Will Digital Workers Revolutionise Work?

Meet Alice and Jordan: A Deep Dive into The Next Generation of AI Digital Workers

AI is not going to be the real game-changer for the future of work. 

It's going to be AI + workflow automations, defined as 'AI Agents' (and in the long term could become AGI, Artificial General Intelligence).

That's why today we're covering a start-up that is playing in this field, 11x.ai, founded in 2022 by Hassan Sukkar.

I've had a chat with Harry Bryars, Chief of Staff and one of the first employees who's been through the process from the beginning. We covered the company but also his thoughts on the future of work.

Company Background

Since launch, they have experienced remarkable growth and secured significant funding including the most recent $24 million Series A funding round led by Benchmark.

At its core, 11x.ai focuses on creating AI digital workers – sophisticated AI systems designed to autonomously handle various tasks and processes within an organization. Their mission: simplify and optimize go-to-market operations for businesses of all sizes. They believe that within the next two years, digital workers will become an integral part of how companies operate globally.

Core Products: AI Digital Workers

1. Alice: AI SDR

Alice is an AI-powered Sales Development Representative (SDR) designed to handle the entire outbound sales development process. Her (?) capabilities include finding relevant prospects, researching potential clients, writing personalized messages, sending emails, following up, and booking meetings.

What makes Alice stand out is her ability to adapt and improve continually. One of the key enhancements has been in matching human writing styles and tones. As Bryars notes, "We've just begun but made tons of improvements, and over time we've gone through an evolution where people aren't detecting that this is AI". And it's not just the words, it's also the information. "It's having the right information, accurate information, referencing it in a way that feels natural."

2. Jordan: AI Caller

Jordan, the newer addition, is an AI-powered caller capable of handling both inbound calls and consented outbound calls. While still in its early stages, Jordan represents a significant step towards creating a comprehensive AI-driven GTM team.

One of the most exciting aspects of Jordan is its integration with Alice. Bryars highlights this synergy: "Jordan can handle a phone call and then hand over to Alice to make it, you know, follow up via email or the other way around. So they'll always be super integrated."

This integration showcases their vision of creating not just individual AI employees, but an entire AI team capable of handling complex, multi-channel GTM processes. A vision which also OpenAI seems to be going after, as they recently announced Swarm, a multi-agent orchestration framework.

Target Market and Use Cases

I asked Bryars who their main customers were, curious about the type of companies looking to experiment with this kind of solutions. While initially they started by serving a wide range of customers, including small startups, they have since refined their focus. "Over time, we've definitely moved up-market. Most of our customers now are mid-market and enterprise."

This shift in focus stems from the realization that 11x.ai's digital workers are best suited for companies with established sales processes and product-market fit. As Bryars puts it, "We help you scale your existing performance. We don't help you find success where there isn't success necessarily."

We went through the core use cases for their digital workers:

1. Scaling Existing Teams: Some companies use AI workers to augment their human SDRs, allowing them to handle a larger volume of prospects and communications.

2. Replacing Human SDRs: Other businesses have used Alice to take over the role of human SDRs entirely, freeing up those employees to move into more advanced roles such as junior Account Executives or AEs.

3. Reducing Hiring Needs: In some cases, companies have significantly reduced their planned hiring. Bryars mentions, "We have some customers where they planned to hire, I don't know, like a dozen people, and now they only need to hire one person."

4. Empowering Account Executives: Some customers have AEs using Alice directly to generate their own pipeline, reducing the need for a separate SDR team.

While all of them are interesting, they will all come with their own problems.

Impact on Workforce

The introduction of AI digital workers like Alice and Jordan is going to change the landscape of sales and GTM operations. However, the impact on the workforce is not as straightforward as simple replacement.

Bryars emphasizes that for most of their customers, especially in the mid-market and enterprise segments, the goal is growth rather than cost-cutting. "Most of our customers, especially given the segment that we're targeting, are looking to grow as quickly as possible. And they know that doesn't just come from removing people out of the equation. It comes from shifting their focus to be more impactful," he explains.

