Artisan review (2026): what Ava does, costs and leaves to you

Published by 3Gen Internet Corporation, maker of OpenAssistant, Skej and AGNT. Comparisons use public documentation, without hands-on testing.

Artisan’s Ava is worth a trial if your list is small and you can run approval mode. She is not a fit if you want hands-off calling, because Artisan says she does not place calls. If you want an assistant that can phone people for you, OpenAssistant says it does, though it is an assistant, not an SDR.

Artisan sells an AI sales rep named Ava. The company’s own copy says it “builds AI employees for GTM” (Artisan llms.txt), and its pricing page tells you to “Hire an AI BDR with a whole team behind her” (Artisan pricing). This review reads Artisan’s own pages and reports what they say Ava does, what she costs, and what the pages leave to you.

What it is

Ava is an AI business development rep (BDR): software that finds sales leads, writes to them and books meetings. The homepage leads with Ava, and it sends visitors who want “AI employees for all roles” to a separate product named Artie (Artisan). The employee framing is marketing. Two of the three plan names on the Startups pricing tab are job titles: Intern and Employee. The Employee plan lists “Full self-driving Ava” with a “Soon” tag, which we read as not yet shipped (Artisan pricing).

What it does (as Artisan describes it)

• Finds and enriches leads. The homepage says Ava finds leads, enriches them, sends personalized messages and books meetings. It points to a built-in database of 250M+ verified B2B contacts, which is Artisan’s own figure (Artisan).
• Writes outreach on email and social. Pages say “email and social” and do not name individual social networks. LinkedIn is not named as a channel on the pages we read.
• Handles replies. Ava reads replies, handles objections, answers questions and schedules meetings (Artisan).
• Sends as your reps. Messages go out in your reps’ names from your own sending domains (Artisan pricing). Artisan says it manages deliverability, including domain warm-up and send throttling (Artisan).
• Syncs with your CRM. Artisan’s FAQ says Salesforce and HubSpot sync bi-directionally (Artisan pricing). On the Startups tab, HubSpot sync starts on Intern, while Salesforce appears to be Enterprise only. That second point is our reading of blank table cells, not a sentence on the page.

What she does not do: calls

Artisan’s pages say Ava does not place phone calls. One page says “Ava cannot legally make calls” (Artisan), and another says calls are queued for your reps in a dialer (Artisan). A human power dialer is an add-on: $67 per seat per month on annual billing, $75 monthly (Artisan pricing). The plan comparison table also lists an “AI dialing copilot” row from Intern up, and the pages we read do not say what it does, so ask. On what we read, if you want an AI that dials, Ava is not it.

Price

Artisan shows two pricing views, and they do not look alike.

Startups tab (self-serve, shown after you click the tab): Free is $0 with 300 credits a month and no card. Intern is $250 per month on annual billing or $280 monthly, with 10K credits a month, about 500 leads contacted. Employee is $600 annual or $660 monthly, with 25K credits, about 1,250 leads. The toggle labels annual billing “Save 10%” (Artisan pricing). Credit use is about 20 credits per person contacted in an end-to-end campaign. Mailboxes and phone numbers are billed separately in dollars. On annual plans unused credits do not roll over; on monthly plans they carry into the next billing period. New enrollments pause when credits run out.

Default view: The page that loads first shows Team (about 2,500 leads a month), Scale (about 6,000) and Enterprise, with “Pricing scoped on your plan” and talk to sales. No prices are shown (Artisan pricing).

Trial: Each new account starts with a 10K credit free trial, about $300 in value, with 30 days to use it and no card. The grant is one per company. If you add no card by the end, the account falls back to Free and campaigns pause (Artisan pricing).

A price inconsistency to know about: Artisan’s comparison page against 11x says “Plans from $250/mo, monthly, cancel anytime” (Artisan). But $250 is the annual-billed Intern price. Monthly billing shows $280. The same page calls 11x “demo-only.” That describes access, not whether pricing is published: 11x publishes a Growth starting price on its own pricing page (11x pricing). Treat comparison-page claims as marketing and read the pricing page.

