It now takes 12 touches to book a meeting with a B2B prospect. That's up from just 5-7 touches a few years ago. If your AI SDR only sends emails, you're fighting with one hand tied behind your back.
Here's the uncomfortable truth most AI SDR vendors won't tell you: the majority of platforms on the market can't actually make phone calls. They send emails. They might create call tasks for your team. But when it comes to picking up the phone and having a conversation with a prospect? That requires a human, which defeats the purpose of automation.
Multi-channel outreach that combines email, LinkedIn and phone delivers 287% better results than single-channel approaches. Yet most AI SDRs ignore the channel that matters most for B2B sales: the phone.
Key Takeaways
- Multi-channel outreach delivers 287% better results: Combining email and phone dramatically outperforms email-only approaches
- Most AI SDRs are email-only: Platforms like AiSDR and Artisan Ava create call tasks but can't actually make calls
- 12 touches now required to book meetings: Up from 5-7 touches, making single-channel strategies increasingly ineffective
- AvairAI offers AI phone calling at $40/month: Compared to $2,400-$7,200/month for competitors with calling capabilities
The 12-Touch Reality: Why Email Alone Falls Short
The B2B buying process has changed dramatically. According to industry research, it now takes an average of 12 to 18 touches to secure a meeting with a prospect. That's not a typo. Eighteen separate interactions before someone agrees to a 30-minute conversation.
Consider what this means for email-only outreach. If you're sending 12 emails to the same prospect, you're not being persistent. You're being annoying. Email fatigue is real, and your prospects experience it daily.
Multi-channel strategies solve this problem by varying the touchpoints:
- Emails that introduce and educate
- Phone calls that create personal connection
- Follow-ups that reinforce both channels
Organizations using coordinated multi-channel outreach see 50% higher growth compared to single-channel efforts. The math is simple: more channels mean more opportunities to connect without overwhelming any single inbox.
The Problem: Most AI SDRs Are Email-Only
Search for "AI SDR" and you'll find dozens of platforms promising to automate your sales development. Look closer at their capabilities, and a pattern emerges.
Email-Only Platforms Dominate the Market
AiSDR, one of the more visible players in the space, offers email automation with impressive open rates. But here's what their marketing doesn't emphasize: they don't offer native calling or AI-powered voice outreach. Users can create call tasks and scripts, but actual calls must be made using separate tools. That's not automation. That's a reminder system.
Artisan's Ava faces similar limitations. Phone calling is listed as "in development," meaning multi-channel outreach requires additional tools and manual effort.
This matters because phone calls convert at fundamentally higher rates than emails for B2B sales. A well-timed call after an email creates a compounding effect that email sequences alone cannot replicate.
Why Phone Calling Is Technically Challenging
There's a reason most AI SDRs avoid phone calling: it's hard.
Email is essentially a text-generation problem. Write compelling copy, personalize it with prospect data, send at optimal times. The technology for this has matured significantly.
Phone calling requires an entirely different technical stack:
- Voice synthesis that sounds natural, not robotic
- Real-time conversation handling that responds to objections
- Latency management so calls flow naturally
- TCPA compliance to avoid $500-$1,500 per-call violations
- Call routing that respects business hours across time zones
Building this capability requires significant investment. Most AI SDR vendors have decided it's easier to skip the phone entirely and focus on email volume.
AI SDRs That Can Actually Make Phone Calls
The list of AI SDRs with genuine phone calling capability is surprisingly short. Here's what the landscape looks like in 2026:
The Premium Options
11x (Alice + Julian): This platform offers two separate AI agents. Alice handles email sequences while Julian manages phone outreach. The technology is sophisticated, but pricing ranges from $2,400 to $7,200 per month, putting it out of reach for most sales teams.
SDRx: Another entrant with multi-channel capabilities including voice. Their AI Calling Agent can conduct live, human-like conversations. Pricing is custom and generally targets enterprise buyers.
The Accessible Alternative
AvairAI: The complete guide to AI SDRs positions AvairAI as unique in offering AI phone calling at $40/month. The platform uses ElevenLabs conversational AI technology to create natural-sounding phone conversations, combined with a 12-touch sequence that integrates email and calling into a unified campaign.
The price difference is stark. For the cost of one month with 11x, you could run AvairAI for five years.
