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Overview
Outreach Kaia is the AI-powered conversation intelligence engine built into the Outreach platform. It analyzes sales calls in real-time, surfaces key moments, tracks action items, and provides coaching insights. For sales teams using Outreach, Kaia aims to be the always-on meeting assistant that captures what matters and helps reps improve.
What we'll cover:
- What Outreach Kaia does and how it fits in the Outreach suite
- Core features: transcription, analysis, and coaching
- Setup requirements and integration points
- Real limitations and comparison to standalone tools
- When Kaia is enough vs. when you need additional context
What is Outreach Kaia?
Kaia (Knowledge AI Assistant) is Outreach's real-time AI meeting assistant. It joins video calls, transcribes conversations, identifies key moments, and delivers post-call summaries—all integrated with Outreach's activity tracking and CRM sync.
For teams already tracking prospects and sequences in Outreach, Kaia extends that visibility into live conversations. Meeting intelligence flows directly into the same system managing email outreach and task workflows.
Core Components
| Component | What It Does | Who Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| Real-Time Transcription | Captures and transcribes calls as they happen | Reps (focus on conversation, not notes) |
| Moment Detection | Identifies key topics: pricing, competitors, objections | Managers (review critical moments) |
| Live Cards | Surfaces relevant content during calls | Reps (handle objections with content) |
| Action Items | Extracts and tracks commitments from calls | Reps and managers (ensure follow-through) |
| Coaching Insights | Analyzes talk patterns, questions asked, topics covered | Managers (identify coaching opportunities) |
For teams focused on real-time sales coaching, Kaia provides the call intelligence layer that feeds coaching conversations with data rather than gut feel.
How Kaia Works
During the Call
Kaia joins scheduled meetings automatically (when enabled). It captures audio, generates real-time transcription, and identifies key moments as they occur. Reps can see the transcription building live and watch as Kaia flags important topics.
The Live Cards feature surfaces relevant content based on conversation context. If a prospect mentions a competitor, Kaia can surface your competitive battle card. If pricing comes up, it can display your pricing guidance. This requires pre-configured content libraries linked to topic triggers.
After the Call
Post-call, Kaia generates:
- Summary: High-level overview of what was discussed
- Key moments: Timestamped highlights for quick review
- Action items: Commitments made by either party
- Coaching signals: Talk time ratios, question counts, topic coverage
This data syncs to the prospect record in Outreach and can push to your CRM. Managers can review calls by scanning summaries rather than watching full recordings.
Kaia works best when deeply integrated with Outreach sequences. Post-call action items can automatically become Outreach tasks. Call outcomes can influence next steps in active sequences. This tight integration is Kaia's primary advantage over standalone conversation intelligence tools.
Setting Up Outreach Kaia
Enable Kaia in Admin Settings
Navigate to Settings > Kaia in Outreach. Enable the feature for appropriate teams and configure recording consent settings based on your compliance requirements.
Connect Calendar Integration
Kaia needs calendar access to join meetings automatically. Connect Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook via Outreach's calendar integration. Configure which meeting types Kaia should join.
Configure Content Cards
Build your content library for Live Cards. Create entries for competitor mentions, pricing questions, common objections, and product features. Map each to keywords that trigger the card during calls.
Set Up Coaching Dashboards
Configure manager dashboards to surface coaching insights across the team. Set benchmarks for talk time, question frequency, and topic coverage that align with your sales methodology.
Train the Team
Ensure reps understand how Kaia works, where to find summaries, and how to act on action items. Managers should learn how to use coaching insights effectively—data without action is useless.
Key Use Cases
New Rep Onboarding
Kaia recordings create a library of real conversations for new reps to study. Instead of role-playing hypothetical scenarios, new hires can review actual calls, see how top performers handle objections, and learn from real customer interactions. This accelerates reducing ramp time significantly.
