# Do AI SDRs actually work?

On the evidence, mostly not yet. Autonomous outbound is where the market spent its marketing budget and where measured production usage is lowest — about 3% of a 40+ company panel. Where outbound AI does work, it drafts for a human rather than sending on its own.

One company in the panel bought an AI SDR, ran it, and switched it off; its records survive only as polluted lead-source values a team is now cleaning up. That cleanup cost is the part rarely priced into the evaluation. Treat autonomous send as the experiment and human-in-the-loop drafting as the default.

## Sources

- **Measurement** — [AI Workflows study — The AI SDR didn't land](https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/research/ai-workflows-study/)
- **Method** — [Automated Outbound playbook](https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/playbooks/automated-outbound-playbook/)

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Cluster: Ai_gtm · https://www.leanscale.team/knowledge/answers/do-ai-sdrs-work/