Short answer
Decide how much you want the software to send on its own, then pick from that group. 11x, Artisan and Qualified's Piper run autonomously. AiSDR, Salesforge's Agent Frank and Apollo's agents let you start with review and loosen it later. Amplemarket Duo and Regie.ai draft and suggest, and a rep sends. Price and contract terms narrow it from there: only four of the eight publish prices.
Closest fit by need
- A vendor that runs the whole outbound motion for you11x or Artisan
- Inbound website visitors answered and booked around the clockQualified (Piper)
- Self-serve, pay as you go, approve the first campaignAiSDR
- A switch between Auto-Pilot and Co-PilotSalesforge (Agent Frank)
- A copilot for an existing SDR team that never sends aloneAmplemarket Duo or Regie.ai
- Agents for research, drafting and CRM work, a person sendingHelix GTM
On this page · 11 sections
Helix GTM$499 / user / moSee Helix GTM
What an AI SDR does
A human SDR spends the week finding prospects, reading about their companies, writing a first message, following up, answering replies and booking meetings for account executives. An AI SDR does the same sequence in software. Most bundle a contact database, enrichment, mailbox infrastructure with warmup, and a sequencer. Several add LinkedIn steps, calls or voice messages.
The research and writing are similar across the tools on this page. The differences are in what surrounds them: who approves the message, where the contact data comes from, whose domains it sends from, and what the contract commits you to.
Who presses send: three groups
Autonomy is the decision with the biggest consequences. A tool that sends on its own scales without anyone reading each message. A tool that waits for approval is slower and keeps a person responsible for every message that carries your name.
| Autonomous | Switchable | Approval first | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who sends | The agent | You choose: review first, then let it run | A person, every time |
| Good when | Volume matters more than per-message control, and your list and offer are proven | You want to test the agent's writing before trusting it | Each account is valuable, or your brand cannot absorb a bad message |
| Cost of the choice | Mistakes reach prospects before anyone sees them | Someone has to decide when to switch, and check it stays good | Throughput is limited by how fast a person reviews |
| Tools here | 11x (Alice), Artisan (Ava), Qualified (Piper, inbound) | AiSDR, Salesforge (Agent Frank), Apollo agents | Amplemarket (Duo), Regie.ai |
Helix GTM, which is ours, sits past the approval-first end. It is not an AI SDR, so it is not in these groups; it has its own section at the end.
All eight AI SDR tools at a glance
| Tool | Who sends · contact data | Channels | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11x (Alice) | Alice, autonomously400M contacts (11x) | Email, social; reps dial | Not published |
| Artisan (Ava) | Ava, with optional approvals250M+ contacts (Artisan) | Email, dialer | Not verified |
| Qualified (Piper) | Piper, autonomouslyYour CRM and GTM systems | Web chat, voice, video, email | Not published |
| AiSDR | Ami, after you approve the first campaign300M+ leads (AiSDR) | Email, LinkedIn, calls | $1.50/person, or Solo from $250/mo |
| Salesforge (Agent Frank) | Your choice: Auto-Pilot or Co-Pilot500M+ contacts (Salesforge) or yours | Email, LinkedIn | From $499/mo, billed quarterly |
| Apollo.io agents | Supervised; autonomy is earned240M+ contacts (Apollo) | Email, calls | Professional plan; not verified |
| Amplemarket (Duo) | Your reps, after review200M+ contacts (Amplemarket) | Email, social, calls, WhatsApp | $600/mo, annual term |
| Regie.ai (RegieGO) | You, after approvingUp to 7 providers | Email, calls | Free; Pro from about $41/mo |
Autonomous AI SDRs
These agents choose who to contact, write and send the messages, and handle replies. You set the audience, offer and guardrails.
11x (Alice)
Autonomous AI SDR- Best for
- Teams that want a vendor to run the whole outbound motion: list, research, sequences and deliverability.
- Pricing
- Not published.
Strengths
- Alice picks the play and handles prospecting, research, personalisation and multi-channel execution.
- Email, social and dials coordinated in one sequence, with deliverability managed in-house.
- A database of 400M contacts, per 11x.
- Reps make the outbound calls with 11x's prep; sensitive replies are escalated to your team.
Check before you buy
- We found no pre-send approval mode on the pages we read.
- Contract terms are not published.
Artisan (Ava)
Autonomous AI BDR- Best for
- Teams that want an autonomous outbound agent with contact data, deliverability and a dialer included.
- Pricing
- Credit-based plan tiers. Prices not verified: we could not read them from the pricing page.
