Artisan

Artisan is an AI employee platform that gives sales teams an autonomous business development rep named Ava to run outbound prospecting. Ava finds leads, enriches them, writes and sends personalized emails, handles replies and books meetings, so a small team can run outbound at a volume that would normally require several SDRs. What sets Artisan apart is the bundling: the contact data, deliverability tooling, sequencing and dialer all live inside the same product instead of being stitched together from separate subscriptions.

What is Artisan used for?

Most teams use Artisan to generate top-of-funnel pipeline from cold outbound without building a full SDR function. Ava works through the outbound process step by step and hands warm conversations to humans.

• Sourcing prospects from a database of more than 250 million B2B contacts filtered by title, industry, location and company traits
• Enriching leads with verified emails, direct dials and firmographic data
• Writing personalized email campaigns and sending them from your domains in your reps' names
• Reading and answering replies, then converting positive responses into booked meetings
• Running reactivation campaigns on stale, lost or closed-lost opportunities in the CRM
• Prioritizing accounts that show buying intent signals

Who Artisan is best for

Artisan suits startups and mid-sized B2B companies that sell to clearly defined business buyers and want outbound running quickly without assembling a separate data vendor, warmup tool and sequencer. Sales leaders who want an AI rep they can supervise rather than a tool reps must operate will like the model. Companies that rely mostly on inbound demand, or that sell to consumers, should look elsewhere.

Artisan pricing

As of October 2026, Artisan does not publish prices on its pricing page. The company describes its pricing as credit-based, with tiers for startups through enterprise that are scoped to lead volume, number of mailboxes and dialer seats. Enterprise plans add SSO with SAML and audit logs. There is no self-serve free plan, so the path to a price is to request a demo and get a quote for your expected volume.

Limitations to keep in mind

• Without public pricing, it is hard to compare total cost with self-serve tools before talking to sales
• AI-written cold email still needs a sharp offer and good targeting to earn replies
• Sending volume from new domains must ramp up slowly, which delays results in the first weeks
• The product centers on outbound email, so inbound chat and phone coverage is thinner than some rivals

Artisan vs alternatives

Apollo.io is the better choice when you mainly need a large contact database and want your own reps to write and send sequences at a lower, published price. Instantly suits teams that already have lead lists and care most about cheap, high-volume sending across many mailboxes. Reply.io sits in between, with its own AI agent plus a traditional sequencing interface. Artisan wins when you want one vendor to provide the data, write the messages, run deliverability and manage replies with an AI rep doing the daily work.

Tips for getting started with Artisan

Feed Ava real examples of your best performing emails and your most common objections during setup, since these shape her tone. Turn on approval mode for the first few weeks and edit drafts rather than rewriting them, so the agent learns your preferences. Start with one narrow segment and a single call to action, then add personas once reply rates are steady.

Artisan FAQ

Is Artisan free?

No. Artisan has no free plan as of October 2026, and its credit-based plans are quoted by sales based on lead volume, mailboxes and dialer seats.

What is Ava from Artisan?

Ava is Artisan's AI business development rep, an agent that finds and enriches leads, writes and sends outbound emails, handles replies and books meetings.

Does Artisan include its own lead database?

Yes. Artisan includes a B2B database of more than 250 million contacts with verified emails, direct dials, firmographics and intent signals.

Artisan vs Apollo.io: which is better?

Apollo.io is better if you want affordable data and sequencing that your reps run themselves, while Artisan is better if you want an AI rep to do the outbound work for you.