Daniel Saks
Chief Executive Officer
Conversational targeting is transforming how sales and marketing teams find and engage prospects. Instead of relying on static lists or manual outreach, companies are using AI that can either interact in natural language or analyze conversational signals to pinpoint high-value targets. Why the shift? Traditional methods are struggling – for example, cold email reply rates have plummeted by ~50% in the past two years(2). Meanwhile, AI-driven approaches are yielding impressive gains: 85% of enterprises plan to deploy AI agents by end of 2025(1), and early adopters report 55% higher operational efficiency and 35% lower costs on average(1). In short, teams embracing conversational targeting AI are working smarter, not harder – and seeing significant uplifts in pipeline and revenue (often 3–15% revenue increase)(1).
This blog will explore the top conversational targeting AI platforms that sales, marketing, and RevOps teams are leveraging. These tools either use conversational interfaces (allowing you to describe your ideal customer in plain English or chat with an AI assistant) or deploy AI agents that converse with prospects (via email, chat, etc.) to qualify and convert them. Each section highlights a leading solution, key capabilities, and data-driven results. Let’s dive in and see how these AI tools can help your team find the right customers faster – and turn more conversations into conversions.
Conversational targeting AI refers to AI-powered tools that utilize conversation-like interactions to identify, qualify, or engage potential customers. This can take two forms:
The goal in both cases is the same: use conversation to improve targeting. By making targeting more natural (for you) and more engaging (for prospects), these AIs dramatically speed up go-to-market efforts. Instead of spending weeks manually researching and cold calling – or losing web visitors who don’t fill forms – conversational targeting tools help you find and connect with the best prospects faster.
Below, we profile the top platforms in this space. Each delivers conversational targeting in unique ways, but all share a common outcome: more efficient pipeline generation and better-quality leads. (And as a bonus, we’ve highlighted a key stat for each tool – perfect for a quick takeaway or infographic!)
Landbase is the first agentic AI platform purpose-built for fully autonomous audience discovery and qualification. It combines a massive B2B data engine with an AI that understands natural-language prompts, allowing you to find your next customer in seconds just by describing your ideal market. Powered by its proprietary GTM-2 Omni model (a second-generation agentic AI trained on billions of go-to-market data points), Landbase moves beyond static databases. Instead, it functions as an AI agent that actively searches, evaluates, and delivers targeted prospects on the fly – compressing weeks of manual list-building into a single interaction.
When you go to Landbase’s website, you can literally type a prompt like “Cybersecurity companies in North America hiring for sales leadership after a Series B round”. In seconds, Landbase’s AI interprets your request and returns a fully qualified list of companies and contacts that meet those criteria – complete with verified emails and deep signal data. This Natural-Language Targeting interface (called Vibe) means no more fiddling with hundreds of filters or guesswork; you ask and the AI delivers. Under the hood, GTM-2 Omni is performing semantic search and ICP pattern-matching across 210+ million contacts at 24+ million companies. The result is an accurate, ready-to-use prospect list – without the usual grunt work.
Key Features:
Landbase has a frictionless model. The core platform is free – anyone can go and run searches with up to 10k exports without even creating an account. This “open-gate” approach drives massive usage (and continuous model improvement as more prompts are entered). Revenue comes from upsells like Offline AI Qualification services (pay for human-verified enrichment) and an enterprise tier for advanced needs (custom signals, API access, on-premise options, etc.). Notably, Landbase has no seat-based licenses or credit systems – lowering the barrier for teams to try it. This zero-friction adoption has led to very fast spread; Landbase’s free tool has become a go-to for many startups to build an initial pipeline, which then often converts into paid engagements for enriched data.
Users report that Landbase compresses what used to take weeks into a single conversation. In pilot programs, companies achieved 4–7× faster audience creation compared to manual methods, and cut out up to 80% of manual list-building costs. Thanks to the AI+human qualification loop, contact accuracy exceeds 90%, eliminating the “garbage data” problem that plagues many sales orgs. Most importantly, targeting the right prospects boosts downstream results – early adopters have seen 2–4× higher lead conversion rates when using Landbase-generated lists versus their old targeting approach (more meetings and deals from the same outreach effort). In fact, Landbase’s own customers have added hundreds of thousands in pipeline in “off quarters” by uncovering new, high-intent audiences via the platform.
Landbase’s agentic AI can build a qualified prospect list 4–7× faster than traditional data vendors or manual research methods. One B2B SaaS customer cut list-building time by 93% and still improved reply rates by 40% using Landbase.
