AI
AI prospecting and human approval
An AI agent can find potential customers, research their businesses and draft a follow-up. Before letting it contact anyone, decide which actions need a salesperson’s approval.
Separate research from action
Describe the companies you want to reach, the signs that make them a good fit and the sources the agent may use. You can let it prepare a shortlist for review without giving it permission to send messages or change CRM records. Set those permissions separately.
Ask why a prospect is a good fit
The agent should explain why a prospect matches your criteria and link to the information it used. Your team needs to see what is supported by a source and what the agent has inferred, including anything missing or contradictory. A score alone does not explain the recommendation.
Review the message that will be sent
For a reviewed action, show the recipient, message and fields that will be shared. Approval of a general idea is not approval of every later message. Changed content, a different recipient or an expired approval should require a fresh decision.
Test behaviour before increasing access
Use a representative set of good matches, weak matches and misleading inputs. Check duplication, unsupported claims and stop conditions. Measure whether the research is useful to the sales team before adding autonomous outreach to the scope.
Agree the agent’s responsibilities
Start with one part of prospecting that your sales team can review. Write down what the agent does and where a person checks the result. For example:
| Step | Possible agent role | Review point |
|---|---|---|
| Find prospects | Match agreed company criteria and prepare candidates. | Check the source, fit and excluded accounts. |
| Qualify interest | Summarize relevant signals and missing information. | Check uncertain assumptions before changing qualification. |
| Prepare outreach | Draft a message using approved context. | Confirm the recipient, content and permission to send. |
| Record the result | Save the agreed outcome and next step. | Check ownership and prevent duplicate activity. |
What to test before expanding it
- A company that looks suitable but is already a customer.
- Two records describing the same prospect.
- Missing or contradictory information.
- A person asking to stop contact.
- A failed action that must not be repeated blindly.
Review the shortlist and draft messages with your sales team. Are the companies a good fit? Are the claims supported? Does the draft give the salesperson something useful to work with? Use those answers to decide what to improve before giving the agent more responsibility.
