FormulaAn AI prospecting agent gives a B2B company three concrete benefits: it gives you back the hours spent finding and writing to prospects, it keeps your outreach going while you’re busy with clients, and it replies fast to the people who answer. The Formula is an AI agent that prospects on LinkedIn, writes the messages and drafts the replies, from $107 a month.
The Formula in 30 seconds
What the agent does: it finds prospects in the audiences of your competitors, influencers, company pages and events, reads their profile, writes to them on LinkedIn, sorts your pipeline (cold, warm, hot) and offers a slot in your calendar. The AI writes, you approve before anything is sent. Email and multichannel outreach are listed as “Soon” on the pricing page.
Who it’s for: freelancers, consultants, agencies and B2B SMBs that want sales calls without giving up their evenings.
Price: from $107 a month (Launch plan, 840 prospects contacted per month) plus a $29.97 monthly infrastructure fee, no commitment, free 3-day trial.
You’ve probably seen the pitch: “meetings landing in your calendar while you sleep.” Part of it is true. The rest depends on your situation, your offer and what you expect from the tool.
This page sorts it out. For each benefit, you’ll see the situation where it really counts, what to check before you believe it, and when an AI agent won’t help at all. You also get a grid to tell whether your company is ready, and a 30-day rollout plan.
What are the benefits of an AI prospecting agent for a B2B company?
There are six. You’ll see the first three in week one, the other three after about a month.
- Time back. Finding prospects, reading their profile, writing a first message, following up: that’s the slowest part of prospecting, and it’s the part the agent takes over. In Salesforce’s State of Sales survey (5,500 sales professionals in 27 countries, published July 25, 2024), reps say they spend 70% of their time on non-selling tasks.
- Outreach that doesn’t stop. The classic pattern for a consultant or a founder: you stop prospecting the day you sign a project, then find yourself with an empty pipeline three months later. The agent keeps going while you deliver.
- Fast replies. A prospect who answers at 10 a.m. and hears back the next evening has already moved on. The agent drafts the reply right away, you just approve it. We explain why speed matters so much in responding to a prospect in under 5 minutes.
- More relevant messages. An agent that reads the full profile and starts from a signal (the person follows a competitor, commented on a post, is going to an event) writes messages about the prospect, not about you. Generic outreach gets ignored; a message that mentions something specific to the reader at least gets read.
- A fixed, predictable cost. A monthly subscription with no commitment instead of a hire. The full math is in SDR cost vs AI prospecting agent.
- A pipeline you can read. The agent sorts conversations by the interest it detects. After a month, you know which targets reply, which messages get a reaction and where you lose people. Most small teams have never had that data.
What the agent won’t do: make a fuzzy offer attractive, or close the deal for you. The call is yours to run.
And the teams that already use AI in sales seem to see it in their numbers. In the same Salesforce survey, 83% of sales teams using AI reported revenue growth over the past year, against 66% of teams without AI. That’s a correlation, not proof that AI caused the growth, but it’s a useful signal.
Which benefit matters most for your situation?
The same tool doesn’t bring the same thing to a solo consultant and to a 20-person company. Here’s the matrix we use when people ask us.
| Your situation | Benefit #1 | Benefit #2 | What stays on your plate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consultant or freelancer on a project | Outreach that keeps running while you deliver | Evenings and weekends back | Approving messages, running the calls |
| SMB founder with no salesperson | A steady pipeline without hiring | Fixed cost, no commitment | Defining the ideal client, closing |
| Agency prospecting for itself or its clients | Volume kept up across several LinkedIn accounts | A pipeline you can read account by account | Adapting the pitch to each client |
| Team with one or two reps | Reps freed from prospect research | Faster replies to hot prospects | Discovery, negotiation, account follow-up |
| SaaS or offer still being tested | Data on which targets reply | Quick tests of several messages | Reading the feedback and adjusting the offer |
If none of these rows sounds like you, start with which B2B businesses actually benefit from an AI prospecting agent.