Landbase has redefined how go-to-market teams approach prospecting – shifting from static tools to an autonomous system of action. By unifying deep data, natural language AI, and automated execution, it essentially operates the front-end of sales for you: from intent (“who should we target?”) to activation (“here’s the list, ready to contact”). For sales and marketing leaders aiming for both speed and precision in pipeline generation, Landbase offers a powerful advantage. It’s conversational targeting taken to the next level – an AI that understands your audience and delivers them to you, while you focus on strategy and closing deals.
ZoomInfo is well-known as the industry’s leading B2B contact database, and in recent years it has layered in AI capabilities to maintain that lead. While ZoomInfo isn’t an outbound sequencing tool or chatbot itself, it plays a critical role in conversational targeting by providing the data foundation and now an AI assistant to navigate that data. ZoomInfo’s platform (SalesOS) contains over 100 million company profiles and 260+ million contacts worldwide(2) – a massive “living” dataset kept fresh by web crawlers and a large human research team. In 2024, ZoomInfo introduced SalesOS Copilot, a generative AI feature that lets users query this vast database in plain language and get conversational answers(2).
What does that mean in practice? A sales rep can literally ask Copilot something like, “Who are the top 10 fintech companies in Europe showing intent signals for cloud security?”, and the AI will instantly return a list of matching prospects along with context(2). It’s leveraging ZoomInfo’s rich data (including firmographics, org charts, technographics, and intent data on who’s researching what) and summarizing it for you. The AI can also provide company insights or talking points – e.g. “What recent events should I know about at Acme Corp?” – useful for personalization. In short, ZoomInfo has added a conversational layer on top of its data, making it easier to find and target the right segments without manually filtering for hours. As ZoomInfo’s CEO puts it, AI is only as good as the data behind it, and here the data is a major strength(6).
ZoomInfo’s move into AI-guided search is significant because many other tools (including some on this list) actually rely on ZoomInfo’s data behind the scenes. ZoomInfo has become something of an “arms dealer” in the sales tech space – even startups building AI prospecting agents often plug into ZoomInfo’s API to fuel their solutions(2). By launching Copilot, ZoomInfo is basically offering its own users a conversational targeting experience within the platform, reducing the need to export data into other AI tools. It blurs the line between a data provider and an AI solution.
From a sales/marketing team perspective, ZoomInfo is often used in tandem with other tools. For example, you might use ZoomInfo to get a broad list of target accounts with certain traits, then feed that list into an outreach tool or AI agent for engagement. With the new Copilot, that initial list building becomes more intuitive – you ask the AI and it does the segmentation for you. It’s not a fully autonomous SDR (it won’t send emails on its own), but it dramatically speeds up the targeting research phase. And because ZoomInfo’s data is known for its breadth and quality (including direct dials, verified emails, org charts, and even buyer intent signals from web behavior(2)), the output of Copilot tends to be high-value prospects.
ZoomInfo’s database and AI are a potent combo – the company reports over 260 million contacts and now allows reps to retrieve targeted lists just by asking in natural language(2). This conversational query capability turns a task that used to involve dozens of filter clicks into a single question-and-answer interaction.
In summary, ZoomInfo provides the data “fuel” for many go-to-market engines, and with AI Copilot it ensures customers can maximize that data through conversational targeting. For teams that already depend on ZoomInfo, Copilot adds a layer of intelligence to quickly zero in on the right contacts. And even as standalone, ZoomInfo is often considered a must-have in the B2B space – some say “the AI is only as good as the data it’s built on,” and ZoomInfo offers one of the richest data sets available(6). It’s not replacing outreach tools, but it supercharges your targeting precision at the top of the funnel. If your GTM strategy is data-driven, ZoomInfo’s AI enhancements are worth exploring alongside its core database.
Apollo.io is another heavyweight in B2B sales intelligence that has increasingly infused AI into its toolkit. Apollo started as a robust leads database + sales engagement platform, and it now positions itself as an all-in-one “AI-powered go-to-market platform”. With over 210 million contacts and 35 million companies in its database(5), Apollo gives you plenty of raw fuel for targeting. The platform lets you build lead lists using extensive filters (industry, title, technologies used, hiring, etc.), and also execute outbound sequences (emails, calls, LinkedIn) – essentially combining what you’d get from ZoomInfo and an email outreach tool in one.