This shift often involves moving human workers away from repetitive, time-consuming tasks and towards more strategic, high-value activities. As Bryars puts it, "Our ultimate vision is that we can unblock a bunch of that repetitive, low-level work and allow you to spend your time doing much more creative, impactful, resourceful things."

Reflecting on the broader implications of AI in the workforce, Bryars shares a personal perspective: "I think on the personal side, it's like the biggest question on my mind, not related to us, but is like, how will the world evolve? As an example, I've been taking Waymo a bunch in San Francisco. Waymo, the self-driving cars. They're incredible. But it's very interesting to see what will happen to taxi drivers, Uber drivers and things like that. Right. Over time. And so I think much more broadly, it's very interesting to see how these things will play out. But more specifically to us, I don't think where. I don't think it's necessarily as scary as it sounds on the surface."

He adds an important historical context: "I think if you look back through history, jobs evolve, change, disappear, created constantly. It's a constant shift of labor. And I think the most important thing is just being aware of what's going on, being open to new possibilities, new opportunities, regardless of AI or not."

This is a great vision, and I have no doubt Bryars and the team believe it. What worries me, is that it's the typical situation where companies would need to have guidance and structure to work on this problem/experimentation. Shouldn't HR be part of this process?

I see a ton of benefits for small companies (one or few people teams, like seed startups trying to find their product market fit at low costs). When moving to mid and up market though, there may be more downsides and second-order thinking that we'd need to assess. It's that delicate balance of experimentation / analysis that few get right.

Let's try and look at some of these elements.

Key Features and Benefits of AI Digital Workers

1. 24/7 Operation and Scalability: Alice and Jordan can work around the clock, significantly increasing the volume of prospects that can be reached.

2. Personalization and Tone Matching: The AI workers are designed to align with brand and individual communication styles, making their outreach feel authentic and personalized.

3. Integration Between AI Workers: The seamless handoff between Alice and Jordan allows for multi-channel communication strategies.

4. Efficiency: Bryars notes that managing Alice typically takes only "10 minutes a day, 15 minutes a day" for most users, allowing sales professionals to focus on high-value activities.

5. Continuous Improvement: The 11x.ai team is constantly refining and improving their AI workers based on user feedback and performance data.

Challenges and Considerations

1. Ethical Considerations: The question of whether to disclose the AI nature of these digital workers is left to the customer. Bryars mentions, "Alice is not known outwardly. Right. So like as an example, when 11x emails prospects, we of course use Alice because it's part of the brand and the product. But if you were signing up to Alice, emails would come from yourself."

2. Potential Saturation: As more companies adopt AI-powered outreach tools, there's a risk of oversaturating communication channels. However, Bryars argues that the quality and timing of outreach enabled by their AI can help counteract this trend: "I think outbound, regardless of AI, is always becoming more and more saturated. It's more and more accessible, even taking AI of the equation, there are platforms that allow you to source as many people as you want, send as many emails as you want, and so outbound effectiveness has changed over time. The most important thing is that with a platform like Alice or a digital worker, you're able to perform at a level that really helps change that trend in the sense that you can reach someone at precisely the right moment."

3. Evolving Sales Landscape: The nature of sales generation is constantly changing, requiring 11x.ai to stay ahead of trends and continuously adapt their offerings. As Bryars notes, "I do believe personally that how sales are generated will shift and change over time. And that's really a core focus of us as a business, is staying ahead of that curve."

4. Integration with Existing Systems: Ensuring seamless integration with a company's existing CRM, sales tools, and workflows can be complex and may require customization.

5. Data Privacy and Security: Handling sensitive customer and prospect data requires robust security measures and compliance with data protection regulations.

6. Training and Adoption: While the AI workers are designed to be user-friendly, there may still be a learning curve for sales teams to effectively manage and leverage these tools.

7. Performance Monitoring and Quality Control: Continuous monitoring is necessary to ensure the AI workers are performing as expected and not making errors that could damage client relationships.