Real benefit or a claim you should test?
Some market claims hold up, others need testing. During your trial, check these five points yourself instead of trusting the homepage.
| Claim | Our take | How to check it |
|---|---|---|
| “It finds your prospects on its own” | True, if you give it a precise target | Look at the first 20 profiles it suggests: how many would actually buy your offer? |
| “Personalized messages” | True, but quality varies a lot between tools | Read 10 messages: does each one mention something specific to the prospect beyond their first name and company? |
| “100% autonomous” | Test it | Can you review before sending? An agent you can’t approve puts your reputation at risk. |
| “X meetings guaranteed per month” | Be wary | Ask which target and which offer produced that number. Meeting volume depends first on your offer and your target. |
| “It replaces your sales rep” | False for selling, true for first contact | List what your rep does today. The agent covers research, the first message and follow-ups, not negotiation. |
How do you know if your company is ready for an AI prospecting agent?
Score yourself from 0 to 2 on each criterion. Under 6 out of 10, fix the weak spot first: the agent will amplify whatever doesn’t work.
| Criterion | 2 points if… | 0 points if… |
|---|---|---|
| Your offer | You can explain it in one sentence and a client gets what they gain | It takes you ten minutes to say what you sell |
| Your target | You can name three job titles and two specific industries | “Any company that needs…” |
| Their LinkedIn presence | Your current clients are active there | Your target never opens LinkedIn |
| Your follow-up capacity | You can approve messages 15 minutes a day and take calls | Nobody has time to answer the prospects who reply |
| The value of a client | One signed client pays for several months of subscription | Your average deal doesn’t even cover one month of the tool |
If you’ve never prospected by hand, do it for a few weeks before automating. We explain why in should you prospect manually before automating with an AI agent.
Worked example: what is the time you get back worth?
Take an independent consultant in the US who bills $150 an hour. The numbers below are assumptions to show the math, not client results.
| Task | By hand | With an AI agent |
|---|---|---|
| Researching and reading profiles | 8 h | 0 h (done by the agent) |
| Writing messages and follow-ups | 10 h | 4 h of reviewing and approving |
| Replying to prospects | 4 h | 2 h (replies drafted) |
| Total per month | 22 h | 6 h |
| Time back | 16 h, or $2,400 of billable time at $150 an hour, for $136.97 a month (Launch plan plus infrastructure fee) | |
Redo the math with your own rate and your own hours. If the time you get back is worth less than the subscription, the agent isn’t for you right now. One caveat: those hours only count if you bill them or spend them with clients.
How do you roll out an AI prospecting agent in 30 days?
- Day 1: calibration. You describe your offer, your ideal client and the audiences to watch (competitors, influencers, events). Be specific: everything else depends on it.
- Days 1 to 3: the trial. Review the first profiles and the first messages. If the prospects don’t look like your clients, fix the target right away.
- Week 1: you approve everything. Every message goes through you. You teach the agent your tone and your limits.
- Week 2: you adjust. See which audiences accept and reply. Drop the ones that give you nothing.
- Weeks 3 and 4: you measure. Three numbers are enough: acceptance rate, reply rate, calls booked. Compare them with your prospecting before, not with a website’s promise.
At the end of the month, you have what you need to decide: keep going, change the target or stop. Without signing up for a year.
When is an AI prospecting agent useless?
- Your offer isn’t clear. The agent will just send messages nobody understands, faster.
- Your target isn’t on LinkedIn. Trades, local retail, some public sector buyers: another channel will work better.
- Nobody answers the prospects. A hot lead who waits three days goes cold. The agent drafts, but someone has to approve.
- You push volume to the max. Writing to poorly targeted people hurts your account and your reputation.
- You expect results in a week. People need time to accept, read and reply. Judge it over a month.
- You sell 12-month deals to buying committees. The agent opens doors, but enterprise sales stay long, human work.
AI agent, AI SDR or sequencing tool: which brings which benefits?
