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An AI SDR (AI sales development representative) is software that runs the top of your sales funnel on its own. It prospects, reaches out, qualifies interest, books qualified meetings, and follows up, mostly through natural voice conversations. Where a human rep works one call at a time on a fixed schedule, an AI SDR can handle hundreds of conversations at once, day or night, and it never forgets to follow up. The job of a sales development rep has always been the same: turn raw leads into booked meetings for the people who close. An AI SDR does that job with a voice agent instead of a person. It dials or answers, holds a real back-and-forth, decides whether a lead is worth a meeting, and puts that meeting on the calendar. It is not a chatbot. An AI SDR makes and takes actual phone calls, understands what a caller says, asks the right qualifying questions, and books straight into your calendar. It can also follow up afterward by text or email. And it is not there to replace your closers. The point is to fill their calendars with qualified meetings and hand warm prospects over, so your team spends its time selling instead of chasing.

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How an AI SDR works

An AI SDR takes a list of contacts (or an inbound call), starts a conversation, works out whether the person is a fit, and then either books a meeting or schedules a follow-up. Everything it learns is logged against the contact so nothing falls through. Under the hood, an AI SDR combines curated, high-accuracy speech, language, and voice models, kept abstracted, so the conversation feels natural and replies come back in about a second. You never manage the models. You manage the agent’s instructions, its tools, and its lists.

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AI SDR vs a human SDR vs a chatbot

The three get confused often, but they solve different parts of the problem.
An AI SDR and a human SDR are not an either/or choice. The strongest pattern is to let the AI SDR handle the volume outreach and first-pass qualification, then hand warm, qualified meetings to human reps who close.

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Where SmartAlex fits

SmartAlex gives you an AI SDR built from three pieces you can switch on as you grow. Outbound at scale. Outbound campaigns upload a contact list, segment it, and work through it in multi-step sequences with automatic follow-ups and calling windows you control. You watch results in live campaign analytics. Outbound campaigns are an add-on at $49/month on the Professional plan, and are bundled on the Real Estate and Enterprise plans. Qualification in the conversation. The agent asks your qualifying questions, looks up answers in its knowledge base, can run a live web search mid-call, and creates a lead the moment someone is interested. The full list of built-in actions lives in agent tools. Meetings and deals. When a prospect qualifies, the agent checks availability and books straight into your calendar, then records the outcome as a deal in SmartAlex CRM or the CRM you already use (HubSpot and others). Warm prospects can be transferred live to a human closer.
Point the same agent at inbound calls too and it doubles as an AI receptionist: it answers, qualifies, and books, so no lead waits on hold. See what is an AI receptionist.

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What it costs

Pricing is usage based, so you pay for conversations, not headcount.
  • The Free plan lets you build one agent and talk to it in the browser to see how it qualifies. Telephony and outbound come with a paid plan.
  • Professional is $99/month and adds phone numbers and included minutes.
  • The Outbound Campaigns add-on is $49/month on Professional and unlocks the SDR-style outbound engine. It is bundled on the Real Estate and Enterprise plans.
  • Call usage runs about $0.05/min on a blended average, drawn from your prepaid wallet on top of included minutes.
For the full breakdown of plans, minutes, and add-ons, see pricing and add-ons.

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Setting up your AI SDR

1

Create the agent

In Studio, describe the SDR you want in plain language. Alex proposes an agent for you to approve before anything goes live. See create an agent.
2

Give it knowledge

Point it at your website or paste your offer, pricing rules, and qualifying criteria so it answers accurately and stays on message.
3

Turn on the right tools

Enable book meeting, check availability, create lead, and send email or SMS so the agent can act, not just talk.
4

Connect calendar and CRM

Link your calendar and CRM so booked meetings and new deals land where your team already works.
5

Add outbound and load contacts

Add the Outbound Campaigns add-on, upload your list into contacts, segment it, and set your calling windows.
6

Launch and measure

Start the campaign and track connect rates, qualified conversations, and booked meetings in analytics.

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Frequently asked questions

An AI SDR is a specific job an AI voice agent does. The voice agent is the underlying technology that can hold a phone conversation. When you point that agent at prospecting, qualifying, and booking meetings, it is acting as an AI SDR. See what is an AI voice assistant.
No. An AI SDR removes the repetitive top-of-funnel work: dialing lists, first-pass qualifying, and chasing follow-ups. It fills your team’s calendar with qualified meetings and hands warm prospects to human closers, who are still the ones who build the relationship and close the deal.
Yes. The same agent can answer inbound calls, qualify the caller, and book a meeting, so it works both directions. Many teams run one agent that prospects outbound and covers the phones inbound.
It asks the qualifying questions you define, looks answers up in its knowledge base, and can run a live web search mid-call for anything it does not already know. When someone is a fit, it creates a lead or deal in your CRM and books the meeting on the spot.
Natural and responsive. It runs on curated, high-accuracy speech, language, and voice models, kept abstracted, so replies come back in about a second and the conversation flows like a real call. You choose the voice.
You stay in control of calling windows, consent, and the script the agent follows, which is where most outreach rules live. SmartAlex follows SOC 2-aligned policies and is working toward SOC 2 Type II readiness. Always confirm the rules for your region and industry before you dial.

Outbound campaigns

Load a list, sequence the outreach, and let the agent work through it with automatic follow-ups.

Deals and CRM

Track qualified prospects as deals, in SmartAlex CRM or the CRM you already use.

Agent tools

See every action an agent can take mid-call: book, qualify, transfer, and follow up.

What is an AI calling platform?

How the phone layer behind an AI SDR works, from numbers to live campaigns.