Introduction
If you’re here, you’ve probably heard that AI will play a critical role in sales in 2026. But what does that actually look like in practice?
For competitive businesses, it means far more than using ChatGPT to write engaging pitches and email marketing campaigns.
It means going agentic.
With the right tools, you can integrate AI to revolutionize your entire sales and customer engagement workflow—landing more leads, retaining more customers, and even winning others back.
Based on our own recruiting and tech expertise at PTP, we have ranked our top 10 AI agents for sales and customer engagement in 2026. Take a look and learn how each tool can take your sales to the next level.
Why Sales Leaders Should Invest in AI Agents Now
Before we dive in, let’s unpack how AI virtual sales assistants can revolutionize business success:
Productivity boost: AI agents take on repetitive tasks like data entry, scheduling follow-ups, and updating CRM records—so sales reps can spend more time strategizing and building strong business relationships.
Smarter lead detection:AI agents can detect opportunities for new leads, upselling, and cross-selling—all while reducing customer churn, making faster conversions, and minimizing employee burnout.
Personalization:AI agents can turn customer and performance insights into profit, acting as a business analyst that’s tuned into each individual customer—past, present, and future.
Scalability:AI’s ability to grow with businesses allows sales teams to stick with the same AI tool no matter how large their enterprise becomes, enabling continuity and simplicity at scale.
[Dive deeper into what makes an AI sales platform good, bad, and hype-worthy.]
Now let’s meet the platforms delivering on these promises.
Best AI Agents for Boosting Sales and Engagement in 2026
The following are our top picks based on qualities like user experience, scalability, speed, and cost-efficiency. Without further ado, here’s our ranking for the best AI customer engagement tools:
1. Pete & Gabi (Best Overall)
Our top overall pick is Pete & Gabi, a dynamic suite of human-like AI sales agents, each one handling different business functions—from recruiting to appointment scheduling to, of course, sales.
We ranked Pete & Gabi #1 on our list because of its wide range of 24/7 sales solutions, friendly agent personas, enterprise-level scalability, and AI workflow automation capabilities across industries.
AI call agents Pete and Gabi handle end-to-end sales automation, qualifying leads and directing hot ones to your best closers. Pete & Gabi users have seen a 1.5x increase in customer acquisition, 40% faster conversions, 20% churn reduction, and 20% more upsell, cross-sell, and promotional revenue.
Key Sales Features
- Sales prospecting phone calls
- Cross-selling & upselling
- Customer win-back & churn prevention
- Automatic communication flow/follow-ups
- Automated customer survey reports
Industries Served
- Education
- Financial Services
- Hospitality
- Marketing
- Professional Services
- Real Estate
- Staffing & Recruiting
- Telecommunications
- Utilities
2. Synthflow (Best for Flow Design)
Not only does Synthflow qualify leads and handle phone calls, but its user-friendly drag-and-drop flow designer enables intuitive customization at scale.
By integrating voice AI into your CRM and automatically collecting valuable customer info, Synthflow enhances your existing resources and maximizes every interaction.
Want to feel more confident in your investment? Their cost calculator allows you to conceptualize what you’re paying for before you pull the trigger.
Key Sales Features
- Automatic data collection
- Sales qualification
- Customer reactivation
- Voice AI for CRM
- Synthflow Community forum
Industries Served
- BPO
- Healthcare
- Real Estate & Mortgage
- Recruitment
- Car Dealerships
- Agencies
3. NLPearl (Best for B2C Customer Engagement)
NLPearl’s AI services are primarily geared toward enhancing customer-facing businesses (i.e., via smart booking and customer communication), as opposed to landing B2B clients.
Their services are highly customizable, especially with the release of PearlVibe (previewed on their homepage)—an interactive form that asks, “Which call agent should I build for you?” There’s also the option to select specific agent types, add attachments, and enhance the prompt with genAI.
With customized email campaigns and smart appointment booking, this platform is one of the best AI sales agents for small businesses.
Key Sales Features
- Personalized emails based on customer interactions
- Automatic call transfers
- Smart booking & automated calendar syncing
- Smart SMS (i.e., order updates, reminders)
Industries Served
- Hospitality
- Healthcare
- Real Estate
- Debt Management
- Call Center
- Telecommunications
- Ecommerce
- Education
- Utilities
- Insurance
- Legal Services
- Government Services
4. SalesAPE AI (Best for Continuous Improvement)
SalesAPE AI harnesses agentic AI’s greatest power: its ability to learn and train itself. That’s why it’s our top pick for continuous improvement.
When you sign up, you’re given an “AI super rep” that learns from your sales cycle and trains itself to improve over time—so your sales operations grow not just in scale but in quality.
Looking to enhance your existing sales tech stack? SalesAPE integrates with CRMs and is highly compatible with popular business tools like HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho, Zapier, and over 100 others.
Key Sales Features
- Lead qualification
- Sales call booking
- Automated inbound lead response
Industries Served
- Healthcare
- Transportation
- Active Leisure
- Retail
- Real Estate
- Automotive
5. Artisan (Best AI for B2B Sales)
Artisan is an AI agent platform specifically for B2B sales teams. Their AI sales assistant Ava helps users build targeted campaigns, including hyper-personalized emails and follow-ups—so no potential lead goes to waste.
But wait, there’s more. Artisan also comes equipped with complimentary access to a database of over 300 million verified B2B contacts, securing our pick as the best B2B-specific AI sales software.
