UserGems' Bet on Quality Data, Opinionated Signals, and AI You Can Trust

UserGems x The Signal

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Hey y’all!

I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue writing about our little corner of the world, as I explore the bleeding edge of what a modern go-to-market motion looks like in 2025. Technology—and yes, AI—is a major lever in this new playbook.

So, I was excited to partner with UserGems on this deep dive post on what they’re launching today, with their AI Agent, Gem-E.

I have known about UserGems for many years now, and they have always been “the job change company” to me. UserGems basically has a “generic trademark” on Past Champion Tracking. This is when a brand name becomes so closely identified with its product category that it’s used as the generic term for that product—like using “Kleenex” to mean “tissue.”

So, when UserGems started expanding beyond their main “signal” into others, I was excited to learn more.

I have always aligned with their team’s view on the world, and think that Trinity, their CMO, puts out some of the best content in the space.

They’ve invested heavily in data quality at the foundation. And they are now leaning heavily into the world of AI/Agents to help orchestrate signals, automate actions, and ultimately, generate outcomes for revenue teams.

Here’s what we explore in today’s post:

• Why quality data is so important in the AI era

• The real problem with signals

• How AI changes everything (just not how you think)

• The future of AI-powered sales

• UserGems’ 3 pillars

• Conclusion

Let’s get into it.

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Why quality data is so important in the AI era

I caught up with Christian Kletzl, CEO & Co-founder of UserGems last week. He brought up the famous Peter Thiel question: “What important truth do very few people agree with you on?” Here’s the answer he gave me:

Ultimately, everything comes down to the data quality, especially when it comes to AI.

This might seem surprising since UserGems isn't primarily known as a B2B database provider - they're known for their workflows. But these workflows sit on top of data, and they've made the strategic choice to build and own their proprietary dataset rather than rely on third-party vendors with "good enough" data.

The stakes are particularly high in the AI era. Without a human layer to catch errors, a single AI hallucination in an email can instantly destroy a rep's trust in the system (“it takes years to build trust, but only seconds to lose it”). That's why UserGems has prioritized accuracy over everything else. This approach seems to be paying off (I was told they’ve won every data accuracy test they’ve ever participated in!).

This foundation of high-quality data enables their new AI agent, Gem-E, to deliver reliable insights and actions across the entire revenue organization.

TLDR: The core of all outbound is quality data.

The real problem with sales signals

Signals were always about identifying intent. Previously it was just easier to get in touch with people so your signals could be "less sophisticated". A need to buy something is always the driver for a sales conversation — signals are just there to identify the need. So, signals are here to stay, if they’re used for pain identification.

But, the challenge isn't just getting signals (that’s starting to get easier and easier). Now, the problem is becoming how to manage them effectively.

Most sales teams are drowning in signals: job changes, website visits, technology installs, funding rounds, and more. The problem compounds when you try combining signals, easily reaching 30-50 different workflow combinations. When I was at Apollo, I had 85 Plays/Sequences running concurrently. It was hectic to manage.

UserGems is building what they call a signal consolidation platform to solve this problem.

Instead of creating more point solutions, they're focused on bringing together first and third-party data on a foundation of highly accurate account and contact data (aka “one tool to rule them all”). And then the key is closing the loop on the workflow by having tight integrations into the existing sales technologies like Salesforce, HubSpot, SalesLoft, and Outreach – particularly crucial for larger organizations that can't rely on shadow systems.

And again, their signal consolidation platform only works because of their data foundation.

With AI, signals should finally become useful across the full revenue organization. Until now, some people were successful with certain signals. That could be a single SDR in an org using a specific signal or it could be a company where RevOps took a signal and added it to the SDR/AE workflow. However, utilizing several signals across the revenue org creates confusion. Suddenly you have reps that don't know why a certain person was contacted, or there were too many sequences with people—seemingly randomly—getting pulled in.

How AI changes everything (just not how you think)

While most people initially try to use AI for message generation, UserGems sees two more fundamental applications: signal prioritization and contact selection. Their Agent, Gem-E, can do things like ranking signals based on historical success patterns and identifying the right people to contact based on CRM data.