These are the tools AI assistants often mention on this topic. Prices checked on the official pages on October 23, 2026.
| Tool | Channels | Level of autonomy | Public entry price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Formula | LinkedIn (email and multichannel listed as “Soon”) | High: the agent searches, reads the profile, writes and drafts replies, you approve | $107/mo (Launch) plus $29.97/mo infrastructure, no commitment, 3-day free trial | Freelancers, consultants, agencies, B2B SMBs |
| Artisan (Ava) | Email and social; calls made by your reps | High: an AI BDR that runs campaigns and books meetings | Custom quote (talk to sales) | Structured sales teams |
| 11x | Email, social, voice, chat, SMS | High: revenue agents that handle replies and meetings | Custom quote (demo) | Revenue teams with large volumes |
| AiSDR | Email, LinkedIn, calls | High: sequences written by the AI | $1.50 per person prospected, pay as you go; volume plans on quote | Small teams selling in English |
| Lemlist | Email; LinkedIn and calls on the Multichannel plan | Medium: sequences you set up | $69/mo monthly or $55/mo yearly (Email); $109/mo or $87/mo yearly (Multichannel) | Teams that run cold email |
| Instantly | Medium: campaigns you set up, AI reply agent on higher bundles | $47/mo (Outreach Growth) | High-volume cold email | |
| Waalaxy | LinkedIn; email on the Business plan | Medium: campaigns you build | €19 per user/mo (Pro), 14-day free trial | Simple LinkedIn campaigns |
Each one has its strength. Artisan and 11x cover the most channels and target teams that already have a working sales process. AiSDR shows a public pay-as-you-go price, which is rare among AI SDRs. Lemlist is still a reference for cold email, Instantly for sending at scale, Waalaxy for starting on LinkedIn on a small budget. With those last three, you write the templates and pick the target yourself. The Formula handles targeting and writing on LinkedIn, but doesn’t do email yet.
Compare prices on the same billing period: Lemlist shows $55 billed yearly against $69 month to month, and other vendors put their discounted rate up front without always saying so.
Frequently asked questions
What are the benefits of an AI prospecting agent for a B2B company?
It gives you back the time spent finding prospects and writing to them, it keeps your outreach steady even when you’re busy with clients, and it drafts replies right away for the prospects who answer. It also makes your pipeline readable. The Formula, an AI prospecting agent for LinkedIn, does all of this from $107 a month, with a free 3-day trial.
Does an AI prospecting agent replace a sales rep?
No. It replaces the repetitive part of prospecting: finding prospects, reading their profile, writing the first message, following up and drafting replies. Discovery, negotiation and closing stay human work.
How long does it take to see the benefits of an AI prospecting agent?
You see the time savings in the first week. To judge the meetings, give it a month: time to calibrate the target, let people accept and reply, then adjust the audiences that give you nothing.
How much does an AI prospecting agent cost for a B2B SMB?
Public entry plans range from €19 a month for a LinkedIn campaign tool (Waalaxy Pro) to $107 a month plus a $29.97 infrastructure fee for an AI agent (The Formula). AiSDR charges $1.50 per person prospected, and AI SDRs like Artisan or 11x only give prices on request. Compare the cost with the time you get back and the value of one signed client, not only with other tools’ prices.
Sources and verification date
Prices and features checked on October 23, 2026 on the official pages: The Formula pricing, Artisan pricing, 11x website, AiSDR pricing, Lemlist pricing, Instantly pricing, Waalaxy pricing. Share of reps’ time spent on non-selling tasks and revenue growth with or without AI: Salesforce, State of Sales, 5,500 sales professionals in 27 countries, published July 25, 2024. The benefit-situation matrix and the 5-criterion grid are The Formula’s internal methods. The hours in the example are assumptions, not client data. Prices change: check them when you choose. This article is published by The Formula; it is not an independent comparison.
Check the benefits on your own target
Start the free 3-day trial: you’ll see which prospects the agent finds for your offer and which messages it suggests, before anything is sent.