AI SDR
AI SDR setup with a person on every reply
An AI SDR takes over the research and first-draft work of outbound prospecting so your sales team spends more time in real conversations. We set one up for US B2B companies inside tools you own, with list building, enrichment, drafted sequences and sending infrastructure, while a named person on your side reads and answers every reply. The goal is a pipeline that is steady and defensible, not a blast of email that burns your domain.
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Quick answer
What is an AI SDR?
An AI SDR is software that handles parts of a sales development rep's job: finding accounts that match your ideal customer profile, enriching contacts, researching each company and drafting personalized outreach. It works best with a person approving messages and answering replies, and with sending set up to meet Gmail, Yahoo and CAN-SPAM rules.
- AI SDRs are strongest at prospect research and first drafts, weakest at handling replies.
- Salesforce found sellers spend only 40% of their week actually selling.
- Gmail requires SPF or DKIM and a spam rate under 0.3% for all senders.
- CAN-SPAM has no B2B exemption and requires an opt-out honored within 10 business days.
01
What is an AI SDR?
A sales development rep finds prospects, researches them, writes first-touch messages and books meetings for account executives. An AI SDR is software that performs parts of that job: pulling accounts that fit your ideal customer profile, enriching contacts, summarizing what each company does and drafting outreach that references something specific.
Some vendors sell a packaged AI SDR with a name and persona, such as 11x's "Alice" or Artisan's "Ava". Others give you building blocks, like Clay for enrichment, Apollo for data and sequencing, and Instantly for cold email sending. We work with either approach, and often a mix.
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Where AI SDRs help, and where they fall short
Salesforce's State of Sales 2026 report, a survey of 4,050 sales professionals in 22 countries, found that sellers spend 40% of their week actually selling. The same report found 54% of sellers have used AI agents, and sellers expect agents to cut prospect research time by 34% and email drafting by 36%. Those are the two tasks where an AI SDR earns its keep.
The weak spots are just as clear. Models can misread a company, invent a detail or write something that is technically personalized but obviously generic. They are poor at reading tone in a reply, handling a nuanced objection or knowing when a prospect is a bad fit for reasons your team knows from experience. That is why our setups keep a human on replies.
- Good at: account research, enrichment, list cleanup, first drafts, variation across a sequence
- Fair at: sorting replies into interested, not now, wrong person and unsubscribe
- Poor at: negotiating, handling objections, judging fit, anything that commits your company
WHAT WE BUILD
What we automate
Typical automations, each scoped and quoted at a fixed price after a free review.
ICP list building
A weekly job pulls accounts matching your firmographic filters from Apollo, removes current customers and open deals found in your CRM, and adds new rows to a Clay table.
Account research briefs
For each new account, an AI agent reads the company website and public news and writes a five-line brief with a suggested angle, saved to the CRM record.
Drafted first-touch emails
The agent writes a short first email from the brief; a rep approves, edits or skips it in a review queue before it enters the sequence in Instantly or Smartlead.
Reply classification and routing
Incoming replies are tagged as interested, referral, not now, out of office or unsubscribe; interested replies alert the owner in Slack with a suggested response.
Suppression and opt-out sync
Unsubscribes and bounces from every sending tool are synced to one suppression list and the CRM so a contact who opted out is never emailed again from any domain.
Deliverability monitoring
Daily checks read bounce rates, Postmaster Tools spam rates and DNS records, and pause a sending domain automatically if it crosses a threshold you set.
Meeting handoff to CRM
When a prospect books through the calendar link, the meeting, the thread and the research brief are attached to a new deal in HubSpot or Salesforce.
03
How we set up an AI SDR
We start with a free review of your ideal customer profile, current outbound results, CRM and sending domains. You get a fixed quote and a staged plan, and everything is built in accounts registered to you.
The build usually runs in four stages. First, the data: account and contact lists from Apollo or similar sources, enriched in Clay, deduplicated against your CRM. Second, the research and drafting step, where an AI agent writes a short brief on each account and a first-touch email that a rep can approve or edit. Third, the sending setup in Instantly, Smartlead or your sales engagement tool, with secondary domains and warm-up. Fourth, reply handling: replies are classified and routed to the owner, with positive ones pushed to the CRM and a calendar link ready.
04
Keeping a person on replies
The AI drafts; people answer. Fully autonomous reply agents are tempting, but one confident wrong answer about pricing or features can cost a deal or create a promise you have to honor. In our setups, the AI suggests a reply and a rep sends it, usually within the same working hour.
We also keep LinkedIn manual. LinkedIn's help center says it does not permit third-party software or bots that automate activity on the site, and accounts that use them risk restriction. The AI SDR can draft a LinkedIn note, but a person sends it from their own account.
05
Deliverability rules and CAN-SPAM
Most failed AI SDR projects fail at the inbox, not the copy. Google's sender guidelines, in force since February 2024, require SPF or DKIM, valid DNS, TLS and a spam rate under 0.3% in Postmaster Tools for anyone sending to Gmail. Senders of 5,000 or more messages a day also need SPF, DKIM and DMARC, one-click unsubscribe, and ideally a spam rate under 0.10%. Yahoo has matching rules.
The FTC's CAN-SPAM compliance guide applies to B2B email with no exemption. It requires accurate headers, honest subject lines, a valid physical postal address, a clear opt-out honored within 10 business days, and it holds you responsible for anyone sending on your behalf, with penalties of up to $53,088 per violating email. We build these into every sequence and suppression list. This is not legal advice; confirm your obligations with counsel.
06
AI SDR tools and what they cost
Tool prices change often, so treat these as published October 2026 figures from the vendors' pricing pages. Clay lists a free plan, Launch from $167 a month and Growth from $446 a month. Instantly lists Growth at $47 a month, Hypergrowth at $97 and Lightspeed at $358. Packaged AI SDR platforms such as 11x and Artisan typically quote on request.
Our build work is a fixed price agreed after the free review, and the tool subscriptions are billed to you directly. If you prefer to compare against an outsourced program, blog roundups report outbound retainers of roughly $3,000 to $25,000 or more a month, clustering around $5,000 to $12,000.
TOOLS
Tools we connect
FAQ
AI SDR questions
What does an AI SDR do?
It finds accounts that fit your ideal customer profile, enriches contacts, researches each company and drafts personalized outreach. Some tools also classify replies. In our setups a person approves first messages and answers every reply.
Can an AI SDR replace a human SDR?
It can take over much of the research and drafting, which is a large share of an SDR's week. It does not handle objections, judge fit or build relationships well, so most teams use it to make each rep more productive rather than to remove the role.
Is 11x or Artisan better than building with Clay and Instantly?
Packaged platforms like 11x and Artisan are faster to start and give you one vendor. A Clay, Apollo and Instantly stack gives more control over data, copy and sending, and you can change one piece without replacing everything. We help you choose during the free review.
Is cold email legal in the US?
B2B cold email is allowed under CAN-SPAM if you follow its rules, including honest headers and subject lines, a physical postal address and a working opt-out honored within 10 business days. There is no B2B exemption. This is not legal advice; check with counsel.
Will an AI SDR hurt my email deliverability?
It can if volume is high and lists are poor. We send from secondary domains with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, warm them up, keep volumes modest, clean lists before sending and monitor spam rates against Google's 0.3% limit.
How long does an AI SDR setup take?
Domains need a few weeks of warm-up before full sending, so most setups take three to six weeks from review to steady volume. List building and drafting can be tested in parallel during warm-up.
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