By KYN AI Advisory Team — AI implementation specialists, Singapore
11x and Artisan sell packaged AI sales development agents that research leads, write outreach and book meetings. A custom SDR agent does the same jobs with your rules, in a cloud account in your name. The packaged route is faster to start. The custom route gives more control over what is sent, what is stored and what you keep if you leave. The choice turns on four points: market coverage, review, data ownership and volume.
What is an AI SDR?
An SDR, or sales development representative, finds prospects and starts conversations until a salesperson takes over. An AI SDR automates the repeatable parts: researching an account, drafting a first message, sending a sequence, sorting replies and booking a call.
Both vendors describe their products on their own sites, and features change. We do not rank them. This article gives you a way to compare any three options on the same terms.
How do the three options compare?
| Dimension | 11x | Artisan | Custom SDR agent | |---|---|---|---| | Delivery | Hosted product | Hosted product | Built for you, runs in your cloud account | | Lead data | Vendor's sources | Vendor's sources | Sources you choose, plus your own records | | Qualification rules | Configured in product | Configured in product | Written as code and configuration | | Approval before sending | Check the settings | Check the settings | A rule: new contacts wait for a named person | | Where the record lives | Vendor | Vendor | Your database | | Cost shape | Subscription | Subscription | Build fee, then monthly retainer | | Time to first use | Short | Short | Weeks to a few months |
Where a cell says "check the settings", we mean it. Ask the vendor for a demo of that exact control, using your own account.
What does a custom SDR agent need to do?
A useful SDR agent covers six steps. Each one should be checkable.
- Select. Apply your qualification rules to a list. Record why each account passed or failed.
- Research. Read approved public sources and write one fact about the account, with the source.
- Draft. Write a first line from that fact and your offer, in the right language.
- Review. Place the draft in a queue. A named person approves, edits or rejects.
- Sort. Read each reply and label it. Stop the sequence on any unsubscribe in every channel.
- Log. Write the result to the CRM with the actor and the time.
The fact in step 2 matters most. A first line that cites a checkable fact lets a reviewer approve in seconds, and stops the agent from inventing a detail about a company. Our guide on how marketing agents hallucinate competitor positioning covers the same failure in another setting.
Which risks differ?
Sender reputation. A hosted agent that sends at scale can harm your domain. Ask who owns the sending domain and what the daily cap per inbox is. Google's email sender guidelines set spam-rate and authentication requirements that apply to any sender, and a high-volume agent reaches them faster than a person does.
Consent and local rules. The recipient's country decides. In Singapore, the Spam Control Act 2007 and the PDPC's Do Not Call Registry guidance apply to what you send there. Other markets have their own rules.
Prompt injection. Replies and web pages can carry instructions aimed at the agent. A packaged product handles this in ways you cannot inspect. In a custom system you can test it. See prompt injection in business AI agents.
Lock-in. If your leads, messages and reply labels live only in the vendor's product, leaving means losing the history. Ask what an export contains.
When does each option make sense?
- Choose a packaged product when you want to test outbound quickly, your market is well covered, and a person can review its output. Treat the first quarter as an experiment, and export your data regularly.
- Choose a custom agent when your qualification rules are specific, you sell across several countries and languages, or compliance requires approval and audit you can show.
- Choose neither yet if your offer and target list are not clear. An agent speeds up whatever process you give it, including a weak one.
What should you measure in a pilot?
Run any option for four weeks on the same list of 200 accounts and compare:
- accounts with a named, correct decision maker;
- first messages a reviewer rejected, and why;
- replies labelled correctly, checked against a person's labels on 100 replies;
- meetings booked and how many reached a real conversation;
- cost per booked meeting, including review time.
Cost per booked meeting is the number that decides. A cheap draft that needs heavy editing costs more than a good draft that needs a glance. Our note on the hidden cost of buying AI tools your business doesn't need covers the same trap.
What does the contract need to say?
Whichever route you take, get five terms in writing. First, who owns the sending domain and the inboxes. Second, what happens to your leads, messages and reply labels if you cancel, and in what format you can export them. Third, which model providers see your data and under what terms. Fourth, the daily send cap and who can raise it. Fifth, who is liable if a message breaches a local rule. For a packaged product, expect standard terms and negotiate the export clause. For a custom build, expect to negotiate all five, and use the opportunity. See our note on who owns the data and prompts in a custom agent project.
After the pilot, write a one-page decision note: what you tested, what you measured, what you decided and what would change your mind. Keep it with the contract. When the system is reviewed at month six, this note shows whether the original reasons still hold, and it gives a new colleague the context without a meeting.
Where KYN fits
KYN builds custom SDR agents as part of a larger sales system. For an insurance brokerage we built outreach with one checkable first line, at about S$0.02 per email, and a reply desk that sorts each reply at about S$0.01. Agents have their own restricted accounts. Outbound messages, money, filings and deletions wait for a named person.
The first 14 days are a review of your stack and interviews with your team. A full build ships in under 90 days, with a one-off build fee and a monthly retainer of at least twelve months, quoted after the review. See sales systems and pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Is 11x or Artisan better for a small team?
We do not rank them, and the answer depends on your market. Test both on the same 200 accounts and compare cost per booked meeting, including review time.
How much does a custom SDR agent cost?
It is a one-off build fee plus a monthly retainer, quoted after a review of your stack. Running costs for narrow tasks are small. Our live outreach runs at about S$0.02 per email.
Can a custom SDR agent send messages without approval?
It can be built that way, but we do not recommend it for new contacts. Messages that carry your name should wait for a named person until you have measured the agent's error rate.
Checked 30 October 2026.
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