Strengths
- Ava finds and enriches leads, writes and sends outreach, handles replies and books meetings.
- Sends from your own domains in your reps' names.
- A database of 250M+ verified contacts, per Artisan.
- Artisan describes approval, tone and CTA locks, and escalation rules as controls.
Check before you buy
- We could not confirm whether approval is on by default.
- Plans are scoped to lead volume, mailboxes and dialer seats; get a quote.
Qualified (Piper)
Autonomous inbound AI SDR- Best for
- B2B marketing teams with high website traffic who want inbound visitors engaged and booked around the clock.
- Pricing
- Not published. Premier, Enterprise and Ultimate tiers capped by web sessions and email contacts.
Strengths
- Piper engages website visitors over chat, voice or video and nurtures inbound leads over email.
- Salesforce integration and 20+ other GTM systems.
Check before you buy
- Built for inbound; cold outbound is not described.
- No approval mode described on the pages we read.
Switchable: review first, autonomy later
These tools start with a person approving drafts and can be set to send on their own once you trust the output.
AiSDR
AI SDR with approval steps- Best for
- Small teams that want a self-serve AI SDR with no annual contract and a review step before the first send.
- Pricing
- Pay as you go at $1.50 per person prospected; Solo from $250 a month. Team plans by volume, on quarterly contracts.
Strengths
- The first campaign stays in draft until you approve it, and you can keep approvals wherever you want them.
- Email, LinkedIn and AI call steps, with mailbox creation, domain warmup and inbox rotation.
- A managed service is available per campaign ($149) or in full ($2,500 a month).
Check before you buy
- After the first campaign the default is a weekly recap, not an approval queue.
- The pricing pages list more than one entry price; confirm with sales.
Salesforge (Agent Frank)
AI SDR with autopilot and co-pilot- Best for
- Teams already sending cold email at volume who want an agent on top, with a switch between autonomy and review.
- Pricing
- Agent Frank from $499 a month billed quarterly on the pricing page ($599 in its FAQ). Mailbox infrastructure is extra.
Strengths
- Auto-Pilot sends without supervision; Co-Pilot asks for your review before sending.
- Email and LinkedIn, with unlimited senders on the Salesforge platform.
- A 500M+ contact search engine, per Salesforge, or your own first-party data.
Check before you buy
- New email infrastructure needs about two weeks of warmup before sending.
- Available only after a demo, with no free trial.
Apollo.io agents
Supervised agents on a sales database- Best for
- Teams already on Apollo data that want agents to draft and run sequences under supervision.
- Pricing
- AI features are on the Professional plan. Prices not verified: we could not read them from the pricing page.
Strengths
- Agents stay supervised until you decide they can act on their own, and you approve the actions that count.
- Multi-channel sequences, domain warming, inbox rotation and reputation monitoring.
- 240M+ contacts and 30M+ accounts, per Apollo.
Check before you buy
- Mid-cycle downgrades on annual plans are not permitted.
Approval first: AI copilots for reps
These tools research, draft and suggest. A rep reviews and sends.
Amplemarket (Duo)
AI copilot for reps- Best for
- Existing SDR and AE teams that want an AI copilot suggesting who to contact and what to say.
- Pricing
- Startup $600 a month on an annual term with two users; Growth and Elite custom. Free trial on all plans.
Strengths
- “Human in the loop by design”: Duo suggests, and reps review before sending.
- Email, social, calls, WhatsApp and AI voice messages.
- Mailbox rotation and warmup, and 200M+ verified contacts, per Amplemarket.
Check before you buy
- Startup is an annual term; no monthly option is stated.
- Duo Inbox is an add-on.
Regie.ai (RegieGO)
AI prospecting with approval- Best for
- Founders and individual reps who want researched drafts and call scripts, and to send from their own inbox.
- Pricing
- Free plan. Pro about $41 to $49 a month and Team about $125 to $150 per seat a month, depending on billing. No contract on Pro or Team.
Strengths
- “Nothing sends or dials unless you tell it to.”
- Waterfall enrichment across up to seven data providers, and a free built-in CRM.
- Power and parallel dialing up to five lines.
Check before you buy
- Sends from your own Gmail or Outlook; no mailbox provisioning or warmup.
How to evaluate an AI SDR
- Read 20 real drafts. Ask for messages written to your actual prospects during the trial or demo, not the vendor's examples.
- Find out whose domains it sends from. Your own domains carry your reputation. Ask about warmup time, sends per mailbox per day, and who fixes it when a domain lands in spam.
- Check where the contacts come from. A built-in database, a waterfall of providers, or your own list. Ask how emails are verified before sending.
