AI agents for GTM and RevOps · Part 1 of 13
How to set up an AI SDR
What sets an AI SDR apart from a sequencer, the path each contact takes through it, the two settings that decide what it does alone, and the setup, part by part.
The short version
An AI SDR chooses whom to write to, writes the message and sends it, within limits you set. A sequencer only sends templates a person wrote, and a drafting assistant leaves the sending to a rep. Every contact takes the same path, and the checks on your CRM and your contact rules come before the writing. Sending and answering replies are two separate settings: switch each one on in its own time.
What an AI SDR is
Three kinds of tool send outbound email, and what tells them apart is who decides. A sequencer sends the templates a person wrote, on a schedule, to a list a person built. A drafting assistant writes each message, and a rep reads it and sends it. An AI SDR picks the contacts, writes to each one and sends, within the limits you set.
Sequencer
- Picks contacts
- a person builds the list
- Writes
- a person writes the templates
- Sends
- the tool, on a schedule
- Answers replies
- a person
Drafting assistant
- Picks contacts
- a person chooses who
- Writes
- the tool drafts each message
- Sends
- a person reads it, then sends
- Answers replies
- a person
AI SDR
- Picks contacts
- the AI SDR, from your ICP and signals
- Writes
- the AI SDR, one message per contact
- Sends
- the AI SDR, alone or after approval
- Answers replies
- the AI SDR or a person, as you set it
All within the limits you set.
11x describes its own AI SDR this way: “Alice decides who to contact and what to say”.
11x docs, “Alice overview”So setting one up means deciding two things: what it checks before it writes, and what it may do without a person.
One contact’s path
Take Example Software, an invented company that sells to finance teams. Its outbound team is two SDRs and an AI SDR. Clay finds and enriches its contacts, HubSpot is its CRM and holds who unsubscribed, and a sending tool sends. Every contact the AI SDR takes on, such as a finance director at a 300-person logistics firm, goes the same way.
1 Find
a company and a person that fit your ICP
2 Enrich
role, email and company size
3 Check
HubSpot, your rulesA customer? An open deal? Unsubscribed? 3 messages in 14 days?
Any yes: no draft is written. Skip it, wait, or pass it to the contact’s owner.
4 Write
one message, for this person
5 Send
in review, with approval, or alone
6 Read the reply
interested, not now, or unsubscribe
7 Book or route
a meeting with a rep, or the contact to one
8 Record
what it did and why, on the contact
Put the checks first for two reasons. A draft for someone who unsubscribed wastes a rep’s review at best, and on autopilot nobody reads it before it goes. And the answer decides who writes, if anyone: an open deal belongs to its owner, and under Example Software’s playbook a contact who has had three messages in 14 days waits, whoever sent them. Part 8 writes these rules, and part 9 decides who gets the contact.
Two settings: sending and replies
How much the AI SDR does alone comes down to two settings: one for sending each message, one for answering replies. The three vendors in the figure keep them apart, and each names the levels in its own way, so match the names before you compare.
Sending each message
Review
A person can edit or override each message.
11x: Review each message
Approval
A named person signs off before anything goes out.
HubSpot: Review emails. 11x: Approval workflow. Artisan: Copilot.
Alone
It sends without a person.
HubSpot: Send without review. 11x: Autopilot. Artisan: Full Autopilot.
Answering replies
A person answers every reply
Artisan: even on Full Autopilot.
HubSpot: no reply setting on its help page.
Some kinds alone
It answers the kinds you switch on; a person gets the rest.
11x: respond automatically, skip or escalate, set per category.
Move each setting on its own evidence. Let it send alone in one segment first, once a sample of its drafts holds up: in Artisan, Full Autopilot is a switch in each campaign’s settings. Switch replies on later, one kind at a time, the simplest first. Part 7 sets the order, and part 11 the stages of the rollout.
11x’s own docs, on its AI SDR: “Don’t start on autopilot.” And on replies: “Enable per category, not all at once.”
11x docs, “AI personalization” and “Smart replies”The setup, part by part
If you’ve set up a support agent (support part 1), the shape will look familiar. What changes is who writes first: a support agent answers people who wrote to you, and an AI SDR writes to people who didn’t. So your contact data and your rules on whom it may contact carry more of the weight. Each step has its own part.
Connect HubSpot, Clay and the sending tool
What it reads and writes, and how an unsubscribe travels.
Next in this series
Part 2: what an AI SDR can and can’t do today. See all 13 parts.
Sources
- 11x docs, “Alice overview”, read on 21 October 2026.
- HubSpot Knowledge Base, “Set up and use the prospecting agent”, last updated 14 October 2026, read on 21 October 2026.
- 11x docs, “AI personalization”, read on 21 October 2026.
- 11x docs, “Smart replies”, read on 21 October 2026.
- Artisan Help Center, “Running Ava on Copilot vs Autopilot”, read on 21 October 2026.