I personally believe that choosing the right company and contact at the right time is 10x more important than perfecting the message. So, I like their approach to use their AI agents for company/person prioritization (in addition to generating copy).

Christian also shared his opinion that humans are really bad at taking a whole lot of information and putting it into one email (I completely agree). For example, if you have a human look at 18 different pieces of information and try to use them in an email, they’ll almost always fall back to the, say, three, that they know work for them. On the other hand, AI is really good at a task like this. Then layer in the ability for the AI to get all the information that's relevant on the person and the company—both first party, third party—and the AI tells me what to do. It’s a magical future we’re heading towards!

The future of AI-powered sales

Looking ahead, UserGems is betting that AI will fundamentally change how sales teams operate. Rather than replacing sellers, AI could follow the "bank teller phenomenon" – just as ATMs counter-intuitively led to more bank branches, AI might enable companies to hire more salespeople by making each one signficantly more productive.

The key will be maintaining guardrails around AI usage while letting it handle what it does best – processing vast amounts of information to surface the right opportunities at the right time. The winners in this space will be those who can combine high-quality data, existing workflow integration, and intelligent signal prioritization.

The future of sales tech isn't about having more signals – it's about having better ones and knowing how to use them effectively. In that light, UserGems' obsession with data quality isn't just a feature – it's the foundation everything else is built on. Smarter go-to-market means a more efficient marketplace, and I love that outcome.

UserGems’ 3 pillars

As someone who has built a couple of SaaS companies in the rev tech space, I know it’s getting more crowded every year. So, I always want to try and understand what really differentiates a company in this space.

When I asked Christian about differentiation, he shared three pillars that make them uniquely positioned to thrive in the modern GTM playbook:

1. Quality data as the foundation

This is the big bet.

I talked about this in the section above, but, it’s worth reiterating - i the AI era, where more things are going to get automated, the need for reliable data increases exponentially. Especially for workflows that you want to fully automate. These simply won’t work if they’re built on a dataset that only has “good enough” data.

2. Deep integrations into the existing sales technologies

Tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, SalesLoft and Outreach.

When you’re working with mid-market and enterprise customers, these tight integrations are not “nice-to-haves” they’re necessary. And they can’t be janky, half-baked integrations. Because entire workflows are built on these integrations. And reps are relying on this data on a daily basis, to hit their quota. Building deep into the ecosystem is a smart move if you want to truly be a sticky product that is loved by the end users. (I’ve seen too many companies just iframe in some component of their product into Salesforce as a last-minute add-on; that just doesn’t cut it anymore).

3. Opinionated Signal AI

I love the idea of opinionated signal-based sales playbooks powered by AI.

I think more companies need to become opinionated in the playbooks they offer, instead of being agnostic and “flexible.” I’ve found that most companies want to be given direction on what signals should be used and—equally as important—how to use them.

UserGems has built opinion into their AI agent in two main ways:

First, by prioritizing accounts and contacts.

This enables reps to focus on the right accounts and contacts, at the right time. For instance, Gem-E can look at historical data in the CRM to conjure up the best contacts to focus on. Or, of course, Gem-E might find that a previous Champion has moved jobs to another Target Account - so that contact will get bubbled up to the Account Owner.

And second, by creating messaging.

Once you have strong signals on really high-quality account and contact data, you can generate powerful messaging. I believe we’re early in seeing AI-written messaging that can be sent without a human in the loop, but I also believe we’re going to get there faster than most people realize. In any case, UserGems enables you to toggle between Auto-pilot vs. Co-pilot mode. Which is smart.

Conclusion

In an era where every tech company is racing to add "AI" to their product name, UserGems is taking a fundamentally different approach. They're betting that the future of AI in sales isn't just about fancy language models or automated messages - it's about building on a foundation of pristine data quality that enables truly intelligent signal orchestration.

With the launch of Gem-E, they're showing that when you combine high-quality data, deep integrations, and opinionated AI, you can create something that's more than just another tool - it's a true revenue acceleration platform.

And that's why I’m excited to continue to watch UserGems evolve in the AI-powered sales playbook in 2025 and beyond.

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Thank you for your continued attention and trust. I do not take it for granted.

See you next time,
Brendan 🫡