- Test the approval controls. Even if you plan to run autonomously, see what you can lock: tone, calls to action, which accounts it may contact, and when a reply is handed to a person.
- Read the contract. Terms on this page run from pay as you go (AiSDR) to quarterly (Salesforge) and annual (Amplemarket Startup). Ask what happens to your domains and data if you leave.
- Measure against a holdout. Keep a slice of accounts on your current process and compare meetings booked, not emails sent.
AI SDR vs a human-approved agent
Helix GTM takes the other side of the autonomy question. Its agents do the work an SDR does before and after the message. They research each account in a real browser and adapt the message your rep wrote to each person. They follow up, update HubSpot after calls and post deal reviews to Slack. Every draft waits in a queue until someone on your team approves it.
Helix GTMOurs
AI agents for GTM- Best for
- Founders and small sales teams who want agents to research accounts, draft outreach and keep the CRM current, with a person approving every message.
- Pricing
- $499 per user per month on Helix Cloud, with 30 concurrent agent desktops and 5,000 tasks a month. Free for the first 72 hours.
Strengths
- Each agent works on its own desktop with a real browser, so it can use the sites and tools a person would, such as LinkedIn and HubSpot.
- Drafts wait in a queue until someone on your team approves them. Nothing is sent on its own.
- Agents also do the work around outreach: deal reviews posted to Slack, call prep, prospect trackers and CRM updates after calls.
- Helix runs the same agents on its own pipeline: lead discovery every hour from sign-ups, GitHub and public threads, and a review of top HubSpot deals posted to Slack at 9am ET each weekday.
Check before you buy
- Helix is not a contact database or an enrichment waterfall. Agents work with the data sources and accounts you connect.
- It is not a bulk sending tool. If you need mailbox warmup and high-volume sequences, keep a tool for that.
- $499 per user is more than the entry plans of most data tools; it pays for agent desktops and tasks, not data credits.
Pick an AI SDR if
- You want outbound volume without hiring, and your list and offer already work.
- You want the vendor to own the contact data, mailboxes and sequencing.
- You are comfortable with software sending in your reps' names.
Pick Helix GTM if
- You sell to a list small enough that each message matters.
- You want the research and writing done, and a person to decide what is sent.
- You want the same agents on CRM and deal work too. See Helix GTM or compare data tools in Clay alternatives.
Frequently asked questions
What is an AI SDR?
An AI SDR (sales development representative) is software that does the prospecting part of a sales job: it finds people who match your ideal customer, researches them, writes personalised outreach, sends follow-ups, handles replies and books meetings. Some send on their own; others draft for a person to approve.
What is the best AI SDR?
For a vendor-run, fully autonomous outbound motion, 11x and Artisan. For inbound website visitors, Qualified's Piper. For a self-serve start with no annual contract, AiSDR. For an agent you can switch between autopilot and review, Salesforge's Agent Frank. For reps who want a copilot that never sends without them, Amplemarket Duo or Regie.ai.
How much does an AI SDR cost?
Four of the eight publish prices. On November 5, 2026, AiSDR started at $1.50 per person prospected or $250 a month, and Salesforge Agent Frank at $499 a month billed quarterly. Amplemarket Startup was $600 a month on an annual term, and Regie.ai Pro about $41 a month. 11x, Artisan and Qualified do not publish prices.
Can I review messages before an AI SDR sends them?
With some. Salesforge's Co-Pilot mode asks for review before each send, AiSDR keeps the first campaign in draft until you approve it, Apollo's agents stay supervised until you trust them, and Amplemarket Duo and Regie.ai never send without the rep. We found no pre-send approval mode on 11x's or Qualified's pages.
Will an AI SDR hurt my email deliverability?
It can if it sends high volume from domains that are new or poorly warmed. Most AI SDRs now include mailbox warmup and inbox rotation; Salesforge, for example, says new email infrastructure needs about two weeks of warmup. Send from secondary domains, keep volumes per mailbox low, and watch bounce and reply rates in the first weeks.
Is Helix GTM an AI SDR?
No. Helix GTM runs agents that do the research, drafting, follow-up and CRM work behind outreach, each on its own desktop with a real browser, and a person approves every message before it goes. It is for teams that want an agent doing the legwork while a person keeps the send button.
Sources, checked November 5, 2026
Each vendor's claims are quoted or summarised from the pages below. Customer counts, ratings and percentages are the vendor's own figures; we have not audited them. “Not published” means we found no price on the vendor's site. “Not verified” means the page draws its prices with a script we could not read, so a price may exist that we could not confirm. If something here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it.