Introduction
The cold calling of business prospects has traditionally been a hit-and-miss affair – typically, with many more misses than hits. Conventional wisdom holds that around six out of every ten cold call attempts ends in rejection.
However, advances in data analytics and the growth of Artificial Intelligence have been improving the success rate of what was once a largely random business practice. A recent report by McKinsey indicates that sales professionals who have adopted AI have seen an increase in leads and appointments of around 50%,
This kind of success level has brought about a surge of interest in AI cold callers, and significant growth in this particular niche market – especially in the Business to Business or B2B sales sector. A recent report by Gartner Inc., reveals that by 2025, an estimated 75% of B2B companies will incorporate artificial intelligence to augment their traditional cold calling strategies.
In this article, we’ll be looking at some of the leading providers of the services and technologies required for implementing AI cold calls. We begin by defining terms and basic principles involved in AI cold calling.
What are AI Cold Callers?
AI cold callers are software systems and services that use Artificial Intelligence technology to automate and enhance the traditional cold calling method, which involves having sales agents make calls to a large number of prospects, without knowing whether they have any interest or intention to purchase a product or service.
AI cold callers use data analytics and machine learning algorithms to identify potential leads, and initiate conversations with prospects. AI cold calling software can collect customer data, verify users, prioritize leads, arrange calls, and perform other tasks. Generative AI cold calling tools can engage in preliminary conversations with the customer, gathering context and information specific to their case, before transferring them to a human agent.
Based on criteria such as demographics, past interactions with a brand, and online behavior, AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data to identify potential leads. Using customer and transactional data, AI algorithms can generate personalized scripts and suggest relevant talking points for each prospect. From the analysis of historical data and customer behavior, AI algorithms can even predict future buying patterns and help sales teams to make more accurate forecasts.
The Business Benefits of AI Cold Callers
Integrating AI technology into cold calling campaigns provides several benefits for businesses. They include the following:
Improved Lead Qualification
The smart algorithms underlying AI cold callers enable business marketers to assess leads based on ideal customer profiles. Using advanced data analytics and intent scoring, businesses can identify and nurture those prospects who are most likely to convert.
More Personalized Interactions
AI-powered systems can analyze customer data and extract insights from demographics, buying patterns, and behavior that empower sales agents to tailor their approach to each prospect. This results in greater personalization for each interaction, improved customer engagement, and increased opportunities for initial sales, cross-selling, and up-selling.
Efficiency and Productivity Gains
AI-based technologies can automate repetitive tasks and streamline the sales process. This frees sales teams for higher value activities such as client nurturing, consolidating relationships with consumers, and closing deals.
Automating tasks along the sales pipeline enables organizations to use chatbots and conversational technology to initiate calls, present offers, gather lead details, and transfer calls to human agents if prospects show interest. In addition, with an omnichannel communications platform like IDT Omnichannel Messaging, businesses can augment their AI cold calling strategies by engaging consumers through live chat, email, and social media.
Data and Insights
AI cold callers and their associated analytics technology can provide valuable insights into the customer journey, sentiment analysis, and the performance of the organization’s own sales employees. For real-time customer interactions, AI algorithms can suggest relevant talking points to the agent, objection-handling techniques, and product information that speaks directly to the current discussion. Businesses can also use AI gathered information to identify promising leads, target prospects more effectively, and to optimize their sales and marketing strategies.
AI Cold Callers: Leading Services and Technology Platforms
We now review some of the leading services and technology platforms offering AI cold callers to business users. They include:
1. Glencoco
Glencoco is an AI technology platform and cold calling service provider that matches businesses with a retinue of human agents. These agents perform cold calling on behalf of the client business, based on data analytics and AI-generated or assisted scripts.
Who It’s For:
Glencoco is targeted at businesses that provide B2B services or products. Users must have a current annualized revenue of over $500,000. In addition, someone in the client organization needs to know how to calculate the current CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) of the business.