Where does conversational targeting come in? Recently Apollo added an AI Sales Email Assistant that acts like a co-pilot for reps. This AI can draft personalized emails for you, suggest the next best person to contact, and recommend optimal send times based on past engagement data(2). While it’s not a chatbot interface, it does provide a conversational layer of guidance – for example, it might analyze your sequence results and “converse” with you through suggestions: “Prospects in the fintech segment are engaging more on Tuesdays – consider scheduling emails then”. Apollo’s AI features were strong enough that G2 (a software review site) rated Apollo the #1 AI Sales Assistant for SMBs in 2025(2).
Apollo shines as a data-driven prospecting workhorse. It’s widely used by startups and SMBs because it’s cost-effective and easy to use (often replacing the need to hire extra SDRs). Its motto is literally “find your next customer,” and it delivers on that by enabling users to pull lists from its “living” database (which 500,000+ companies tap into) and reach out at scale(5). The AI elements mainly help users do this more efficiently – e.g., the AI can auto-enrich leads, personalize message snippets, or prioritize who to contact first each day. It’s not a fully autonomous agent (a human sets up and runs the sequences), but it saves time and improves targeting by learning from what works.
For instance, Apollo’s AI can look at your previous outreach and highlight which types of prospects responded and which didn’t, guiding you to refine your ICP criteria. It essentially turns the huge data repository into actionable recommendations. Users frequently mention that Apollo’s AI personalization features are a “game-changer” for scaling outreach without sounding robotic(2). And the results back this up – Apollo says that across 5,000+ customers, using its platform end-to-end can lead to a 44% increase in meetings booked per month and 20% more opportunities created, versus traditional methods(2). That’s likely due to a combination of better data + automation + AI-assisted writing.
Apollo’s own benchmarks show teams using its AI and automation see 44% more meetings booked and 20% more opportunities each month(2). It’s helping reps do in minutes what used to take hours, by streamlining prospecting and outreach in one platform.
In summary, Apollo.io is a top choice for teams that want a data-rich platform with a sprinkle of AI to guide them. It’s especially popular with smaller companies building pipeline from scratch, as it provides a lot of value (huge contact database + email/phone outreach + AI assistance) at a reasonable price point. The conversational targeting aspect is less about chatting with the AI, and more about how the AI helps you target the right people and craft the right message. Think of Apollo as a super-charged prospecting machine that you still operate – the AI is the navigation system helping you route the best path. If you prefer to keep a human in the driver’s seat but want AI intelligence under the hood, Apollo is a strong contender to consider.
6sense, known for its “Revenue AI” platform, approaches conversational targeting from the account-based marketing angle. Instead of one-to-one chats, 6sense’s AI acts like an analyst that listens to the “conversations” happening out on the web – tracking buying intent signals – to tell you which accounts are heating up and what they care about. It’s conversational in the sense that it decodes the digital dialogue of your prospects (web searches, site visits, content consumption) and translates that into targeting guidance.
How it works: 6sense’s core strength is predictive intent data. It can de-anonymize your website visitors and combine that with third-party intent (e.g. people reading articles about relevant topics) to infer when an account is in a buying cycle stage(2). For example, if multiple employees from Acme Corp have been searching for “cloud security solutions” and one downloads your whitepaper, 6sense might flag Acme Corp as being in a “consideration” or “decision” stage for security software(2). It then surfaces this insight to your team, often with recommendations like: “Account Acme is showing high intent on X – target them now with Y message.” In this way, 6sense guides sales and marketing where to focus, effectively telling you who is conversationally signaling interest.
In recent years, 6sense has also rolled out AI Email/Chat features (like its Conversational Email, stemming from an acquisition of Saleswhale). These are semi-autonomous agents that can send intro emails to high-intent accounts, ask a few basic questions, and pass the conversation to a human rep if interest is confirmed(2). It’s not as mature as dedicated AI SDR tools, but it shows 6sense’s intent data in action – the moment an account lights up with intent, an AI can reach out with a relevant message. Many marketing teams use 6sense to orchestrate multi-channel plays: for instance, if 6sense says a certain account is “in-market” this week, the team might have a chatbot on the website greet them with a special message, send an AI-crafted email, and have sales prioritize calling them. The key benefit is focus – 6sense helps you converse with the right accounts at the right time, rather than blasting everyone.
The impact reported is significant: companies using 6sense often see much higher conversion rates because they’re aiming their outreach where the iron is hot. 6sense likes to cite that customers have achieved outcomes like 6× increase in opportunity volume and 40%+ increases in deal size or win rate by zeroing in on “in-market” accounts(2). One case study (Expereo) saw a 6× jump in opportunities after implementing 6sense, by focusing sales efforts on the subset of leads with strong intent(2). Essentially, it dramatically reduces the noise and wasted effort in your targeting. Another stat: clients have reported ~30% higher sales productivity because reps aren’t chasing as many dead ends(2).
