Would you replace your SDRs with AI at 10% of the cost

Hey everyone! My name is Yuri. I am a Ukrainian and a YC founder (AXDRAFT, W19).

I want to ask for your feedback and critical thoughts on an idea that I can’t stop thinking about for few weeks now – AI SDR.

Many of us know what SDRs do and the end goal is to automate all of SDR’s functions, but to narrow it down, I see it as an AI tool to: (1) craft and send email campaigns and (2) correspond and handle objections via email on your behalf with a goal to book a meeting for your sales rep and using only your (1) ideal customer profile; (2) product overview and (3) objections playbook as inputs. The underlying AI technology is mostly GPT-4 API, potentially with some fine tuning.

With the boom of generative AI, this idea seems obvious and there are already few companies getting started in this space, including Lavender.ai, Aristotle, as well as Sail, Rift and Coldreach , backed by YC during S23.

Nevertheless, I think that the market opportunity is huge and can support more than one company and execution (UX+sales funnel build-up approach) will determine, who gets the biggest share.

Here are some questions, I would be grateful if you could answer:

1. When and why did you decide to hire your first SDR? Did it work? 2. If you have an SDR team – how many people and are you satisfied with the output/results/return on investment? 3. Would you buy an AI solution instead of hiring a full-time SDR? (yes/no, why?) 4. Would you fire any number of your SDRs to replace them with an AI solution (yes/no, why?)

Please respond in comments or email me directly at yz@aisdr.com

I would also be very grateful for any critical feedback or thoughts in respect of the above idea, especially in terms of potential bottlenecks and risks that you see.

If you want to learn more about how I see it working and receive updates on my progress, you can check out a landing page here: https://aisdr.com.

Thank you all so much in advance!

Yuri