# AI SDR agents for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, September 2026

Gane Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "AI SDR agent" and as "AI sales development tool that prospects and books meetings", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/sales/ai-sdr-agents/2026-09/smb

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 15, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/sales/ai-sdr-agents/smb/index.md

**Standing:** Apollo.io leads with 24% of first choices; verdict contested. 45 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Apollo.io](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/apollo-io/index.md) | 24% | 6% | 32 |
| 2 | [AiSDR](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/aisdr/index.md) | 22% | 8% | 40 |
| 3 | [Agent Frank](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/agent-frank/index.md) | 9% | 6% | 18 |
| 4 | [Clay](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/clay/index.md) | 4% | 12% | 16 |
| 8 | [Instantly](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/instantly/index.md) | 2% | 5% | 22 |
| 9 | [Amplemarket Duo](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/amplemarket-duo/index.md) | 2% | 10% | 10 |
| 20 | [Reply.io Jason](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/reply-io-jason/index.md) | 0% | 8% | 12 |
| 66 | [Artisan Ava](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/artisan-ava/index.md) | 0% | 38% | 32 |
| 68 | [11x](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/11x/index.md) | 0% | 61% | 23 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 68 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Apollo.io; alternatives AiSDR, Amplemarket Duo, eesier
- GPT-5.4 mini: Clay; alternatives 11x
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Agent Frank, AiSDR; alternatives Ava, Instantly
- Perplexity Sonar: AiSDR; alternatives Amplemarket Duo, Artisan Ava, Coldreach
- Grok 4.20: Salesforge Agent Frank; alternatives AiSDR
- Mistral Small: Agent Frank; alternatives AiSDR, Luna.ai, MeetChase AI SDR, Stamina.io
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: AiSDR; alternatives Apollo.io, Salesforge Agent Frank
- Llama 4 Maverick: Agent Frank, MeetChase, SalesRobot
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Amplemarket Duo; alternatives Instantly, SalesRobot
- Kimi K2: Regie.ai; alternatives Agentplace, AiSDR, Artisan Ava, Gojiberry AI
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: AiSDR; alternatives Artisan Ava, Breakout, Gojiberry AI, Regie.ai
- MiniMax M2.5: SalesTools.io; alternatives AutoRev AI, Persana AI

## Sources the answers cite

22 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- salesforge.ai: 11 answers, 22 citations
- amplemarket.com: 11 answers, 11 citations
- 11x.ai: 8 answers, 15 citations
- artisan.co: 8 answers, 8 citations
- aisdr.com: 7 answers, 13 citations
- g2.com: 7 answers, 9 citations
- monday.com: 7 answers, 8 citations
- instantly.ai: 6 answers, 9 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://amplemarket.com/blog/best-ai-sales-agents (11 answers)
- https://salesforge.ai/blog/ai-sales-agents (6 answers)
- https://artisan.co/blog/the-best-ai-sdrs (5 answers)
- https://eesier.com/best-ai-sdr-small-business (5 answers)
- https://getvoip.com/ai-sdr-agents (5 answers)
- https://salesrobot.co/blogs/ai-sdr-tools (4 answers)
- https://11x.ai/guides/ai-sdr-agents-b2b-sales-teams (4 answers)
- https://fundraiseinsider.com/blog/ai-sdr-tools (4 answers)
- https://snov.io/blog/best-ai-sdr-tools (4 answers)
- https://ventureharbour.com/best-ai-sales-tools (4 answers)

## Warned against

- 11x: 14 of 23 labels negative. "too expensive and complex for small teams, and some carry credibility risks... TechCrunch (Mar 2025) exposed inflated ARR and fake customer logos" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, comparative prompt)
- Artisan Ava: 12 of 32 labels negative. "Artisan AI: Frequently criticized by users for sending thousands of emails with zero replies." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt)
- AiSDR: 3 of 40 labels negative. "AiSDR: While popular, it faces backlash for being a "black box."" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt)
- Clay: 2 of 16 labels negative. "NOT an AI SDR — enrichment infrastructure; sends nothing" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, comparative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, September 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/gtm.