Features:
Glencoco’s sales agents are human contractors who are assisted by AI workflow and AI Email agents. Agents act as cold callers and fractional Sales Development Representatives (SDRs). Clients can choose which agents they want to work on a particular campaign.
Prospective agents can sign up to be an SDR who can train and qualify to call for multiple campaigns. On completion of training, and having passed the qualification assessment for each training module, agents will be given access to Glencoco’s AI power-dialer and enriched campaign leads lists, to start dialing for the campaign that they have qualified for.
Agents receive their agreed commission the instant a meeting is marked qualified by Account Executives (AEs) of the client business – irrespective of whether the meeting results in a deal or not. Glencoco offers additional performance-based incentives to its callers, such as a weekly leaderboard and bonuses for the first qualified meeting set for a new campaign.
To begin setting up a campaign, the client business must create an account on the Glencoco website. According to Glencoco, “Setup usually takes 1-2 hours and includes uploading a campaign training module, finalizing price and qualification criteria, connecting calendar availability and routing, and linking an email account for branded sends.”
Companies can specify a bounty that they are willing to pay for each qualified meeting, as well as tiered bounties for varying degrees of meeting outcomes.
From a technology perspective, Glencoco’s CRM Lead View feature provides detailed prospect information, and the ability to add and save leads from campaigns into a call backlog. This information management feature empowers SDRs to personalize their approach to each prospect.
The Automated Dialer feature supports power dialing and targeted dialing for select leads. Glencoco also provides integration with Calendly for scheduling and the tracking of meetings.
For Glencoco agents, the platform offers AI-enabled training modules, which are designed to rapidly adapt to the changing sales landscape. This provides a continuous learning environment that enables SDRs to master the art of qualifying prospects.
Pricing:
Glencoco’s pricing page currently offers the following tiers:
Pros:
- Glencoco serves as a marketplace for fractional sales development representatives and companies.
- Approved Glencoco agents can earn between $3,000 to $4,000 a month from one to two hours a day of calls.
- The platform makes it easy for businesses to scale up demand generation.
- Companies can choose to manually approve every SDR that calls for their campaign.
Cons:
- The Glencoco AI cold calling service is exclusively B2B. The platform does not cater for Business to Consumer (B2C) enterprises, at all.
- The income entry level for businesses that Glencoco will accept as clients may exclude many smaller to medium-sized enterprises.
- Some users have reported technical issues and errors with Glencoco’s mini dialer. The company says that these are currently being addressed through a major dialer update.
2. Bland
Bland is an AI technology platform that enables businesses to build stable, very low latency AI phone agents, which they can then integrate into every part of their tech stack. This lets users combine data from their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and other systems to create personalized and interactive AI communications.
Who It’s For:
Bland AI is targeted at businesses of all sizes and types. Bland AI phone agents are designed to handle a company’s call volume for customer support, sales, or appointment setting,
Features:
Bland AI features its own programming language called Conversational Pathways. If you aren’t a developer, you can integrate Bland using Zapier or Make.
Non-technical users can create a Bland AI account on their website and purchase a phone number, before proceeding to build a Phone Agent. You can purchase a phone number with a US area code for around $15 per month.
Phone Agents come in a variety of models. The Base Model supports all features and capabilities of the Bland platform, and is the best for using Custom Tools. Enhanced Model agents offer quicker latency, and work best with objective-based prompts. The Turbo Model has the fastest latency and the most realistic conversation capabilities. However, it cannot perform call Transferring, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) navigation, or use Custom Tools.
You can configure Bland AI phone agents to answer inbound phone calls, and make or receive thousands of phone calls at once. Bland offers a voice cloning functionality to create voices for any language. If your enterprise needs to scale its phone capacity further, Bland will provide dedicated infrastructure.
The platform provides call campaign statistics, for detailed insights into how your calls are doing, and to use in iteratively improving phone agents.
