These tools handle B2B prospecting from start to finish. You feed them a list of companies or job titles, and they find prospects, research each person, write personalized messages, and send them out. A marketing agency might use one to book 20 demos per week without anyone manually writing emails or checking LinkedIn profiles.
The software works by connecting to databases like Apollo or ZoomInfo to pull contact lists. Then it scrapes public information about each prospect, looking at their LinkedIn posts, company news, and recent job changes. An AI sales assistant uses this research to write unique messages for each person rather than sending the same template to everyone. The better ones also handle email deliverability by setting up proper authentication and rotating between multiple email accounts so messages avoid spam folders.
These differ from regular email tools because they make decisions on their own. Outbound sales AI can read a prospect's reply, determine if they're interested or just being polite, and decide what to send next without human input. Standard sales platforms like Outreach or SalesLoft still need someone to write sequences and manually approve each step. These tools also combine multiple functions, replacing separate tools for finding emails, researching prospects, and managing campaigns.
Sales teams use them to keep pipelines full without spending hours on research and writing. Startups run entire customer acquisition programs through them. Recruiting firms find candidates by personalizing outreach based on recent career moves or skills mentioned in posts. Marketing teams target specific accounts with messages referencing recent funding rounds or product launches. The technology is getting better at handling complex conversations, and within a few years most initial sales outreach will probably run this way.