AI Sales Call Sentiment Analysis: Boost

AI for Sales Call Sentiment Analysis: Improve Buyer Understanding is a powerful tool designed to streamline workflows and boost productivity.

Key Takeaways (TL;DR)

• Gong.io stands out as the overall leader for comprehensive revenue intelligence, including advanced AI sales call sentiment analysis.
• For deep sentiment analysis: Gong and Chorus AI offer superior accuracy and detailed insights into buyer emotions and intent.
• For budget-conscious teams: Wingman by Clari provides robust features at a more accessible price point for core sales coaching needs.
• For CRM integration focus: Salesforce Sales Cloud Einstein Conversation Insights excels within the Salesforce ecosystem.
• For a rapidly evolving AI-first approach: Note by Vowel and Fathom are strong contenders offering strong transcription and initial sentiment at a lower cost, suitable for individuals or small teams.

Who This Is For

This guide is explicitly for sales professionals, sales leaders, and revenue operations teams who leverage conversation intelligence (CI) platforms to enhance their sales processes. If you're looking to move beyond simple call recording and transcription to genuinely understand buyer emotions, identify key moments of interest or hesitation, and improve coaching with data-driven insights from AI sales call sentiment analysis, this comparison is for you. This decision helps you select the CI tool that best fits your team's size, budget, CRM, and specific requirements for improving buyer understanding and overall sales performance.

Why This Comparison Matters

In today's competitive sales landscape, merely logging activity isn't enough. Understanding the why behind buyer behavior – their unspoken needs, their level of engagement, their emotional responses to your pitch – is the ultimate differentiator. AI sales call sentiment analysis is the engine that drives this deeper understanding. Choosing the wrong conversation intelligence platform can lead to misinterpretations, wasted coaching efforts, and missed revenue opportunities. A robust tool empowers you to pinpoint true buyer intent, optimize your messaging, and ultimately close more deals by genuinely improving buyer understanding.

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Quick Comparison Table

Feature	Gong.io	Chorus by ZoomInfo	Salesforce Sales Cloud Einstein Conversation Insights	Wingman by Clari	Note by Vowel	Fathom
Pricing Model	Custom, Enterprise (High)	Custom, Enterprise (High)	Per User/Org, Add-on (Mid-High)	Per User Annually (Mid)	Per User Monthly/Annually (Low-Mid)	Per User Monthly/Annually (Low)
Sentiment Analysis Depth	Excellent (Emotion, Intent, Tone)	Excellent (Emotion, Engagement, Keywords)	Good (Keywords, Basic Emotion)	Good (Positive/Negative, Keywords)	Basic (Keywords, Energy Levels)	Basic (Keywords, Speaker Engagement)
Key Features	Full Revenue Intelligence, Deals, Coaching, Forecasting, Market Intel, AI-driven insights	Deal Intelligence, Sales Coaching, Market Intel, CRM Sync, Objection Handling	CRM Native, Objection Mgmt, Competitor Mentions, Follow-ups	Real-time Coaching, Gamification, Topic Tracking, CRM Sync	Meeting Notes, Summaries, Action Items, Collaboration, Searchable calls	AI Summaries, Action Items, Transcripts, CRM Integration, Recording
CRM Integration	Deep (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.)	Deep (Salesforce, HubSpot, MS Dynamics)	Native (Salesforce)	Strong (Salesforce, HubSpot)	Basic (Calendar, Zapier)	Strong (Salesforce, HubSpot)
Sales Coaching	Unrivaled (AI Scorecards, Best Practices)	Excellent (Moment-based coaching, Trends)	Good (Objection Handling, Talk Tracks)	Excellent (Real-time alerts, Playbooks)	Limited (Collaborative notes)	Limited (Shared recordings)
User Rating (G2/Capterra est.)	4.7/5	4.6/5	4.3/5	4.5/5	4.4/5	4.8/5
Best For	Enterprise, Full RevOps, Advanced AI sales call sentiment analysis	Deal intelligence, Competition monitoring, Larger teams	Salesforce-centric orgs, Streamlined workflow	Growing teams, Real-time coaching, Value	Individuals, Small teams, Meeting transcription & collaboration	Individuals, Small teams, Simple AI notes

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Detailed Tool Reviews

Gong.io

• Best for: Enterprise-level sales organizations, sales leaders, and revenue operations teams seeking comprehensive revenue intelligence beyond just conversation analysis. Its advanced AI capabilities make it the benchmark for AI sales call sentiment analysis and buyer understanding.