Deal Reviews
Instead of reps summarizing calls from memory, managers can review actual conversation moments. Coaching moves from "I think they said..." to "At 14:32, when they mentioned budget concerns, here's what happened." This precision makes coaching more actionable.
Competitive Intelligence
Kaia automatically tags competitor mentions. Sales leadership can aggregate these across all calls to understand which competitors appear most frequently, what objections they create, and how reps are handling competitive situations. This feeds into win/loss analysis.
Forecast Accuracy
Call analysis data adds another signal to pipeline forecasting. When a rep marks a deal as "commit," you can verify whether recent calls actually suggest that level of confidence. Conversation patterns often reveal deal risk before reps acknowledge it.
Honest Limitations
Kaia is powerful within its scope, but has notable constraints:
Outreach-Centric
Kaia's value is highest when combined with Outreach sequences and workflows. If you're using a different sequencer or running multi-channel campaigns across platforms, you may not get the full integration benefits. The tool is optimized for Outreach-first teams.
Content Library Maintenance
Live Cards are only useful if the underlying content is current. Outdated competitive information or stale pricing guidance hurts more than it helps. Someone needs to maintain this library continuously.
Context Limitations
Kaia knows what's in Outreach and what happens on calls—but it doesn't automatically know your strategic positioning, evolving ICP definitions, or competitive landscape beyond what's in configured Content Cards. The coaching insights reflect patterns, not strategic alignment.
Recording Consent
Two-party consent laws in many jurisdictions require explicit recording permission. Kaia handles consent notifications, but some prospects refuse recording. For these calls, you lose Kaia's benefits entirely.
Teams running sophisticated GTM motions often combine Kaia with external context systems. Tools like Octave can provide the strategic context—ICPs, personas, positioning—that informs Content Cards and coaching conversations. Instead of generic coaching metrics, you evaluate whether conversations align with your current positioning strategy.
Kaia vs. Standalone Conversation Intelligence
Kaia competes with dedicated conversation intelligence tools like Gong, Chorus, and Clari. Here's how they compare:
| Factor | Outreach Kaia | Standalone Tools (Gong, etc.) |
|---|---|---|
| Integration | Native to Outreach workflow | Separate platform, requires integration |
| Sequence connection | Direct link to Outreach activities | Requires data sync |
| Feature depth | Good—covers core use cases | Often deeper analytics and coaching |
| Multi-platform support | Outreach-centric | Often works across tools |
| Pricing | Part of Outreach enterprise tiers | Separate per-seat pricing |
For teams fully committed to Outreach, Kaia avoids the complexity of integrating a separate conversation intelligence tool. For teams using multiple platforms or needing advanced analytics, dedicated tools may offer more depth.
Frequently Asked Questions
Kaia supports major platforms including Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. Check current documentation for specific version requirements and any platform-specific limitations.
Accuracy is generally good for clear audio with native English speakers. Heavy accents, poor audio quality, or technical jargon can reduce accuracy. Always review transcripts for important details rather than trusting them blindly.
Kaia analyzes calls it records. If you have historical recordings from other sources, those aren't automatically imported. Some teams transition by running Kaia and a previous tool in parallel before fully switching.
Language support varies by feature. Check current Outreach documentation for supported languages in transcription, summaries, and analysis. English is fully supported; other languages may have limitations.
Conclusion
Outreach Kaia brings conversation intelligence directly into the Outreach workflow. For teams already running their outbound motion through Outreach, it's a natural extension: call insights flow into the same system managing sequences, tasks, and CRM sync.
The integration value is real—less context-switching, tighter data connections, unified workflow. But Kaia shares the limitation of all platform-native AI: it only knows what's in its platform. Strategic context, ICP definitions, and competitive positioning need to come from somewhere.
For teams wanting their coaching and conversation analysis informed by deep GTM context, consider how a context layer like Octave complements Kaia. The combination of call intelligence plus strategic context drives more actionable insights than either alone.