Alternatives / vs. AI SDRs
The AI SDR era ended in churn. We kept the AI, and added a gate.
By early 2026, half to seventy percent of teams that deployed autonomous AI SDRs had churned within three months, and the chief executive of the company that invented the category conceded they don't work in their current form. The problem was never the drafting; it was autonomy: nobody accountable, domains burned, meetings that never closed.
The autonomous model
- Approval is optional, and vendors coach you to switch it off
- $1,500-8,500/month, usually billed annually up front
- Shared playbooks across thousands of customers converge into spam patterns
- Mailbox providers now reject automated volume outright
- When you churn, you keep a burned domain and nothing else
The human-gated model
- AI drafts; a named human approves every single send: there is no autonomous mode
- The block is enforced in the database schema, not a settings toggle
- Signal-triggered, small-batch sends inside deliverability envelopes
- Month-to-month, no minimum term, kicker only on qualified meetings
- Every draft carries its evidence, so approval is a review, not a rubber stamp
We use AI everywhere it helps: sourcing, scoring, drafting. We just refuse the one thing the AI SDR category proved doesn't work: letting it send.
Decide with real numbers.
The scoping call takes thirty minutes and ends with the first custom signal defined. No minimum term either way.
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