• Pricing: Custom enterprise pricing. Expect a significant investment, typically starting in the tens of thousands annually, scaled by the number of users and specific feature sets. Official pricing is not publicly available on their website and requires a direct sales consultation.

• Pros:

  • Unparalleled AI Sales Call Sentiment Analysis: Gong's AI goes beyond basic positive/negative to detect nuanced emotions, identify buying signals, anticipate objections, and pinpoint moments of true interest or disinterest. It's excellent for improving buyer understanding.
  • Full Revenue Intelligence Platform: It aggregates and analyzes every customer interaction (calls, emails, meetings, CRM data) to provide insights into individual reps, deals, teams, and market trends.
  • Robust Sales Coaching Capabilities: AI-powered scorecards, call libraries of best practices, automated feedback, and topic tracking empower sales leaders to provide targeted, data-backed coaching.
  • Superior Analytics and Reporting: Customizable dashboards provide deep insights into talk-to-listen ratio, competitor mentions, trending topics, deal health, and forecasting accuracy.
  • Extensive Integrations: Seamlessly connects with major CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics), communication platforms, and other sales tools.

• Cons:

  • High Cost: The most expensive option on this list, often prohibitive for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) without a substantial revenue base.
  • Steep Learning Curve: While powerful, extracting its full value requires dedicated training and adoption across the team.
  • Implementation Time: Full deployment and integration can take time, especially for complex enterprise environments.

• Key features: Gong's core strength lies in its ability to capture and analyze virtually every customer interaction. It automatically records, transcribes, and analyzes sales calls, emails, and web conference meetings. The AI then processes these interactions for critical insights, making it a powerhouse for buyer understanding.

  • Sentiment Tracking: Identifies positive, negative, and neutral sentiments throughout conversations, linking them to specific topics or phrases. It detects subtle cues like hesitation, enthusiasm, or confusion.
  • Topic and Keyword Tracking: Automatically identifies key topics discussed, competitor mentions, product features, and common objections, allowing for deep analysis of what truly resonates (or doesn't) with buyers.
  • Deal Intelligence: Provides a holistic view of deal health by analyzing interactions within a deal, identifying risks, and flagging opportunities. This includes engagement scores and next-step predictions.
  • AI-Powered Coaching: Summarizes calls, highlights coachable moments, and suggests best practices based on successful interactions. Sales leaders can quickly identify areas for improvement and replicate winning strategies.
  • Market Intelligence: Aggregates insights across all calls to identify market trends, new pain points, and competitor positioning, informing product development and marketing strategies.

Chorus by ZoomInfo

• Best for: Growth-stage and enterprise sales organizations focused on deal intelligence, improving sales effectiveness, and enhancing sales coaching with strong AI sales call sentiment analysis capabilities.

• Pricing: Custom enterprise pricing, similar to Gong. Requires direct quote, generally in the high range, scaled by users and features.

• Pros:

  • Strong Deal Intelligence: Excellent at tracking deal momentum, identifying risks, and surfacing critical moments within ongoing sales cycles.
  • Robust Competitive Intelligence: Helps sales reps understand how they stack up against competitors by analyzing competitor mentions and reactions.
  • Effective Sales Coaching: Provides tools for managers to review calls, create coaching playlists, and track rep improvement over time, closely rivaling Gong in this area.
  • Detailed Conversation Analytics: Offers deep dives into talk-to-listen ratios, longest monologues, and specific call topics, all contributing to improving buyer understanding.
  • Seamless ZoomInfo Integration: Benefits from native integration with ZoomInfo's extensive B2B data, enriching contact and account profiles.

• Cons:

  • High Price Point: Like Gong, it represents a significant investment, placing it out of reach for many smaller teams.
  • Can Be Overwhelming: The sheer volume of data and features can be a lot to digest for new users.
  • Mobile App Limitations: Some users report that the mobile experience could be improved compared to the desktop version.

