What is an AI SDR?
AI SDRs are special software that use artificial intelligence carry out sales tasks typically done by human SDRs. Find out more about them.
What’s one of your first steps once you decide it’s time to start building out your pipeline?
You hire an SDR.
But when 84% of sales reps failed to hit quota in 2023 (some even say 91% missed quota), the revenue generated no longer seems to merit the cost of an SDR.
That’s where AI SDRs (also known as virtual SDRs) transition from a nice-to-have to a true differentiator.
AI SDR definition
An AI SDR (artificial intelligence sales development representative) is specialized software that uses AI to automate standard sales tasks that a human SDR would typically do, such as:
The tasks of an AI SDR or AI BDR are defined by your team. You can delegate your entire outbound process or specific time-consuming tasks like follow-ups and mailbox warm-up.
Ultimately, your trust in an AI SDR determines the depth of its integration into your sales efforts.
AI SDRs vs Human SDRs
If you’re set on expanding your sales team by adding an SDR, you should know the advantages of AI SDRs and human SDRs.
AI SDRs
There are several areas where an AI SDR will easily outperform a human:
- Scalability – AI SDRs can handle large volumes of data and tasks in a short amount of time.
- Consistency – AI SDRs provide steady results and aren’t affected by writer’s block, fatigue, bias, or temptation to end work early (so long as the underlying prompts are good).
- Automation – AI SDRs can fulfill many daily sales tasks on autopilot without needing to track time or complete a Jira ticket.
- Price tag – AI SDRs are considerably cheaper than humans as they can work 24/7 without breaks, benefits, vacation, overtime, or holiday pay.
Human SDRs
Before you jump on the AI SDR bandwagon, there are some ways that human SDRs outshine AI:
- Emotional intelligence – Humans know how to understand and respond to emotions, which can lead to stronger relationships with prospects (or avoiding awkward situations like bringing up a tragedy in a tone-deaf manner).
- Cultural nuances – Similar to emotional intelligence, humans are more capable of picking up on cultural nuances and cues like humor, slang, and event sensitivity.
- Flexibility – AI SDRs are inherently limited by the structure and info in their prompts while humans are more capable of responding appropriately to unscripted situations.
- Face behind the name – No matter how much an AI SDR tries to put a face to a name, it won’t be able to hop onto a Zoom call in a minute to have a live chat (for now).
AI vs Human cost & performance breakdown
Here’s a breakdown of how AI SDRs and human SDRs compare in terms of cost and performance.
To compare price tags, we compared the price of a one-month subscription to AiSDR versus one month of a human’s salary before on-target earnings and benefits.
| AI SDR | Human SDR | |
| Cost | $750/month | $4,500/month |
| Time to draft a personalized email | 10-15 seconds | 10-30 minutes |
| Time to follow up | < 10 minutes | 5 minutes to 4 hours* |
| Remembers to send follow-up | Yes | Sometimes (may slip their mind due to workload or distractions) |
| Personalization | Yes | Sometimes (more personalization = more time & energy) |
| Reliant on templates and sequences | No | Yes |
| Vulnerable to typos | No | Yes |
| Vulnerable to “bad days” | No | Yes |
| Easily distracted | No | Yes (e.g. social media, emails, meetings) |
| Consistent email quality | Yes | No (quality will change due to feeling stressed, rushed, etc) |
| Morale | Constant | Fluctuates (good days, bad days, holidays, unhappy with manager) |
| Time to onboard | from 2 hours | 3-4 months |
| Availability | 24/7 | ~8 hours per workday (minus breaks & meetings) |
| Cost of scaling | $750** for 1,000 additional emails | $4,500/month for a new SDR |
| Cold emails sent per day | up to 30 emails per mailbox | up to 30 emails per mailbox |
| Cost per email | $0.75 | > $4.50 |
**Discounts available based on volume
Based on this, it’s safe to say it’s a lot easier to become profitable with an AI SDR than a human SDR specializing in email marketing.
An AI SDR’s ROI looks even better if you can combine multiple tools into one AI SDR and shed unnecessary subscriptions. That said, before you buy an AI SDR, you’ll want to evaluate AI SDRs according to a large set of criteria.
Hybrid set-up of AI and Human SDRs
If they’re set up correctly, AI SDRs and human SDRs can complement each other very well, allowing you to optimize your sales processes and reduce wasted resources.
Here’s what a possible workload split might look like if you opt for a hybrid team of AI and human SDRs:
| AI SDRs | Human SDRs |
| Email drafting Initial cold outreach Answers to inbound requests Personalization at scale Objection handling Processing auto-replies Follow-ups Mailbox warm-up Prospecting and intent research Lead data enrichment Lead scoring Repetitive work | Cold calls Complex questions In-person meetings and calls Relationship building Cultural and emotional nuances Unscripted situations Refining strategies and plans Closing sales Providing feedback |
Why implement an AI SDR?
There are several possible reasons why you might decide you need an AI SDR, but many of them can be boiled down to one of two overarching reasons.
- Your budget is limited and an AI SDR is an affordable alternative.
- Your SDR performance is lacking.
We’ve already discussed the cost of AI versus human SDRs, so let’s take a look at some of the most common red flags of poor SDR performance. We’ll also cover how a solution like AiSDR solves each red flag.