Key Sales Features
- Ava, the AI sales assistant
- Targeted campaigns & lead enrichment
- Hyper-personalized emails & follow-ups
- Website visitor tracking
- Database of over 300 million verified B2B contacts
Industries Served
- Events
- Business Services
- Medical Devices
- Other B2B organizations
6. Relevance (Best for AI Workforce Integration)
Advertised as an entire AI agent workforce, Relevance AI offers a collection of ready-to-go sales agents for various tasks, from prospecting to follow-up to call preparation.
Like NLPearl, Relevance has an “Invent” feature that lets you build an AI agent just by describing what you want it to do.
Beyond just sales, Relevance also offers AI agents for marketing, customer service, operations, and research.
Key Sales Features
- Prospecting & follow-up agent
- Context intelligence & delivery agent
- Deal intelligence & call preparation agent
Industries Served
- Business Services
- Information Technology (IT)
- Education
- Gaming
- Marketing
- Utilities
7. Bella (Best for Workflow Automation)
Bella AI boasts “the world’s most advanced AI agents,” perhaps because they leverage API technology and multichannel orchestration to automate entire sales workflows.
Bella also understands that AI sales solutions shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Harnessing the power of context intelligence, Bella AI agents can access relevant company data from websites, CRMs, and calendars, so appropriate actions are triggered instantly—so your AI agents can best address your business’ unique needs.
Key Sales Features
- Booking automation
- Phone call, SMS, WhatsApp, email automation
- Real-time CRM updates
- Overall workflow automation via API
Industries Served
- Healthcare
- Legal
- Saas
- SMEs
- Real Estate
- Finance
8. Lindy (Best for Sales Meetings)
“Your first AI employee,” Lindy AI is another AI agent platform where you can input a prompt for the agent you want to build.
Don’t feel like starting from scratch? They also offer 100+ agent templates for different business functions. Some sales examples include Upsell Detector Agent, Influencer Lead Generator, and Sheets to HubSpot Contact.
On top of generating and qualifying leads, Lindy schedules meetings and even comes equipped with a Meeting Coach to help sales reps engage leads and get wins.
Key Sales Features
- Lead generation/qualification
- Lead outreach
- Meeting scheduling
- CRM updates
- Sales insights
Industries Served
- Information Technology (IT)
- Finance
- Real Estate
- Healthcare
9. SUPERAGENT (Best for Insurance)
SUPERAGENT is “the first real-time AI sales assistant built specifically for insurance” and comes equipped with six AI agents (with three more dropping in Q4 of 2026) that handle phone calls, follow-ups, training, coaching, retention, and analytics—with minimal human intervention.
The platform’s SUPERcredits system allows users to choose one of three fixed monthly payment plans (Starter, Pro, or Scale) and receive a proportionate amount of SUPERcredits for a customizable flow of AI agent services.
Key Sales Features
- Inbound & Outbound AI Agent
- Retention AI Agent
- Live Call Coach AI Agent
- Training AI Agent
- Analytics AI Agent
- Quoting AI Agent (coming soon)
- Renewal AI Agent (coming soon)
Industries Served
- Insurance
10. Octave (Best for Market Research)
Described as a “real-time context engine,” Octave is an AI software whose agents learn about the ins and outs of your business to maximize value. Not only that, they understand the ins and outs of your competition.
In addition to handling typical sales tasks like qualifying leads and generating campaigns, Octave sales agents also take into account market shifts, product launches, and competitor activity to optimize sales performance.
Key Sales Features
- Prospect discovery
- Competitor campaigns
- Lead qualification & scoring
- Messaging alignment
- Programmatic outbound
- Context engine
- Activate signups
- Real-time ABM at scale
Industries Served
- Information Technology (IT)
- Manufacturing & Supply Chain Management
- Other B2B organizations
The Takeaway
Conversational AI for sales isn’t the future—it’s how today’s most competitive businesses stay at the top.
Choosing the right platform for your business can also put you at the cutting edge. Consider factors like cost, scalability, analytical tools, and productivity value when making your pick.
When in doubt, you’ll be in good hands with our top overall pick Pete & Gabi (schedule a demo today).
And when it comes to choosing a tech recruiting firm to deliver skilled IT teams to take your business into the future, you’re in good hands with PTP. We’re AI-first, combining the power of the latest AI hiring technology and 28 years of irreplaceable recruiting expertise.
FAQs
How does AI lead generation work?
While platforms can differ in how their AI call agents generate leads, the most advanced, like Pete & Gabi, use smart intent detection and dynamic scripting. In practice, this looks like natural-sounding agents asking targeted questions based on your criteria, then scoring leads accordingly—all the while adapting in real-time to ensure scalability that doesn’t hinder quality.
How does AI for B2C customer engagement differ from B2B?
Since B2C businesses deal directly with individual consumers, they’re more likely to use AI customer engagement tools like AI-powered customer service, scheduling, and marketing. B2B businesses may be more likely to need enterprise-level AI sales solutions like scalable AI phone outreach. By taking on repetitive tasks, AI sales solutions also free sales teams to focus on building relationships and closing deals.
Which platform has the best AI agents for lead qualification and follow-up?
With users seeing a 1.5x increase in customer acquisition and 20% more upsell, cross-sell, and promotional revenue, we think Pete & Gabi is your best bet when it comes to qualifying leads, following up, and getting them to your closers. Its human-like AI agents also speak more than 15 languages, maximizing reach and win potential.