• Key features: Chorus focuses heavily on extracting actionable insights from sales conversations to drive deals forward.

  • Speaker-Specific Sentiment: Analyzes sentiment for both the rep and the prospect, providing a balanced view of the conversation's emotional arc. This is crucial for understanding buyer understanding.
  • Moment-Based Playlists: Helps managers curate specific moments from calls (e.g., handling objections, discovery questions) into playlists for training and coaching sessions.
  • Objection Handling Tracking: Automatically flags objections raised by prospects and tracks how effectively reps respond, allowing for targeted training.
  • Smart Summaries and Action Items: Condenses lengthy calls into concise summaries and automatically identifies key action items and commitments.
  • Customizable Scorecards: Allows sales leaders to build custom scorecards to evaluate calls based on specific criteria, enhancing the quality of AI sales call sentiment analysis.

Salesforce Sales Cloud Einstein Conversation Insights

• Best for: Sales teams deeply embedded in the Salesforce ecosystem who want to leverage their existing CRM data and streamline conversation intelligence directly within their primary sales platform.

• Pricing: Available as an add-on to Salesforce Sales Cloud licenses. Pricing varies significantly based on Salesforce edition and specific Einstein features, but often adds a per-user annual fee (e.g., $50-$100/user/month for specific editions). Detailed pricing requires a Salesforce consultation.

• Pros:

  • Native Salesforce Integration: Unrivaled integration with Salesforce, enabling a seamless workflow where conversation insights directly update CRM records and influence sales activities.
  • Unified Data View: Combines CI data with CRM data, providing a holistic view of accounts, opportunities, and customer interactions without switching platforms.
  • Leverages Existing Salesforce Data: Benefits from the rich data already residing in Salesforce, enhancing the AI's ability to contextualize conversations.
  • Good for Basic Sentiment & Keywords: Provides solid capabilities for tracking keywords, competitor mentions, and basic sentiment analysis directly linked to opportunities.

• Cons:

  • Less Advanced AI: While good, its sentiment analysis and overall AI capabilities are generally less sophisticated and granular than dedicated platforms like Gong or Chorus.
  • Feature Parity: May lack some of the advanced coaching, forecasting, and full revenue intelligence features found in best-of-breed CI tools.
  • Salesforce Dependency: Primarily for Salesforce users; not a standalone solution for those outside the ecosystem.

• Key features: Einstein Conversation Insights is designed to be an extension of the Salesforce Sales Cloud, bringing conversation data into the CRM workflow.

  • Automated Call Analysis: Records and transcribes sales calls, analyzing transcripts for keywords, phrases, and basic sentiment.
  • Opportunity Insight Generation: Connects call insights directly to open opportunities, flagging potential risks or progress based on conversational cues.
  • Competitor and Product Mention Tracking: Identifies when competitors or specific products are discussed, providing valuable market feedback.
  • Action Plan Suggestions: Can suggest next steps or follow-up actions based on call content, helping reps stay on track.
  • Talk Track Performance: Helps managers evaluate the effectiveness of specific talk tracks or sales pitches by analyzing their usage and outcomes.

Wingman by Clari

• Best for: Growing sales teams and SMBs looking for a comprehensive, yet more affordable, conversation intelligence tool with strong real-time coaching capabilities and effective AI sales call sentiment analysis for improving buyer understanding.

• Pricing: Typically offers tiered per-user annual pricing. Starts around $50-$75 per user per month (annual billing) for core features, with higher tiers for advanced capabilities. Check their official website for current pricing and free trial options.

• Pros:

  • Real-time Coaching Alerts: A standout feature that provides reps with live prompts, talk tracks, and feedback during calls, which is invaluable for new reps.
  • Affordable for SMBs: Offers excellent value for money, providing many enterprise-level features at a more accessible price point.
  • User-Friendly Interface: Generally considered intuitive and easy to navigate, reducing the learning curve for adoption.
  • Robust Coach AI: Features AI-driven call scoring, specific moment sharing, and performance insights for effective sales coaching.
  • Good CRM Integration: Integrates well with platforms like Salesforce and HubSpot, ensuring data flow for deal tracking and analysis.

