AI SDR vs Human SDR: 3-Month Experiment for an Indian IT Services Firm

The Setup

TechFlow Solutions (Bangalore) ran an experiment from October–December 2025. Three human SDRs on one side, our AI SDR agent on the other. Both targeting the same ICP: IT decision-makers (CTO/VP Eng) at companies with 50–500 employees in India and the US.

Methodology

Both teams received the same lead lists — 1,200 contacts each. Same ICP, same industries, different outreach mechanisms.

• ✓Human SDRs: LinkedIn + email, manually personalised
• ✓AI Agent: LinkedIn automation + Playwright-scraped personalisation context

90-Day Results

The Nuanced Story

Human SDRs had a higher reply rate (24% vs 18.4%) — which was expected. Personalisation at human level is genuinely better.

But cost per meeting was 4.5x cheaper with AI. And the AI ran 24/7 — following up at 7am when a US prospect first opens their laptop.

Where AI Won

1. Volume: The AI contacted 2.3x more leads in the same period

2. Consistency: No bad days, no sick days, no "I'll do it tomorrow"

3. US market: AI follow-ups at the right timezone made a measurable difference

4. Cost: ₹10,000/month vs ₹3,60,000/month for three SDRs

Where Humans Won

1. Complex deals: Deals over ₹10L needed human nuance and relationship-building

2. Objection handling: Novel objections confused the AI

3. Reply quality: Human replies led to longer conversations, higher close rates

Conclusion

The winning strategy: use AI for top-of-funnel volume and qualification, hand off to humans for deals over ₹5L. This is exactly how TechFlow now operates.