What to Look For in a Multi-Channel AI SDR
Not all phone calling capabilities are created equal. When evaluating platforms, ask these questions:
1. Is it true AI calling or click-to-dial? Some platforms claim calling features but only queue up calls for humans to make.
2. Is TCPA compliance built in? Phone calling without compliance protection exposes you to significant legal risk.
3. Are email and phone integrated? The best multi-channel experiences coordinate touchpoints, not just offer them separately.
4. What does the voice sound like? Request a demo call. If it sounds like a robot, prospects will hang up.
Why Multi-Channel AI SDRs Win
The data supporting multi-channel outreach is overwhelming. But why does combining channels work so much better than email alone?
Meeting Booking Rates
Salesforce's State of Sales Report found that sales teams using AI-powered automation experience up to 30% higher lead conversion rates. When that automation includes phone calling, results improve further because calls create urgency that emails cannot.
An email sits in an inbox. It can be ignored, archived or deleted. A phone call demands immediate attention. Even voicemails create a different psychological impact than unread emails.
Prospect Engagement
Different prospects prefer different channels. Some executives never check email but always answer their phone. Others screen calls but respond to well-crafted emails. Multi-channel outreach meets prospects where they are.
This is the essence of Pair Selling: AI handles the multi-channel prospecting work so salespeople can focus on the conversations that actually matter. Your AI agent makes 50 calls a day. You take the five that show interest.
Pipeline Velocity
Coordinated outreach across channels drives up to 50% higher growth compared to single-channel efforts. Part of this is volume. But the bigger factor is velocity.
A prospect who receives an email on Monday, a call on Wednesday and a follow-up email on Friday moves through your pipeline faster than one who gets six emails over three weeks. Each channel reinforces the others, creating momentum that email-only sequences cannot match.
The Compliance Factor: TCPA and AI Calling
Here's something most AI SDR vendors avoid discussing: phone calling comes with significant legal requirements.
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) imposes penalties of $500 to $1,500 per violation per call. A campaign that contacts 1,000 prospects with 10% problematic numbers could expose your company to $50,000-$150,000 in fines.
This is why AvairAI built one-click phone classification into the platform. Before any AI calls are made, each contact is classified:
- CAN_CALL_AI (Green): Safe for automated calling
- CAN_CALL_MANUAL (Yellow): Requires human judgment
- CANNOT_CALL (Red): Legally prohibited
The system checks the national DNC registry, screens for known litigators, verifies line types and detects number reassignments. For more detail on how this works, see our guide on how AvairAI's TCPA compliance system works.
AI SDRs that offer phone calling without built-in compliance create liability for their customers. It's not enough to make calls. You need to make calls safely.
Getting Started with Multi-Channel AI SDRs
If you're currently using an email-only AI SDR, or if you're evaluating platforms for the first time, here's how to think about the multi-channel decision:
Evaluate Your Current Outreach Mix
What percentage of your touches are email versus phone? If it's 100% email, you're leaving significant results on the table. The 287% improvement from multi-channel isn't theoretical. It's what organizations actually see when they add phone to their outreach.
Ask the Right Questions
When evaluating AI SDR vendors:
- Can your AI actually make phone calls, or does it create tasks for humans?
- How do you handle TCPA compliance?
- Is phone calling included in the base price or an add-on?
- What does the AI voice sound like? Can I hear a demo?
- How are email and phone touchpoints coordinated?
Consider the 12-Touch Approach
AvairAI's 12-touch sequence runs over three weeks, combining personalized emails with AI-powered phone calls. The sequence is designed so each touchpoint reinforces the others. You don't need to build this coordination yourself; the platform handles the timing and channel selection automatically.
Conclusion
The AI SDR market has a gap that most vendors ignore. Email automation is table stakes. But the platforms that can actually make phone calls, integrate them with email campaigns and do so compliantly represent a fundamentally different capability.
With 12 touches now required to book meetings, and multi-channel outreach delivering 287% better results, email-only AI SDRs are increasingly insufficient. The future of sales development is multi-channel, and that means AI that can pick up the phone.
AvairAI offers this capability at $40/month, a fraction of what competitors charge. Built-in TCPA compliance means you can call confidently. And the 12-touch sequence means email and phone work together, not separately.
Start your first multi-channel campaign and see what happens when your AI SDR can actually make phone calls.