• Cons:

  • AI Sentiment Depth: While good, its sentiment analysis isn't as granular or nuanced as Gong or Chorus for complex emotional detection.
  • Less Extensive Ecosystem: Doesn't have the broad revenue intelligence suite of Gong or the native CRM depth of Salesforce Einstein.
  • Reliance on Integration: Its real-time coaching relies on proper integration and setup to truly shine.

• Key features: Wingman aims to be a sales rep's co-pilot, offering both post-call analysis and real-time assistance.

  • Live Call Assistance: Provides real-time alerts, battle cards, and talk tracks based on keywords spoken during live calls, helping reps respond effectively.
  • AI-Powered Call Scorecards: Automatically scores calls based on configurable criteria, such as talk time, question usage, and sentiment shifts.
  • Topic Clouds and Trends: Visualizes frequently discussed topics and emerging trends across calls, offering insights into buyer interests.
  • Sales Playbooks: Allows managers to build and deploy sales playbooks directly within the tool, guiding reps on best practices.
  • Feedback and Collaboration: Facilitates easy sharing of call snippets, comments, and feedback among teammates and managers.

Note by Vowel

• Best for: Individuals, small sales teams, and startups prioritizing intelligent meeting notes, searchable transcripts, and collaborative features with basic sentiment cues, especially for internal meetings and initial discovery calls.

• Pricing: Offers a generous free tier. Paid plans typically start around $15-$25 per user per month for advanced features and increased storage. Check their official website for the latest details.

• Pros:

  • Excellent Meeting Management: Fantastic for recording, transcribing, and organizing virtual meetings, making them easily searchable.
  • User-Friendly and Collaborative: Designed for seamless collaboration, allowing easy sharing and annotation of meeting recordings and transcripts.
  • Affordable/Free Tier: Accessible for individuals and small teams looking to dip their toes into AI-powered meeting analysis.
  • Good for Information Retrieval: Quickly find specific moments, decisions, or action items within long recordings.

• Cons:

  • Limited Sales-Specific AI: Its sentiment analysis and sales coaching features are less developed than dedicated CI platforms. Focus is more on meeting productivity rather than deep AI sales call sentiment analysis.
  • Basic CRM Integration: Integrations are more general (e.g., calendar sync, Zapier) rather than deep, native CRM connections for pipeline management.
  • Not a Revenue Intelligence Platform: Lacks advanced forecasting, deal health, and competitive intelligence features.

• Key features: Vowel is primarily a meeting intelligence tool that also serves sales professionals for better meeting management and documentation.

  • Live Transcription & Recording: Provides accurate real-time transcription and one-click recording for all virtual meetings.
  • AI-Powered Summaries: Generates concise summaries of meetings, including key decisions, blockers, and next steps.
  • Searchable Library: Creates a searchable database of all meetings, allowing users to quickly find specific topics or speakers.
  • Collaboration Features: Enables real-time note-taking, comment addition, and highlight creation directly within the meeting transcript.
  • Speaker-Separated Content: Distinguishes between speakers, making it easier to follow conversations and identify who said what.

Fathom

• Best for: Individuals and small sales teams seeking free or highly affordable AI meeting summarization, transcription, and basic insight generation with strong CRM integration for simple post-call updates.

• Pricing: Offers a free tier for individuals. Paid team plans typically start around $19-$29 per user per month. Check their official website for updated pricing.

• Pros:

  • Generous Free Tier: An excellent option for individual sales reps or very small teams to get started with AI meeting notes and transcription.
  • CRM Logging Automation: Automates the logging of call summaries, action items, and relevant fields directly into Salesforce, HubSpot, and others.
  • User-Friendly and Quick Setup: Easy to install and use, integrates quickly with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams.
  • Good for Essential Insights: Provides quick AI summaries, highlights, and action items that are valuable for post-call follow-up.

• Cons:

  • Basic AI Sentiment: While it identifies keywords and action items, its AI sales call sentiment analysis is less sophisticated than higher-end CI platforms.
  • Limited Coaching Features: Not designed for advanced sales coaching, call scoring, or comprehensive team performance analysis.
  • Focus on Summaries: Strong for meeting summaries but less robust for deep behavioral analysis or complex deal intelligence.

