10 Game-Changing AI Startups Taking Cold Calling to the Next Level

AI is transforming the art of cold calling, turning a once-dreaded sales tactic into a powerful, data-driven tool. Startups like Insight7, Bland AI, and Dialpad are leading the charge, integrating cutting-edge AI technology to revolutionize this traditional outreach method. With AI, cold calling has evolved into a more efficient and dynamic process, offering sales teams the ability to operate round-the-clock, manage thousands of calls simultaneously, and gain real-time insights—all without the usual human limitations. For businesses, the impact is undeniable: sales professionals leveraging AI have reported a 50% surge in leads and appointments, fundamentally reshaping how they engage with prospects.

What sets AI-powered cold calling apart is its ability to blend the efficiency of automation with the power of human connection. Unlike cold emails, which can be impersonal, AI-driven calls foster real-time conversations that build rapport and adapt on the spot to the prospect’s reactions. The immediacy of a live voice, coupled with AI’s ability to optimize each interaction, helps accelerate decision-making and close deals faster. As AI continues to reshape the sales landscape, cold calling is emerging as a critical weapon for high-performing teams, offering a strategic edge in an increasingly competitive market.

1. Insight7

Founder: Odun Odubanjo
Inspiration: Leveraging advanced NLP and ML to revolutionize sales conversations
Key Features:
Intelligent Automation: Shifts from manual dialing to automated processes, increasing efficiency and call volume.
Conversation & Sentiment Analysis: Analyzes call data to assess conversation effectiveness and customer sentiment, providing actionable insights.
Personalization: Tailors messages based on prospect data, enabling more personalized outreach for higher engagement.
Data-Driven Insights: Identifies patterns in call transcripts to refine strategies and improve success rates.
Targeted Prospecting: Automates lead identification and qualification, focusing efforts on high-value prospects.

2. Bland AI

Founder: Isaiah Granet and Sobhan Nejad
Funding: $16 million (2024)
Inspiration: Bland AI was founded to reinvent the way businesses use phone calls, addressing the limitations of human-operated phone systems
Key Features:
Hyper-Realistic AI Agents: Bland AI utilizes advanced conversational AI to create highly realistic automated phone calls, making cold calling more natural and effective.
Low Latency: One of Bland’s core innovations is its low phone call latency, clocking in under two seconds compared to the typical five seconds of other providers.
Dynamic Conversation Handling: The AI can handle fully dynamic phone conversations, adapting to various scenarios and customer responses in real-time.
Customizable Prompts: Users can easily customize the AI’s prompts and behavior for specific cold calling tasks, from sales to customer service.
Integration and Scalability: Bland AI offers easy integration through its API, allowing businesses to automate and scale their cold calling operations efficiently

3. Dialpad

Founders: Craig Walker and Brian Peterson
Valuation: $2.2 billion as of 2021
Inspiration: Revolutionizing business communication with AI
Key Features:
Real-Time Transcription: Dialpad Ai Sales offers a real-time transcription feature that takes notes during the call, allowing sales representatives to focus on persuading or closing deals.
AI-Powered Coaching: The platform provides live coaching powered by DialpadGPT, which is trained on over 6 billion minutes of real business conversations
AI Recaps: Dialpad’s AI generates summaries of calls, helping sales teams quickly review and analyze conversation content
VoIP Technology: The software includes Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology for making phone calls, which is essential for cold calling operations.
CRM Integration: Dialpad integrates with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, providing an essential lead management tool for sales teams

4. Revenue.io (formerly RingDNA)

Founders: Howard Brown
Valuation: $500M
Funding: $30 million in total funding
Inspiration: Boosting sales productivity through AI-driven insights
Key Features:
Intelligent Dialer: An automated dialing system that integrates with Salesforce, automatically logging calls, texts, and emails.
Guided Selling: A tool that prioritizes leads and activities in real-time, helping sales reps focus on the most promising prospects.
Voicemail Automation: Allows sales reps to leave pre-recorded voicemail messages with a single click, saving time and ensuring consistent messaging.
Call Recording and Analysis: Provides the ability to record calls and analyze conversations using AI-powered tools, helping reps improve their performance.
Real-time Coaching: Enables sales managers to listen in on calls, provide immediate assistance, and allows reps to flag calls for coaching, facilitating ongoing improvement and support.

5. PhoneBurner

Founders: John Rydell and Paul Rydell
Inspiration: PhoneBurner focuses on eliminating repetitive tasks and streamlining post-call processes for sales teams and streamlines outbound sales processes
Key Features:
Power Dialer: PhoneBurner offers a cloud-based power dialer that significantly increases the number of live conversations sales representatives can have per hour.
Voicemail Drop: The platform includes a one-click voicemail drop feature, allowing sales reps to leave pre-recorded messages instantly.
Email and SMS Integration: PhoneBurner integrates email and SMS capabilities, enabling reps to follow up with prospects through multiple channels seamlessly.
CRM Integration: The system integrates with popular CRM platforms, ensuring that all call data and outcomes are automatically logged and synced.
Call Tracking and Analytics: PhoneBurner provides detailed call tracking and analytics, allowing managers to monitor performance and optimize sales strategies.