What you still do yourself

• Dial the phone. On Artisan’s own account, calls are for your reps.
• Own the sending setup. Ava sends from your domains, so reputation sits with you. Mailboxes are an extra dollar cost.
• Approve or coach. Artisan lists approve-before-send, locked tone and call-to-action, banned phrases and coaching, and says Ava is “Autonomous by default” (Artisan pricing). Approval mode is therefore a setting you choose. Its comparison page says most teams start in approval mode and widen autonomy later (Artisan).
• Set the rules for when a human steps in, and the lists of domains and accounts she should never touch (Artisan).
• Keep opt-outs and consent straight. The homepage lists “Exclusion and DNC lists” for domains and accounts Ava will never touch (Artisan). The pages we read do not describe unsubscribe handling for email, and a CAN-SPAM statement is not stated. Ask before you send.

Risks and watch-outs

• Two price pictures. Make sure the plan you are quoted is the one on the Startups tab, or you may be in a sales-led deal with different terms.
• Credits can drain. At roughly 20 credits per person, 10K credits is about 500 people, which is Artisan’s own “~500 leads” figure for Intern. Check how a reply, a follow-up and a re-contact count.
• Data use. Artisan’s pages say nothing about whether it trains on customer data.
• Security claims. The homepage lists SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, SSO, SAML and SCIM, and audit logs (Artisan). We did not open the trust center.
• Vendor numbers. The homepage claims 6,000+ sales teams and a $700K ARR case study, and shows a testimonial about replacing an outbound team. These are vendor claims, not independent results.

Questions to ask Artisan before you pay

1. Which plan and price apply to my team size, and is the Startups tab price the real one for us?
2. How many credits does a reply, a follow-up and a re-contact use, not just a first message?
3. Who handles an unsubscribe request: Ava, my CRM, or me? How is it recorded?
4. Does Artisan train on my leads, replies or call notes? Can I get that in writing?
5. What does the human power dialer cost for my whole team, and what is in the queue each morning?
6. What happens to unused credits and to scheduled sends if I downgrade at renewal? The pricing page says downgrades take effect at the end of the billing cycle (Artisan pricing).

Who it suits

From documented facts only: a small sales team that wants email and social outreach drafted and sent for it, can use a self-serve trial, and is happy to keep calls with humans. It suits you less if you need an AI that places calls, need published pricing for a larger plan, or need written answers on data training and opt-outs before you start.

Verdict, from public information only: worth a trial if your list is small and you can run approval mode. Not a fit if you want hands-off calling.

Related reading

• Best AI SDRs of 2026: top picks, prices and compliance
• 11x review (2026): pricing, Outbound, Inbound and the digital worker pitch
• How to run an AI SDR safely: protect your domain and follow the rules
• 13 mistakes companies make when hiring AI employees (and 10 demo questions)

Frequently asked questions

What does Artisan’s Ava do?

Ava finds and enriches leads, sends outreach across email and social, reads replies, handles objections and books meetings. Messages go out in your reps’ names from your own sending domains.

How much does Artisan cost?

The Startups tab lists Free at $0 with 300 credits a month, Intern at $250 a month billed annually ($280 monthly) with 10K credits, and Employee at $600 annual ($660 monthly) with 25K credits. The default pricing view shows no prices for larger plans, only talk to sales.

Does Ava make phone calls?

No. Artisan’s pages say Ava cannot legally make calls, and calls are queued for your reps in a dialer. A human power dialer is an add-on at $67 per seat per month annual or $75 monthly.

Does Artisan have a free trial?

Yes. Each new account starts with a 10K credit trial, about $300 in value, with 30 days to use it and no card. If you add no card by the end, the account falls back to Free and campaigns pause.

Try OpenAssistant

OpenAssistant is not a sales tool. If you want an assistant for your own inbox, calendar and phone calls instead of outbound prospecting, Try OpenAssistant. It has a free Starter plan, and the paid plans are on the OpenAssistant pricing page.