• Key features: Fathom acts as an AI assistant for sales calls, automating note-taking and integrating directly with CRMs.

  • Automated Note-Taking: Records and transcribes calls automatically, providing detailed summaries and action items.
  • Highlight Creation: Allows reps to easily highlight key moments during a call for quick review later.
  • Instant CRM Sync: Automatically syncs call recordings, transcripts, summaries, and action items to relevant CRM records.
  • Multilingual Support: Offers transcription and summarization in multiple languages, useful for global teams.
  • AI Scorecards (Basic): Provides some basic metrics around talk time and question-asking, though less advanced than dedicated coaching platforms.

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Head-to-Head Comparisons

Gong.io vs Chorus by ZoomInfo — For Comprehensive Revenue Intelligence

Both Gong and Chorus are recognized leaders in the conversation intelligence and revenue intelligence space, offering deep AI sales call sentiment analysis. They cater to enterprise and growth-stage companies with significant sales operations. The distinction often comes down to specific feature emphasis and existing ecosystem. Gong is often seen as having a slightly broader and deeper revenue intelligence platform, excelling in areas like forecasting accuracy improvements and broader market intelligence derived from aggregated conversations. Its AI for detecting subtle emotional cues and buyer intent is arguably the most advanced.

Chorus, while also extremely powerful, typically shines brighter in deal intelligence and competitive tracking, especially with its native integration with ZoomInfo's data. If your team heavily relies on ZoomInfo for prospecting and lead enrichment, Chorus provides a more integrated data experience. Both provide exceptional sales coaching capabilities, with AI scorecards, moment-based feedback, and comprehensive analytics. The choice often boils down to which platform's UI and specific analytical frameworks resonate more with your sales leadership and which existing tech stack (especially CRM and prospecting tools) they integrate with most seamlessly.

Wingman by Clari vs Fathom — For Budget-Conscious Teams & Real-time Support

When comparing Wingman and Fathom, we're looking at two tools that offer significant value at a much lower price point than Gong or Chorus, with varying degrees of AI sales call sentiment analysis. Fathom is an absolute powerhouse for individuals and very small teams, especially with its free tier. It excels at automating meeting notes, generating useful summaries, and streamlining CRM logging. Its AI is fantastic for productivity and ensuring no key action item is missed. However, its sentiment analysis is more basic, focusing on keywords rather than deep emotional or intent detection.

Wingman, on the other hand, steps up the game with true real-time coaching. For sales managers looking to actively guide their reps during live calls, Wingman's prompting and battle card features are invaluable. Its AI sentiment analysis is more developed than Fathom's, providing a better, though not enterprise-grade, understanding of positive and negative shifts in buyer sentiment. For teams that need more than just automated notes and prioritize active, in-call assistance and more robust post-call coaching features without the enterprise price tag, Wingman presents a far more comprehensive solution for improving buyer understanding through AI.

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Pricing Breakdown

Understanding the exact pricing for Conversation Intelligence tools can be challenging as many top-tier platforms use custom enterprise pricing models. However, we can categorize their typical investment levels.

Tool Name	Typical Pricing Model	Estimated Annual Cost per User (USD)	Key Factors Influencing Price
Gong.io	Custom Enterprise	$1,200 - $3,000+	Number of users, features (Forecasting, Market Intelligence), data volume, contract length.
Chorus by ZoomInfo	Custom Enterprise	$1,000 - $2,500+	Number of users, specific modules (Deal Intelligence, Coaching), ZoomInfo integration level.
Salesforce Sales Cloud Einstein Conversation Insights	Add-on to Sales Cloud	$600 - $1,200+ (on top of SFDC)	Salesforce Edition, number of users, specific Einstein features activated.
Wingman by Clari	Tiered Per User (Annual)	$600 - $900	Number of users, real-time coaching capabilities, advanced analytics.
Note by Vowel	Free / Tiered Per User (Monthly/Annual)	$0 (free) - $300	Free for basic, paid tiers for increased meeting limits, storage, advanced features.
Fathom	Free / Tiered Per User (Monthly/Annual)	$0 (free) - $200	Free for individuals, paid for teams, extended features, and enhanced CRM sync.