Failure to send follow-ups
AiSDR works through the leads in your campaigns according to the cadence you set, even if it’s 10 emails with daily follow-ups or 3 emails with follow-ups every 4 days.
AiSDR’s emails take into consideration all previous emails to a specific lead, and makes the follow-up’s language unique so that it won’t trigger Gmail’s or Outlook’s spam filters.
No meaningful personalization
To ensure relevant messaging, AiSDR tailors emails according to lead segment and personalizes language with the help of each lead’s LinkedIn bio and 3 most recent posts.
You can even connect AiSDR to your HubSpot account and (a) tailor emails to leads using 3 custom HubSpot properties and (b) enrich your lead data in HubSpot using AiSDR’s Lead Discovery engine.
High SDR turnover
Every time an SDR leaves, you’re forced to recruit, hire, and train a new SDR.
If you’re lucky, you’re set back just a month, but most likely, it’ll be 3-4 months before your new SDR is onboarded and ready to work at full capacity.
AiSDR can be up and running in just 2 hours.
With AiSDR, the only factor limiting your outgoing volume from day 1 is the number of mailboxes that are warmed up.
Low volume of qualified leads
AiSDR’s AI Prospecting lets you continuously search for, analyze, and add leads according to your criteria.
As a result, your outreach targets people who are more likely to be qualified leads interested in your solution.
Low lead conversion
A low lead conversion rate is a massive sign that something is wrong with your current processes.
AiSDR helps you experiment with different frameworks (e.g. AIDA, Justin Michael), strategies, and tools that can get your conversion rate back on track without breaking the bank.
For example, you might try adding AI videos or gifs to make your emails more visually dynamic, or you can configure intent search parameters to help you dive deeper into prospects and locate high-potential deals.
Too many lost opportunities
Lost sales opportunities can happen for several key reasons:
- Your SDR was slow to respond.
- Your SDR forgot to send a follow-up.
- Your SDR had a bad day, which was reflected in the email’s copy.
As an AI SDR, AiSDR never has a bad or off day, nor does it forget to send follow-ups when it’s supposed to. AiSDR also replies to incoming emails and inbound requests in less than 10 minutes.
Top 5 AI SDRs
Now that we’ve gone over what makes an AI SDR cool, here’s a rundown of five of the best AI SDRs.
AiSDR
AiSDR is an AI sales rep that engages inbound and outbound leads through personalized emails, text messages, and AI videos. Once a lead replies, AiSDR drives the conversation by answering questions, handling objections, and qualifying prospects.
AiSDR makes sure emails are timely and relevant by tailoring the language using LinkedIn and HubSpot data, as well as tactics and frameworks from 50+ sales leaders.
All AiSDR users also receive 24/7 customer support, even during weekends and holidays, as well as a dedicated Slack channel and personal support agent.
Most issues reported with AiSDR relate to integrations, in particular the lack of a Salesforce integration (Sneak peek: A Salesforce integration is in the works and scheduled for release this year).
11x
11x gives users the ability to search a large database for prospects, get insights, automate connection requests over LinkedIn, and try to get meetings scheduled on autopilot. Their AI SDR can also create a comprehensive one-page summary of each lead and their account.
Like Relevance (more on them later), 11x offers a range of integrations like Salesforce, Pipedrive, ZoomInfo, and Instantly, among many others.
Some users report being impressed by 11x’s sourcing capabilities but feeling less so about the AI SDR’s email generation.
Relevance AI
Relevance offers AI agents that you can use to get tasks done on autopilot, whether it’s webpage writing or SDR tasks.
What helps Relevance really stand out are the large number of integrations, SOC 2 compliance, support for several different large language models (e.g. GPT-4, Gemini, Anthropic), and the ability to set triggers for activating the AI agent.
Still, users have to go through some amount of trial and error as they learn how to configure and test the AI SDR.
Artisan
Artisan is building AI sales agents called artisans that can be added to sales processes and automate the work of business development representatives.
Using Artisan, you can browse lead databases and scrape the web to collect data about potential prospects. It also offers playbooks designed to bolster cold email outreach and personalization.
However, tracking outreach performance via the dashboard is not always straightforward. As one user explained, Artisan counts replies like “Remove me from your mailing list” when calculating a campaign’s response rate, leading to inflated metrics. There’s also no convenient way to see which leads responded positively.
Regie.ai
Regie uses generative AI to simplify prospecting for businesses while assisting users in crafting emails.
One of its perks is prioritized prospect nurturing. Highly engaged prospects are pushed higher in priority and human SDRs get looped in faster while under-engaged prospects are gradually nurtured over time.
Some of the drawbacks include issues with receiving customer support, a steeper-than-expected learning curve, and challenges in getting the desired quality of emails.
AI SDR success stories
AI SDRs have been game-changers for many businesses by making sales smoother and more efficient.
Here are some success stories of real AiSDR customers who’ve seen real results:
- Castellum automated email nurturing for dynamic lead lists in HubSpot and scored a 3.7% conversion rate.
- The Partner Sales quickly scaled personalized outreach and booked 18 on-site meetups in 7 days for a 4.68% conversion rate.
- Harmix automated follow-ups and responses, booking 19 meetings in 3 months with a 52% reply-to-demo rate.
- Metal launched fully automated cold outreach and closed 1.8x more revenue.
These tales of success show the impact a good AI SDR can have on a company’s sales.