Pricing:
Bland costs $0.09/minute, only for connected calls, billed to the exact second. Volume discounts and enterprise solutions are available, on request.
Pros:
- You can train Bland AI phone agents on your existing data, and use custom tools.
- Bland features foreign language support with its voice cloning functionality, and network coverage outside the US, including in Australia, the United Kingdom, India, and many others.
- Bland AI phone agents can handle an enormous volume of simultaneous calls. The company claims an upper limit of 1,000,000.
Cons:
- Phone numbers available directly from Bland tend to be more expensive than from other sources.
- Users may need to keep call lengths down, as making phone calls with Bland AI costs credits.
3. Jinni AI
Jinni AI is an AI-generated content creation platform that produces material for business marketing. This ranges from conventional content like blog posts and emails, to more targeted material such as scripts for cold calling and customer support.
Who It’s For:
Jinni AI provides options for businesses of all types and sizes.
Features:
Jinni AI provides prompt-based AI content generation for various purposes, including blogs, articles, websites, social media, code, and images. The platform offers Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for added security of user accounts and content.
Users can generate paragraphs about any topic including a keyword, and in a specific tone of voice. Jinni AI can export text results in PDF and Word formats, making it easy to share or integrate generated content into existing workflows.
Jinni AI image generators offer a range of art styles and moods – and for business marketers there’s a selection of specialist tools such as a Product Name Generator, and Product Description generator.
The platform now offers an app called the AI Appointment Setter, which can help schedule meetings or calls by coordinating with a potential client and a sales rep, after initial conversations or at any given prompt. The app can engage in initial conversations with leads to determine if they meet certain criteria, before passing them on to human sales representatives.
Pricing:
Jinni AI For Free offers 5000 words/month, three images/month, and 5000 words/month for voiceover capabilities.
Jinni Starter costs $7/month, and includes 25 AI images/month, 50000 words/month of text generation with character-inclusive AI voiceover, and 120 minutes/month of AI speech-to-text.
Jinni Pro costs $10/month, and offers 100 AI images/month, along with 200,000 words/month of text generation with character-inclusive AI voiceover, and 500 minutes/month of AI speech-to-text.
The Jinni Elite package costs $30/month, with 500 AI images/month, 500,000 words/month text generation character-inclusive AI voiceover, and 1440 minutes/month of AI speech-to-text.
Pros:
- Jinni AI offers a wide variety of content generation options.
- Users can choose from a range of pricing tiers, to suit their budget.
Cons:
- The primary focus of Jinni AI is on marketing content creation. It does not act as a standalone AI cold calling tool.
4. Air
Air AI is a conversational AI platform capable of managing full-length phone conversations, with algorithms that learn and adapt with each encounter. This enables businesses to use Air to provide comprehensive outreach and support across various channels.
Who It’s For:
Air AI is targeted at businesses of all sizes, which are looking to automate the job of interacting with customers.
Features:
Air AI has the capacity to handle five to 40 minute long phone calls, with agents taking autonomous actions across 5,000 plus applications. Air AI also boasts a 95% accuracy rate and can handle over 50 languages.
Using algorithms, the platform learns from every interaction, improving its ability to understand and respond. Air AI uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Natural Language Understanding (NLU), and can comprehend and respond to call recipients who use slang terms or technical jargon. Air AI also offers advanced capabilities such as lead qualification and appointment scheduling.
Air AI integrates with various channels, including business websites, social media platforms, and messaging apps. The platform provides data analytics and insight across key business metrics.
Pricing:
Air AI offers a free account, for small-scale enterprises, and businesses looking to familiarize themselves with the service. There are several pricing plans, based on the number of minutes used per month. Full pricing and details are available at the Air AI signup page.
Pros:
- Business users can upload transcripts of their previous calls and knowledge base materials, to assist in setting up an agent.
- Air AI supports long sales calls, which can increase the chances of converting prospects into paying customers.