6sense users have reported up to 6× more opportunities and ~40% higher conversion rates by targeting accounts identified by 6sense’s AI intent signals(2). Knowing who’s ready to buy makes all the difference – one customer saw a sixfold jump in pipeline after focusing on 6sense-qualified accounts.
In summary, 6sense is like having an AI market scout on your team. It eavesdrops on the digital chatter and tells you where a meaningful sales conversation is likely to be fruitful. While it may not “chat” in natural language with users or leads as much as some others on this list, it enables highly conversational targeting by ensuring your outreach is contextually timed and relevant. Many enterprises with large TAMs and complex sales cycles swear by 6sense to drive their account-based strategies. If your GTM approach is account-centric and you want to prioritize efforts based on data-driven intent insights, 6sense is a top pick. It essentially answers the question: “Who’s interested right now, and what should we say to them?” – which is golden for any sales team trying to maximize efficiency.
Conversica is a pioneer of AI-driven lead engagement via two-way conversations. Think of Conversica as a virtual sales development rep that tirelessly follows up with your leads through email (and sometimes SMS), using natural language to mimic a human touch. This tool squarely delivers on “conversational targeting” by handling the actual conversations needed to qualify a lead’s interest.
Here’s the scenario: your marketing team generates a bunch of leads – webinar attendees, demo requests, old prospects in the CRM, etc. Instead of having human reps chase each one with emails and calls, Conversica’s AI assistant (often given a friendly human name like “Alex”) will automatically send a series of personalized emails to each lead(2). The AI introduces itself as an assistant, asks questions like “Hi, I saw you downloaded our whitepaper – are you interested in a demo or learning more about XYZ?”, and can understand the replies. If the lead responds with interest (say, “Yes, I am interested, but maybe next quarter”), the AI will politely persist or book a meeting. If the lead says “No thanks” or ignores multiple emails, the AI will gracefully step back. Importantly, Conversica’s AI can handle common responses and objections – it’s trained on thousands of conversation threads, so it knows how to reply if a lead says “I’m not the right person” or “We already have a solution”, etc., keeping the conversation going like a human would(2).
The outcome is that every single lead gets followed up multiple times, promptly and politely, something human sales teams often struggle to do (either due to bandwidth or hesitancy). Conversica essentially ensures no potential opportunity falls through the cracks due to lack of timely engagement. It’s typically used for inbound lead qualification and nurture. For example, if 500 people visit your booth at a trade show, Conversica can email all of them within a day or two, ask about their interest, and surface the 30 who reply positively as hot leads for sales to call. The prospects often don’t realize the emails are from an AI because the tone is so human-like (some even ask to thank the assistant, not knowing it’s a bot!).
What kind of uplift can you expect? Conversica publishes case studies: one customer saw a 25% increase in qualified leads by using Conversica to re-engage their dormant leads(2). Another common stat: because the AI follows up within minutes/hours and keeps on top of leads, companies see response times to inquiries drop dramatically (sometimes from days to near zero-hour response for initial touch). Conversica claims their clients often get 10–30% more opportunities from the same lead pool that was previously being under-followed(2). Also, by filtering out the truly interested leads, sales can focus only on those, making sales cycles shorter – one report noted a 30% shorter sales cycle for leads nurtured by Conversica (since the tire-kickers never make it to sales; only the warmed ones do)(2).
On average, Conversica’s AI assistant has delivered a ~25% increase in qualified lead volume and about a 30% reduction in time-to-engage those leads for companies deploying it(2). Essentially, a quarter more leads become sales-ready, and they get there faster, thanks to persistent two-way AI outreach.
In summary, Conversica is all about automating the conversational follow-up that turns marketing leads into sales opportunities. It’s like having an army of polite, diligent SDRs who never sleep and never forget to follow up. For organizations with lots of inbound leads or stale leads that need reactivation, an AI assistant like Conversica can massively increase pipeline by engaging those contacts in human-like email conversations. It’s important to note Conversica isn’t typically used for pure cold outreach to brand new accounts – it works best when someone has expressed some interest (even lightly). Within that scope, though, it excels. It takes the repetitive email cadence off your humans and ensures every lead is touched multiple times. If “speed to lead” and thorough lead nurture are areas you want to improve, Conversica (or tools like it) is a proven solution. It truly brings conversational targeting to life by letting an AI handle the talk until a prospect says “I’m interested,” at which point your human team takes over the warmed-up conversation.
