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

Gane Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "AI SDR agent" and as "AI sales development tool that prospects and books meetings", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/sales/ai-sdr-agents/2026-10/smb

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since.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 32% of first choices; verdict contested. 53 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) | 32% | 5% | 39 |
| 2 | [AiSDR](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/aisdr/index.md) | 23% | 13% | 47 |
| 3 | [Artisan Ava](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/artisan-ava/index.md) | 6% | 28% | 39 |
| 4 | [Agent Frank](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/agent-frank/index.md) | 6% | 10% | 10 |
| 5 | [Regie.ai](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/regie-ai/index.md) | 4% | 20% | 10 |
| 6 | [Salesforge Agent Frank](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/salesforge-agent-frank/index.md) | 2% | 13% | 15 |
| 8 | [Reply.io Jason](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/reply-io-jason/index.md) | 2% | 9% | 11 |
| 22 | [Instantly](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/instantly/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 12 |
| 23 | [Clay](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/clay/index.md) | 0% | 27% | 15 |
| 72 | [11x](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/11x/index.md) | 0% | 69% | 29 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 72 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: Agent Frank; alternatives 11x, AiSDR, Apollo.io, FL0
- GPT-5.4 mini: Jason AI, Reply.io Jason; alternatives AiSDR
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Agent Frank, Apollo.io; alternatives AiSDR, Amplemarket Duo, Clay
- Perplexity Sonar: Artisan Ava; alternatives Amplemarket Duo, Apollo.io, Salesforge Agent Frank
- Grok 4.20: AiSDR; alternatives Artisan Ava, Salesforge Agent Frank
- Mistral Small: Overloop, Regie.ai; alternatives Artisan Ava, HeyGen, Salesforge.ai
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: AiSDR; alternatives Regie.ai, Salesforge Agent Frank
- Llama 4 Maverick: AiSDR; alternatives Apollo.io
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: AiSDR, Artisan.ai; alternatives Apollo.io, Clay
- Kimi K2: AiSDR, Jeeva; alternatives Apollo.io, Artisan Ava
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: AiSDR; alternatives Agent Frank, Artisan Ava
- MiniMax M2.5: Artisan Ava, SalesTools.io
- GPT-6 Luna: Reply.io's Jason AI SDR; alternatives AiSDR
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Artisan Ava; alternatives AiSDR, Salesforge Agent Frank

## Sources the answers cite

79 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- salesforge.ai: 49 answers, 85 citations
- artisan.co: 46 answers, 64 citations
- amplemarket.com: 24 answers, 26 citations
- aisdr.com: 23 answers, 37 citations
- getvoip.com: 22 answers, 22 citations
- pipeline.zoominfo.com: 20 answers, 36 citations
- salesmotion.io: 20 answers, 20 citations
- 11x.ai: 19 answers, 27 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://salesforge.ai/blog/ai-sales-agents (42 answers)
- https://artisan.co/blog/the-best-ai-sdrs (36 answers)
- https://amplemarket.com/blog/best-ai-sales-agents (23 answers)
- https://getvoip.com/ai-sdr-agents (22 answers)
- https://clay.com/guides/best/ai-sdr-tools (17 answers)
- https://heygen.com/blog/best-ai-sdr-tools (15 answers)
- https://pipeline.zoominfo.com/sales/ai-sdr-tools (14 answers)
- https://coldreach.ai/blog/ai-sales-agents-for-b2b-outreach (12 answers)
- https://salesforge.ai/blog/ai-sales-tools (12 answers)
- https://thestacc.com/blog/ai-sdr-tools-comparison (11 answers)

## Warned against

- 11x: 20 of 29 labels negative. "Artisan and 11x.ai promise to replace human reps entirely, but score low in AI and automation metrics, carry significant platform and credibility risks, and cost significantly more." (Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt)
- Artisan Ava: 11 of 39 labels negative. "Artisan and 11x.ai promise to replace human reps entirely, but score low in AI and automation metrics, carry significant platform and credibility risks, and cost significantly more." (Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt)
- AiSDR: 6 of 47 labels negative. "the entry price of $900/month with no free trial and a $2,700 minimum quarterly upfront commitment makes AiSDR inaccessible for most SMBs" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- Qualified Piper: 4 of 8 labels negative. "Some AI SDR tools are not suitable for small businesses due to their high cost. For example, Qualified (Piper) has a total cost of $70K\u2013$128K/year, including required Salesforce." (Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Apollo.io at 34%.

- Apollo.io: 24% to 34%, +10. Inside the floor by 1 point · rank 1 of 64, unchanged.
- Artisan Ava: 0% to 4%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 66 → 4 of 64.
- Clay: 4% to 0%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 4 → 21 of 64.
- Agent Frank: 9% to 6%, −3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 3 of 64, unchanged.
- Salesforge Agent Frank: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 5 → 6 of 64.
- Reply.io Jason: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 20 → 8 of 64.
- Instantly: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 8 → 20 of 64.
- Amplemarket Duo: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 9 → 22 of 64.
- AiSDR: 22% to 21%, −1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 2 of 64, unchanged.
- 11x: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 68 → 64 of 64.

## Record

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