Mid‑market B2B teams are racing to capture and qualify inbound demand without adding headcount or complexity. The question isn’t “Should we use an AI SDR?”—it’s whether to build one in‑house or buy a platform that delivers results now, scales with you, and keeps your data safe.
This guide offers a crisp evaluation framework, when to build vs. buy, and how Aimdoc maps to the inbound SDR workflow—so you can move confidently.
What is an Inbound AI SDR?
An inbound AI SDR is an always‑on agent that greets visitors, educates them, qualifies interest, and books meetings—handing qualified conversations to your sales team in real time. The best systems plug into your CRM and workflows, provide deep analytics, and keep improving automatically as your content and traffic evolve.
Why this question now
- Foundation models are powerful and accessible, but shipping and maintaining production‑grade agents still takes real engineering.
- Speed‑to‑lead is a revenue lever. Every minute matters on high‑intent traffic.
- Governance expectations have risen—security, auditability, and brand control are table stakes for mid‑market B2B.
The evaluation framework
Use this to assess a build vs. buy decision:
- Objectives and constraints
- What outcome must we prove in 30–90 days (meetings booked, SQLs, pipeline)?
- How tight are resourcing, budget, and timeline?
- Data and integrations
- Can the agent index websites/KBs and stay fresh automatically?
- What are the must‑have integrations (e.g., HubSpot, Salesforce, Slack, webhooks)?
- Governance, risk, and compliance
- Access controls, PII handling, auditability, and vendor posture (e.g., SOC 2).
- Brand safety (tone guardrails), human handoff, and escalation paths.
- Time‑to‑value vs. roadmap control
- Do you need value this quarter, or do you need deep, bespoke control?
- Total cost of ownership (TCO)
- Hidden costs of building: conversation design, evals, routing, enrichment, UI/embeds, analytics, CRM sync, monitoring, incident response, and ongoing model/drift management.
When building makes sense
- You have a staffed platform team chartered to own conversational infrastructure long‑term.
- You require bespoke IP, novel research, or highly atypical workflows.
- You can accept slower time‑to‑value to gain deep internal control.
When buying makes sense (most mid‑market teams)
- You need impact in weeks, not quarters.
- You want proven conversation quality, analytics, routing, and governance out of the box.
- You prefer predictable costs over ongoing engineering lift.
Case in point: After deploying Aimdoc, Evocalize saw a 250% increase in organic leads within 90 days, with 38% of conversations converting to leads, 13.4 messages per conversation on average, and 58% of conversations reaching high engagement.
The hybrid path: build‑with
Adopt a platform for speed and reliability, and extend via APIs/webhooks, custom scoring/routing, and model configuration as needed. This keeps teams focused on GTM while retaining flexibility.
How Aimdoc maps to the inbound SDR workflow (why Aimdoc is the “buy”)
- 24/7 lead capture and qualification
- Engage instantly, collect context at the right time, and route intelligently.
- Proactive Agent (real‑time)
- Aimdoc watches all visitors on your website and decides who to engage using a warm‑visitor algorithm—prioritizing high‑intent traffic and starting the right conversations at the right moment.
- AI lead scoring and routing
- Score based on behavior and responses; route by territory, segment, or priority.
- Deep CRM + GTM integrations
- Native HubSpot and Salesforce; Slack notifications; Zapier and webhooks for custom flows.
- Knowledge base indexing and auto re‑training
- Keep answers current as your content changes without manual upkeep.
- Conversation transcripts and analytics
- See intent, objections, drop‑offs, and topics to improve content and funnels.
- Visitor identification and live traffic view
- Understand who’s on site and what they care about in real time.
- Enterprise‑ready brand customization
- Match tone, styling, and embed experience to your brand.
Security and compliance
Building in‑house often underestimates security work: auth, data isolation, audit trails, PII handling, vendor due diligence, and regular testing. Aimdoc is SOC 2 Type II and supports enterprise controls like SSO and GDPR compliance—so you start secure on day one.
Pricing and scale
- Pro: $199/mo — 5 domains, 5 seats, 5,000 agent responses, 20M‑char KB, lead capture, live‑chat handover, analytics, CRM and Zapier.
- Business: $699/mo — Everything in Pro plus visitor identification, proactive agent, AI lead scoring/routing, API & webhooks, priority support.
- Enterprise: Custom — Custom limits, custom models, SSO, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and roadmap priority.
Start with a plan that matches your traffic today, and scale usage, domains, and capabilities as you grow.
Decision checklist
- Do we need measurable impact in the next 30–90 days?
- Can we staff conversation design, QA/evals, analytics, routing, enrichment, and on‑call?
- Are HubSpot/Salesforce, Slack, and webhooks must‑haves on day one?
- Do we have security/compliance bandwidth (or should we leverage SOC 2 out of the box)?
- Will we keep up with model/drift changes over time?
If speed‑to‑value, reliability, and governance matter this quarter, Aimdoc is the pragmatic “buy.”