What AI Agents Actually Are (And What They Do for Revenue)
And What They Do for Revenue
Overview
Most leaders keep hearing 'AI agents' and have no idea what it actually means for their revenue operation. This is the plain language guide. Inside: what agents are (and aren't), the four agents every revenue team needs, how they chain together to go from signal to pipeline in 36 hours, a five-level maturity roadmap, what it costs, what it returns, and how to start with one team in eight weeks.
Key Takeaways
- 1An AI feature waits for you to do something. An agent operates toward a goal across multiple steps without you managing each one.
- 2Every revenue operation needs four agents: Signal (detects changes), Research (builds the picture), Execution (handles touches), and Insights (makes the system smarter).
- 3These four agents chain together to go from signal to pipeline in 36 hours, with only 12 minutes of total human involvement.
- 4A five-level maturity roadmap: from Suggest & Confirm to Agent-First Revenue. Most organizations are between Level 1 and Level 2 today.
- 5The fully loaded cost of a four-agent revenue stack equals roughly one mid-level SDR's compensation. The output is comparable to five to ten SDRs.
- 6Start with one team, one workflow. Eight weeks from pilot to proof. The results from the first team justify the expansion to the second.
What's Inside
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