Rating certificate · AW/26-09/40626 Sept 2026
Not enough evidence
Artisan (Ava AI BDR)
Artisan AI · Business & sales agents
The Register / Business & sales agents / Artisan (Ava AI BDR)
Register entry · Business & sales agents · updated 26 Sept 2026
Artisan (Ava AI BDR)
Artisan sells 'AI employees' for go-to-market teams; its main product, Ava, runs outbound prospecting end to end, from lead discovery in a B2B contact database through personalised email sequences, reply handling and meeting booking. The platform bundles data, enrichment, deliverability, sequencing, a dialer and intent signals, with human-in-the-loop controls such as approvals and escalation rules. Plans are scoped by lead volume and sold through sales.
What reviewers and users praise
- Consolidates data, sequencing and meeting booking in one platform (RivoAxis review)
- CRM integration depth and account-based workflows (AIToolsBakery review)
What they criticise
- Marketing overstated autonomy; Ava augments rather than replaces BDRs (AIToolsBakery review)
- No public prices; all plans are 'talk to sales' (pricing page)
- 'Stop Hiring Humans' billboard campaign drew criticism; the slogan was retired in August 2026 (Artisan blog; HN discussion)
Experts vs the crowdneeds both scores
Experts—
Crowd—
| Price | Custom |
|---|---|
| Use it via | Web app |
| Runs on | web |
| Licence | proprietary |
| Updated | Evidence collected 26 Sept 2026 |
How the rating was worked out
Weights for Business & sales agents: adoption 25%, experts 40%, crowd 35%. Fewer than two pillars have enough evidence. The method.
| Adoption & momentumweight 25% | — | No public reach signal found |
|---|---|---|
| Expertsindependent reviews · weight 40% | — | Only 1 independent review (3 needed) |
| Crowdcommunity sample · weight 35% | — | Only 0 community items sampled (6 needed) |
| Rating | — | Not rated: fewer than two pillars have enough evidence. |
Evidence checks. 1 review from tool directories, AI-written pages or unnamed authors not counted. How evidence is checked.
Trust & safety
Seven dimensions graded A–D from documented facts. Overall: not enough data.
B
Permission model
Vendor describes human-in-the-loop controls for Ava (approvals, tone and CTA locks, escalation rules); no sandbox concept applies. Detail is from a vendor summary page, not full docs. source
n/e
Data access scope
Connects to CRM, mailboxes and calendars; no access-scope documentation found.
n/e
Data storage
Hosted SaaS; no documentation of region or deletion controls found. source
n/e
Data retention & training
No public statement found on training on customer data or retention periods. source
n/e
Incident history (24 months)
Not established (web-search budget exhausted before an incident search).
C
Compliance
Enterprise page claims SOC 2 Type II; no public trust center or report access found to substantiate it. source
C
Transparency
Closed source; no public product docs or changelog found. source
The experts
1 named independent reviews found; dated reviews from the last 12 months are scored.
- positive
Artisan represents a broader shift...the move from tools that assist humans to AI agents that replace repetitive workflows entirely.
RivoAxis (Arbaaz Khan) · 9 Apr 2026 · rivoaxis.com
The crowd
0 coded posts.
Pricing
As published, checked 26 Sept 2026.
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Team | Custom | ~2,500 leads contacted per month; 'Pricing scoped on your plan'; talk to sales. Credit-based. |
| Scale | Custom | ~6,000 leads contacted per month; adds dedicated CSM, CRM setup, priority support; talk to sales. |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom volume, SOC 2 Type II, SSO/SAML, audit logs. |
Recent changes
- 1 Aug 2026
Retired the 'Stop Hiring Humans' slogan in August 2026 (exact day not stated) source
Ranked alongside
Other ranked entries in Business & sales agents.
Sources
Every figure above traces to one of these, observed up to 26 Sept 2026.