# AI outbound and prospecting: which vendors AI models recommend (September 2026)

Source: Memetik Index, https://www.memetik.ai/index/ai-outbound
Field: Startup stack. Edition: 2026-09. Run: 2026-09-02.
Method: 5 fixed buyer prompts sent once each to 10 current models (GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Terra, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude Sonnet 5, Claude Fable 5, Gemini 3.6 Flash, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Sonar Pro, Sonar Reasoning Pro) via their APIs with web search enabled. 50 answers. Answer share = fraction of answers naming the vendor. Named first = fraction where it was the first tracked vendor named.

**Apollo leads** with 100% answer share (named in 50 of 50 answers) and was named first in 64%. Clay follows at 88%. 20 vendors were named at least once.

## Answer share

| # | Vendor | Answer share | Named first | Mentions | Models |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apollo | 100% | 64% | 50/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 2 | Clay | 88% | 14% | 44/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 3 | Instantly | 82% | 2% | 41/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 4 | Smartlead | 78% | 2% | 39/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 5 | Artisan | 68% | 6% | 34/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 6 | ZoomInfo | 32% | 2% | 16/50 | ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 7 | AiSDR | 30% | 0% | 15/50 | GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 8 | Outreach | 28% | 0% | 14/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 9 | Reply.io | 24% | 0% | 12/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Perplexity |
| 10 | 11x | 22% | 4% | 11/50 | ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity |
| 11 | Salesloft | 20% | 0% | 10/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 12 | Saleshandy | 16% | 6% | 8/50 | Claude Opus 5, Claude, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 13 | HubSpot | 14% | 0% | 7/50 | ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude, Gemini 3.5 Flash |
| 14 | Cognism | 14% | 0% | 7/50 | GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 15 | Lemlist | 14% | 0% | 7/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash |
| 16 | Lindy | 12% | 0% | 6/50 | Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 17 | Amplemarket | 10% | 0% | 5/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Luna, Gemini, Perplexity |
| 18 | Unify | 8% | 0% | 4/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, Gemini, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |
| 19 | Common Room | 6% | 0% | 3/50 | GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Luna |
| 20 | Persana | 2% | 0% | 1/50 | Claude |

## By model

- **GPT-5.6 Sol** (OpenAI, gpt-5.6-sol, 5 answers): Apollo 100%, Clay 100%, Instantly 100%, Smartlead 100%, Artisan 40%
- **GPT-5.6 Terra** (OpenAI, gpt-5.6-terra, 5 answers): Apollo 100%, Clay 100%, Instantly 60%, Smartlead 60%, 11x 40%
- **GPT-5.6 Luna** (OpenAI, gpt-5.6-luna, 5 answers): Apollo 100%, Clay 100%, Instantly 100%, Smartlead 100%, Outreach 80%
- **Claude Opus 5** (Anthropic, claude-opus-5, 5 answers): Apollo 100%, Clay 100%, Artisan 80%, ZoomInfo 80%, Instantly 60%
- **Claude Sonnet 5** (Anthropic, claude-sonnet-5, 5 answers): Apollo 100%, Clay 80%, Artisan 60%, Reply.io 60%, Instantly 40%
- **Claude Fable 5** (Anthropic, claude-fable-5, 5 answers): Apollo 100%, Clay 100%, Smartlead 100%, Instantly 80%, Artisan 80%
- **Gemini 3.6 Flash** (Google, gemini-3.6-flash, 5 answers): Apollo 100%, Clay 100%, Instantly 100%, Smartlead 100%, Artisan 100%
- **Gemini 3.5 Flash** (Google, gemini-3.5-flash, 5 answers): Apollo 100%, Clay 100%, Instantly 100%, Smartlead 100%, Artisan 100%
- **Sonar Pro** (Perplexity, sonar-pro, 5 answers): Apollo 100%, Instantly 100%, Smartlead 100%, Artisan 100%, Clay 80%
- **Sonar Reasoning Pro** (Perplexity, sonar-reasoning-pro, 5 answers): Apollo 100%, Instantly 80%, Artisan 80%, AiSDR 60%, Saleshandy 60%

## Sources the models cited

- cirrusinsight.com: 51
- amplemarket.com: 49
- pipeline.zoominfo.com: 49
- nooks.ai: 45
- youtube.com: 42
- salesforge.ai: 34
- moderninbound.com: 34
- autobound.ai: 33
- lindy.ai: 30
- cotera.co: 29
- aisdr.com: 27
- aiagentforsales.com: 22
- artisan.co: 19
- technologyadvice.com: 19
- clay.com: 18

## Prompts

1. What is the best AI outbound sales or prospecting tool for a founder doing outbound? Name specific products.
2. Which AI outbound sales or prospecting tool would you recommend to a founder doing outbound in 2026?
3. Compare the top AI outbound sales or prospecting tool options right now.
4. I'm a founder doing outbound and I need an AI outbound sales or prospecting tool. What should I use and why?
5. Best AI outbound sales or prospecting tool to automate cold email at a startup?

## Tracked but never named

None.

Raw answers: https://www.memetik.ai/index/ai-outbound (every answer published in full). Chart image: https://www.memetik.ai/charts/ai-outbound.png. Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit "Memetik Index".