About 15-years ago, I made over 250 calls on one day to get a hold of someone in IT, who could get me to the Economic Buyer of a deal (Sumit Johar), because I learned that they might potentially be signing a deal with a competitor. Today, we're long time friends, but our relationship developed from the deeply human interaction that led him to buying our software.
With that said, I want to talk about that AI BDR Hype Train... you on it?
Let's cut through the AI fever dream for a minute. Every week I see another LinkedIn post about how AI is going to completely replace BDRs. "Just feed it your ICP and watch the meetings roll in!" Right... because that's exactly how complex B2B sales work.
Here are my thoughts on why the "fully automated AI BDR" concept is fundamentally flawed:
B2B tech buying isn't a linear, predictable process. It's messy, political, and deeply human. AI can craft a decent email, but it can't read between the lines when a prospect says "now's not a good time" (which could mean anything from "I'm swamped" to "I hate my boss and am quitting next week").
Most AI outreach today sounds like it was written by... well, AI. I used a handful of tools that have introduced AI in it... and the first AI generated line is "I noticed you are a CRO at Company X, so hitting your revenue goals is probably top of your priority list.." NO SHIT!
Prospects can smell the automation from a mile away. They're getting bombarded with cookie-cutter AI messages that all sound vaguely similar and vaguely inhuman. It's making it harder for the human approach.
And don't get me started on the "AI can handle objections!" crowd. Sure, it can pattern match responses, but it can't pick up on subtle signals, build genuine rapport, or understand the complex organizational dynamics at play.
But here's where it gets interesting - AI isn't useless and I'm massively PRO-AI. It's just being positioned wrong in the B2B Enterprise Tech Sales setting. Instead of trying to replace BDRs entirely, we should be using AI to make them exponentially more effective.
The winning formula? Bring in inexpensive and experienced offshore BDR talent (who understand human dynamics and have experience with the gig) with AI tools that supercharge their capabilities. Let AI handle the grunt work - research, initial data gathering, initial email drafting, meeting scheduling. Let humans handle the nuanced interactions that actually move deals forward.
Will this change eventually? Maybe. When AI can truly understand human context, emotion, and organizational dynamics, we can revisit the full automation discussion. But for now....
The future isn't AI replacing BDRs. It's AI plus skilled offshore talent creating a cost-effective, highly scalable engine that maintains the human element while dramatically increasing productivity. I have CROs show me SFDC screenshots of how their offshore BDRs are performing at 30% higher than in-house resources when coupled with AI tech.