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Pro Tip for Pricing: Always engage directly with sales teams for custom quotes. Be prepared to discuss your team size, desired features (especially advanced AI sales call sentiment analysis), CRM integrations, and expected data volume. Often, mentioning competitors or showing willingness to compare can unlock better deals. Some platforms offer significant discounts for longer-term commitments.

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Recommendation by Use Case

Budget-conscious: Fathom or Wingman by Clari

If you're an individual sales rep or a small team with a tight budget but still need the power of AI to improve buyer understanding and streamline post-call workflows, Fathom is an undeniable choice, especially its free tier. It nails the essentials: transcription, AI summaries, and CRM logging with minimal effort. Team plans are also very affordable.

For slighty more budget, Wingman by Clari offers a significant step up with its real-time coaching and more advanced AI sales call sentiment analysis. Its per-user pricing is far below the enterprise giants, yet it delivers robust coaching insights and a user-friendly experience. It’s ideal for growing sales teams who prioritize active coaching and feedback.

Enterprise: Gong.io

For large sales organizations, revenue operations teams, and companies where sales efficiency directly impacts large revenue streams, Gong.io is the gold standard. Its comprehensive revenue intelligence platform, combined with its industry-leading AI sales call sentiment analysis, provides the deepest insights into buyer understanding, deal health, and market trends. While the investment is significant, the ROI for large enterprises can be immense in terms of increased win rates, shorter sales cycles, and improved forecasting accuracy.

Beginners (Getting Started with CI): Note by Vowel or Fathom

If you're new to conversation intelligence and want to ease into AI-powered tools without overwhelming features or hefty costs, Note by Vowel or Fathom are excellent starting points. They offer intuitive interfaces, reliable transcription, and automatic summarization. These tools help you get comfortable with reviewing and analyzing call data, uncovering basic sentiment cues, and identifying key discussion points without needing a complex setup. They primarily enhance meeting productivity and documentation, serving as a gentle introduction to leveraging AI for better buyer understanding. These tools are perfect for individual exploration before committing to a larger platform.

Final Verdict

For sales professionals serious about leveraging AI to dramatically improve buyer understanding, identify true intent, and drive revenue, Gong.io remains the leader. Its comprehensive revenue intelligence platform and superior AI sales call sentiment analysis capabilities deliver unparalleled depth of insight, making it the most powerful tool for enterprise organizations.

However, for growing teams who need robust AI sales call sentiment analysis and real-time coaching without the enterprise price tag, Wingman by Clari offers exceptional value. For those integrated deeply into Salesforce, Einstein Conversation Insights provides seamless CRM synergy. For individuals and small teams seeking efficient meeting management and basic AI notes, Fathom and Vowel are fantastic, accessible options. The choice ultimately hinges on your specific needs, budget, and desired depth of AI-driven insight for improving buyer understanding.

Action Steps

1. Define Your Core Needs: Before evaluating tools, clearly outline your team's top priorities. Do you need deep AI sales call sentiment analysis for coaching, enhanced deal intelligence, real-time assistance, or simply better meeting notes?
2. Assess Your Budget: Understand your financial constraints. Be realistic about what you can invest annually per user.
3. Evaluate CRM Integration: Consider which CRMs your team currently uses and the depth of integration you require. Native integration can significantly streamline workflows.
4. Test Drive: Take advantage of free trials or pilot programs offered by vendors. Get your sales reps and managers hands-on with the tools to assess usability and feature relevance.
5. Calculate Potential ROI: Estimate the potential impact of improved buyer understanding, better coaching, and increased win rates on your revenue. This helps justify the investment, especially for higher-priced tools.
6. Consider AI Adoption: Think about your team's readiness to adopt new AI tools. Some platforms have steeper learning curves than others.
7. Engage with Sales Teams: Contact the vendors' sales representatives for personalized demos, detailed feature breakdowns, and custom pricing quotes tailored to your organization's specific requirements.
8. Start Small, Scale Up: If unsure, consider starting with a more affordable or free tool like Fathom or Vowel to familiarize your team with conversation intelligence before investing in a full-fledged enterprise solution. This phased approach can smooth adoption and prove initial value.

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