8. Scalability of Personalization: As the volume of interactions increases, maintaining a high level of personalization and avoiding generic-sounding communications becomes more challenging.

Competitive Landscape

While 11x.ai is at the forefront of developing AI digital workers for sales and GTM operations, they are not alone. Several companies are developing similar or adjacent technologies:

• Artisan AI: This company specializes in creating digital workers for various business functions within the technology sector, potentially competing with 11x.ai in some areas.

• Attention: This is not an autonomous worker ‘play’ but more of a full-on automation of the call experience. Things like sending summaries, updating leads - all done by connecting the software to the sales call.

• SDRx.ai: They have an interesting take focused more on research, like for example OrgInsight - which “Gains insights into a company's organizational structure by getting a detailed employee count by department in a single click”, or DISC - a buyer insight tool

Asked about their MOAT, Bryars says it's about execution speed. "We grew really fast, very rapidly by using our own product. We became our own best case study." This dogfooding approach has allowed 11x.ai to reach millions in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) primarily by leveraging their own AI workers. We are 10-15 times the size of the nearest direct competitor purely because we're moving at an insane pace."

I imagine this kind of company would also be worried about big tech adopting this approach inside their existing platforms (think of Salesforce, with their Einstein GPT - they already own a big chunk of the enterprise market). These enterprise software giants have several advantages that could allow them to quickly develop and integrate AI digital worker functionalities similar to what 11x.ai offers:

1. Vast amounts of data: Companies like Salesforce have access to enormous datasets from their existing customer base, which could be leveraged to train highly effective AI models.

2. Existing customer relationships: They already have established relationships with a large number of enterprises, making it easier to roll out new AI features to a broad user base.

3. Integrated ecosystems: The ability to seamlessly integrate AI digital workers into their existing suite of tools could provide a compelling value proposition for customers already invested in their ecosystem.

4. Substantial resources: These companies have significant financial and technical resources to invest in AI research and development.

Bryars acknowledges this potential threat, stating, "Competition for us is twofold. One, it's the large incumbents Salesforce. Really our vision here is becoming the system of record for GTM team Salesforce is much more of a competitor in that sense than an AI SDR."

AI Digital Workers - Future Outlook

What's 11x.ai's vision for the future of their AI digital workers?

1. Enhanced Integration: Bryars emphasizes the potential for even tighter integration between AI workers: "I think we've got a huge opportunity more in the inter-agent integration. Alice and Jordan. Jordan and whoever else. Those workers work in harmony, where it's not just finding a lead for you, it's an end to end GTM team finding a lead through to closing."

2. Expanding Capabilities: While currently focused on the early stages of the sales process, 11x.ai is exploring the potential for AI involvement in closing deals. As Bryars notes, "Right now I think that still needs a human in the loop. I don't think that will be the case forever."

3. Continuous Improvement: The team is committed to ongoing refinement of their existing products. "I don't think any of these things will ever be done. We will never reach a point where we're like, this is good enough".

4. Adapting to Market Changes: As the sales landscape evolves, 11x.ai is positioning itself to stay ahead of trends and adapt its offerings accordingly.

Final Thoughts

11x.ai represents a very interesting application of AI to sales and GTM operations.

By creating AI digital workers capable of handling complex, multi-channel communications, they're not just automating tasks – they're trying to reimagine how sales teams operate.

In our last article, we outlined that there are many more ways to get work done. This includes digital workers as envisioned by 11x.ai where AI and humans work side by side. But how will we get there, is the true question.

While specific data on AI digital workers like Alice and Jordan is limited, related trends in AI adoption provide insight into the potential market for these technologies. For instance, Master of Code Global reports that 23% of client service organizations now rely on AI digital assistants, indicating a growing acceptance of AI in customer-facing roles.

The impact of AI on worker productivity is also becoming clearer, but we're still in the infancy of proper academic (not consulting-style) research on the topic. 

Ciao,

Matteo