Drift is practically synonymous with conversational marketing. It provides AI-driven chatbots that sit on your website and engage visitors in real time, acting like virtual sales reps on standby. For sales and marketing teams, Drift’s conversational AI ensures that when a potential customer lands on your site – your pricing page, product page, etc. – they’re greeted and guided rather than left to wander. In terms of targeting, Drift helps you capture and convert the inbound interest your marketing has generated by literally starting a conversation on the spot.
Imagine a visitor comes to your site at 9 pm and is poking around. With Drift, a chat bubble can pop up: “Hi there! Looking into our analytics tool? I’m here to help. Are there any questions I can answer for you?”(2). The chatbot can ask qualifying questions like “Can I ask your role?” or “What are you hoping to achieve?”, and based on responses, provide answers from your knowledge base (“Yes, we integrate with Salesforce.”). It’s like an interactive FAQ mixed with a booking agent – if the visitor seems like a good lead (say they mention they’re the CTO of a company interested in a demo), the bot will offer to schedule a meeting or alert a human rep to jump into the chat(2). Drift can even recognize high-value visitors (for instance, if their email or IP reveals they’re from a target account) and route them to a VIP playbook. Essentially, Drift turns your website into a two-way conversation rather than a static brochure.
The results? Companies using Drift’s chatbot often see a huge lift in web lead conversions. There’s a well-known figure that chatbot-engaged leads convert 4× to 8× more often than those who only browse and maybe fill a form(2). In fact, Drift’s own site saw 15% more leads added to their funnel just by using their chatbot instead of a form(4). Why? Because instant engagement matters – only a small fraction of visitors fill out contact forms (many just leave). But if you greet them and help them in real time, they’re far more likely to provide contact info or book a meeting. Drift essentially captures demand that would have otherwise bounced. It also dramatically cuts response times; the bot is responding within seconds, whereas a form fill might get a human follow-up hours or days later (by which time interest can wane). Some Drift users report that this faster engagement led to a 25% increase in sales productivity (their reps spend time only on qualified chats) and up to a 30% shorter sales cycle because the initial contact happens at the moment of peak interest(2).
Deploying a conversational chatbot like Drift can make website visitors 4× more likely to convert into leads compared to static forms(3). In case studies, companies have seen chatbot-driven leads account for 15%+ of pipeline and a 25–30% boost in sales efficiency by automating initial conversations(2).
In summary, Drift exemplifies conversational targeting on your home turf (your website). It targets inbound traffic with the right message at the right time through AI chat. Rather than targeting by list or by outbound criteria, it targets by behavior – if someone is on your site, they likely have intent, and Drift engages them then and there. This makes it the perfect complement to outbound-focused tools: you use outbound AI to bring people to your site, and Drift to maximize conversions from those who arrive. The platform has been a leader in this space, inspiring similar offerings (like HubSpot’s live chat with AI, Intercom’s Fin, etc.), but Drift remains a category king with continuous innovations. For teams with any appreciable volume of web visitors, an AI chatbot like Drift is almost a no-brainer to ensure you’re not losing potential customers who don’t fill out a form. It’s like extending a friendly hand to every visitor and saying “Let’s chat!” – and in today’s environment, buyers appreciate that instant service.
The rapid rise of conversational targeting means new tools and big players are entering the scene constantly. Beyond the established names above, here are a few noteworthy trends and newcomers making waves in 2025:
All told, the conversational targeting AI space is evolving rapidly. We’ve moved past the question of “should we use AI?” to “which AI approach should we use, and how do we integrate it?”. With startups pushing boundaries and incumbents baking AI in, sales and marketing teams have an expanding toolkit. The takeaway trend is clear: whether it’s via a chat interface or automated outreach, engaging customers and data through conversation is the new paradigm for go-to-market.
As we’ve seen, conversational targeting AI is not a single product or tactic – it’s a broad shift toward more interactive, intelligent, and efficient go-to-market strategies. From AI agents that autonomously build laser-focused prospect lists, to chatbots that greet your website visitors, to virtual assistants that nurture every lead, these solutions attack the perennial challenge from all angles: how do we find and connect with the right customers faster?
The data doesn’t lie – companies embracing these tools are achieving substantial gains. Higher conversion rates, shorter sales cycles, more pipeline from the same inputs… all while reducing the manual workload on their teams. In an era where buyers expect personalization and quick responses, and where internal teams are pressured to do more with less, conversational AI offers a compelling competitive edge. It’s like giving your organization a team of expert helpers that work 24/7, learn quickly, and scale effortlessly.
Tool and strategies modern teams need to help their companies grow.
