of 6 flipped
GLM 4.7 FlashX
2 of 4 flipped
MiniMax M2.5
2 of 4 flipped

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Freshworks read as Freshworks Freddy AI Agent
Freshworks (Freddy AI) read as Freshworks Freddy AI Agent
HubSpot read as HubSpot Service Hub
HubSpot (Breeze AI) read as HubSpot Service Hub
Unresolved, counted raw
Aissist.io
Character.AI
Chatbot Builder AI
Chatbot.com / Chatbot.app
CustomGPT
Customerly
DeepChat / Zenith AI / Sunly AI
Freshdesk (Freshworks) — Freddy AI
Fulcrum by Simple Machines
HubSpot Conversations
HubSpot Service Hub + Breeze Customer Agent
HubSpot Service Hub / Chatbot Builder
Intercom's Fin AI
Invent
Kustomer KIQ
Microsoft Bot Framework/Azure Bot Service
Minami
Paradox.ai
Respond.io
ServiceNow Now Assist
Solvemate
Thankful
Tidio + Lyro
Vyro / Chatly / Imagine.art
WotNot Platform
Zendesk AI / chatbot add-ons
Zobot (Zoho SalesIQ)
eesel.ai
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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