- Air AI is optimized for international business, with support for over 50 languages.
Cons:
- Air AI typically takes several days to set up, and the platform features a steep learning curve.
- Air AI agents exhibit limited emotional intelligence.
- Air AI’s pricing structure is opaque. Users must first sign up before receiving price details.
5. AI Calls
AI Calls is an AI technology platform that provides a selection of voice agents for business. These automated agents can provide businesses with options for product and service promotion, lead validation, appointment setting, customer service, and related functions for inbound or outbound campaigns.
Who It’s For:
AI Calls is targeted at business users without coding skills, who are looking for AI automated call agents and customer support agents.
Features:
AI Calls facilitates inbound or outbound campaigns with agents using complex query handling capabilities. Agents can take questions from voice, documents, or a custom link. Businesses can also configure AI Calls agents for personalized voicemail drops.
Background noise removal ensures clearer communication, and sales teams can configure AI agents to call specific leads at specific times. Advanced workflows are available to schedule a demo or transfer a call. No coding is required.
Pricing:
Full pricing details are available on consultation, when you schedule a demo with AI Calls. The company offers exclusive access to special discounted rates for users who join the Early Bird calling list.
Pros:
- No coding or technical skills are required to set up an AI Calls agent.
- AI Calls agents feature complex query handling, and the ability to set up advanced workflows.
- Background noise removal promotes clearer conversations.
Cons:
- The AI Calls pricing structure is not transparent. Users must schedule a demo with AI Calls before they can determine whether the platform suits their budget.
6. Five9
Five9 is a cloud-based call center platform that enables businesses to manage their inbound and outbound communications via phone, email, chat, short message service (SMS), social media, and Instant Messaging. Five9 uses AI technology to automate many aspects of communications routing and customer support.
Who It’s For:
Five9 is designed for businesses seeking a one-stop digital call center solution with omnichannel options.
Features:
The Five9 platform offers inbound and outbound calls, call recording, and 24/7 support, with a dashboard for managing all customer communication. Intelligent call routing provides sales agents with the information they need about a customer before they start a conversation.
Five9 integrates with common business applications such as Salesforce, Zendesk, and Microsoft Teams. The platform also offers add-ons to help improve customer service. For example, Agent Assist provides real-time transcription, guidance, and reminders to agents while on a call.
Pricing:
Although a free demo of the service is available on request, Five9 offers the following subscription tiers:
Digital: $149 per month
Core: $149 per month
Premium: $169 per month
Optimum: $199 per month
Ultimate: $229 per month
These are only baseline figures. A more accurate quote will require a consultation.
Pros:
- Five9 facilitates inbound and outbound calling, with predictive dialing, real-time call transcriptions, and historical reports for agents.
- There are integrations with many popular business applications.
- The platform provides some useful add-ons, plus workforce and performance management tools.
Cons:
- Some users report that the user interface is hard to navigate.
- While a range of prices is advertised, consultation is required to establish case by case costs.
7. Curious Thing
Curious Thing is a conversational AI platform that provides a selection of AI-powered voice agents for business communication. For inbound and outbound communications management, these agents can answer calls, handle queries and FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), or conduct outbound calls for follow-up and payment reminders.
Who It’s For:
Curious Thing is targeted at businesses of all types and sizes.
Features:
Agent Lucy answers calls and takes messages 24/7. This free resource can also help callers book appointments, share business website details, answer Frequently Asked Questions, and flag robocalls. Upgrading to Lucy Professional or Lucy Business Plan unlocks more capabilities and customization.
With a deployment time of 48 hours or less, agent Alex combines Curious Thing’s voice AI technology and ChatGPT to provide answers to queries and FAQs from external customers and internal employees. Setup requires access to your knowledge base, FAQ articles, or the contents of your business website.