6. Orum

Founders: Jason Dorfman, Karthik Viswanathan
Total Funding: $51 Million 
Inspiration: Instant live customer conversations with the target market
Key Features:
AI Parallel Dialing: Orum offers AI-powered parallel dialing, allowing reps to dial multiple numbers simultaneously (up to 5 in the Launch plan and up to 10 in the Ascend plan).
Voicemail Drop: The platform includes an auto-voicemail drop feature, enabling reps to leave pre-recorded messages efficiently.
CRM Integration: Orum integrates with multiple CRM and sales tools, including Apollo, Gong, Hubspot, Outreach, Salesforce, and Salesloft.
Call Analytics and Recording: The platform provides call history, recordings, and analytics to help teams track performance and improve strategies.
AI-Powered Features: Orum offers several AI-enhanced capabilities, including:

• AI call summary
• AI objection detection
• AI dial-tree navigation
• Boost Connect for optimizing caller ID selection

7. Outreach

Founders: Manny Medina, Andrew Kinzer, Gordon Hempton, and Wes Hather (Now leading FullContext)
Valuation: $4.4 Billion as of 2024
Inspiration: Creating an AI-powered sales engagement platform
Key Features:
Voice capabilities built directly into the platform: Outreach has integrated calling features to enable sales teams to execute cold calling best practices.
Automation and sequencing: Outreach allows sales teams to create automated sequences that include cold calls along with other touchpoints like emails.
Analytics and insights: The platform provides data-driven insights to help sales reps make informed decisions about their cold calling efforts.
Multi-channel approach: Outreach supports combining cold calling with other outreach methods like email and social media for a more effective multi-channel strategy.
Call recording: Outreach offers automatic call recording, which can help sales reps review and improve their cold calling technique

8. Gong

Founders: Amit Bendov and Eilon Reshef
Valuation: $7.25 billion as of 2023
Inspiration: Using AI to analyze customer-facing interactions
Key Features:
Call Recording and Analysis: Gong automatically records and transcribes cold calls, using AI to analyze the conversations for insights. This allows sales teams to review and learn from past calls, improving their techniques over time.
Real-time Coaching: The AI provides real-time feedback and suggestions to sales representatives during cold calls, helping them improve their communication techniques and overcome objections on the spot.
Automated Call Summaries: Gong AI generates summaries of cold calls, extracting key information such as pain points, next steps, and important topics discussed. This saves time for sales reps and ensures critical details are captured.
Performance Analytics: The platform offers robust analytics on cold calling performance, allowing sales managers to track metrics like call duration, conversion rates, and successful strategies. This data helps in optimizing overall cold calling campaigns.
Personalization Insights: Gong AI analyzes past interactions and customer data to provide insights that help sales reps personalize their cold calls. This can include information about the prospect’s pain points, challenges, and potential needs, enabling more targeted and effective conversations.

9. Balto

Founders: Marc Bernstein, Davidson Girard and Michael Goldstein
Funding: $57.6 million as of 2024
Inspiration: Using AI to analyze customer-facing interactions
Key Features:
Real-Time Guidance: Balto provides live call guidance, listening to calls in real-time and offering instant prompts and recommendations to sales representatives during cold calls. This helps agents navigate conversations more effectively and adapt their approach on the fly.
AI-Powered Insights: The platform leverages artificial intelligence to analyze calls and provide data-driven insights, helping sales teams understand what’s working and adjust their strategies accordingly.
Dynamic Scripting: Balto offers dynamic prompts that provide agents with discovery questions and rebuttals, allowing them to adapt the conversation based on the prospect’s responses. This flexibility helps improve the quality and effectiveness of cold calls.
Compliance Monitoring: The software ensures that all calls adhere to compliance guidelines, reducing legal risks associated with cold calling. This feature is particularly important in industries with strict regulatory requirements.
Automated Call Scoring: Balto automatically scores 100% of calls, eliminating the need for random sampling and manual scoring. This comprehensive analysis helps managers identify areas for improvement and coaching opportunities more efficiently.

10. AI Bees

Founders: Brian Hadi Attarbashi
Funding: $57.6 million as of 2024
Inspiration: Leverage artificial intelligence to help businesses build great business networks, reach out to new clients, and secure meetings with decision-makers and candidates
Key Features:
AI-Powered Automation: AI Bees utilizes advanced algorithms and machine learning to automate and optimize the cold calling process, allowing sales teams to focus on high-value activities.
Prospect Research and Personalization: The platform helps sales representatives conduct thorough research on prospects before making calls, enabling them to tailor their approach and increase the chances of success.
Multi-Channel Outreach: AI Bees supports cold calling as part of a broader multi-channel outreach strategy, integrating phone calls with other communication methods like email and social media.
Call Analytics and Insights: The software provides detailed analytics on call performance, helping sales teams identify successful strategies, improve techniques, and optimize their cold calling efforts.
Automated Lead Qualification: AI Bees uses machine learning to automatically qualify leads based on predefined criteria, allowing sales teams to prioritize their cold calling efforts more effectively.