Initially designed for FinTech companies, but applicable to customer-facing businesses of all kinds, Lou and Sam are specialized AI agents built for information follow-up and payment reminders. Integration with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems enables users to trigger pre-defined events or customer interactions.
Pricing:
Curious Thing’s Lucy agent is free, and is targeted at single entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Agent Alex is intended for sales teams of 10-50 people. Pricing information is only available once you request a demo.
The Lou and Sam follow-up agents are designed for medium sized businesses. Again, you need to request a demo for pricing.
Custom agents for medium to large sized businesses are available by negotiation.
Pros:
- Very easy to set up, with no technical knowledge required.
- Curious Thing agents eliminate the need for personal voicemail or call answering services.
- Users commend Curious Thing for its outstanding and quick customer support.
Cons:
- Users who have yet to fully embrace AI may have reservations about completely surrendering communications management to a virtual agent.
- Though relatively short, the 48-hour setup period may preclude certain time-critical campaigns.
Next Steps
Whichever AI cold calling option you choose, you’ll achieve better marketing results by combining the solution with a comprehensive omnichannel communications platform.
IDT Express Omnichannel Messaging ensures seamless messaging across diverse channels, to help ensure that important dates, appointments, deliveries, and renewals are never missed. Using IDT Express Omnichannel Messaging’s marketing tools, you can boost engagement with special offers, loyalty promotions, and discounts to drive business growth.
With the IDT Express Omnichannel Messaging SMS API (Application Programming Interface), you can seamlessly integrate with your CRM and other business systems. IDT Express Omnichannel Messaging also provides detailed analytics and reporting tools – and you can set up automatic failover to ensure uninterrupted communication with your customers.
To find out more about how IDT Express Omnichannel Messaging can enhance your AI cold calling efforts, and to set up a trial account, visit our website.
| Platform | Target Audience | Key Features | Pros | Cons | Pricing |
| Glencoco | B2B companies with $500K+ revenue | AI workflowPower dialerCalendly integrationCRM Lead ViewPerformance-based incentives | Easy scalability Personalized agent selection Commission paid instantly | Limited to B2B Excludes smaller enterprises Reported technical issues | Custom pricing based on campaign; setup takes 1–2 hours |
| Bland | All businesses | Build low-latency AI phone agentsMultilingual voice cloningHandle 1M+ calls simultaneouslyCall statisticsConversational Pathways | Handles high call volume Foreign language support Custom tool integration | Expensive phone numbers Call length impacts costs | $0.09/min for connected calls, volume discounts available |
| Jinni AI | All businesses | Content generation (blogs, cold call scripts)AI appointment setterExport optionsImage generationMultiple pricing tiers | Wide variety of use cases Affordable tiered pricing | Primarily focused on marketing content creationNot a standalone AI cold-calling solution | Starts at $0 (free) to $30/month depending on features |
| Air AI | All businesses | 5-40 minute conversationsLearns from interactions95% accuracy50+ languagesAppointment scheduling | Long sales call support Multilingual capabilityLearns from every interaction | Steep learning curveOpaque pricing | Free plan available, then pricing based on minutes used |
| AI Calls | Non-technical users | Advanced query handlingVoicemail dropsNoise removalInbound/outbound campaignsNo coding required | Complex query handling Background noise removal | Pricing not transparent Requires demo for more details | Custom pricing – demo required |
| Five9 | Businesses needing omnichannel CRM | Omnichannel (voice, chat, SMS, email)Call recordingReal-time agent assistWorkforce managementSalesforce integration | Predictive dialingStrong CRM integrationsWorkforce management tools | User interface can be hard to navigateConsultation needed for custom pricing | Starts at $149/month for basic plans |
| Curious Thing | All businesses | Free agents for call handlingQuery answeringFAQ supportPayment remindersKnowledge-based custom agents | Simple setup 24/7 call answering Strong customer support | 48-hour setup may not suit urgent campaigns | Free for basic version, custom pricing for advanced |
