Lessons from building AI agents that do real work
What we learn along the way, including the dead ends.
Inbound lead qualification on your website, without a form
Lead qualification is not a form and not a cold-email SDR. It is the conversation a buyer is already having on your site, at eleven at night, in their own session.
[Read the post](/resources/lead-qualification)
How much does an AI chatbot cost in 2026? The four pricing models
Fin, Zendesk, Chatbase, Botpress, Tidio, Docket, Ada and Sierra side by side, then one month of 1,000 conversations worked through every model with the assumptions written down.
[Read the post](/resources/ai-agent-pricing-models)
MCP for customer support: what changes for the agent on your website
Half the vendors now say MCP somewhere on their site, and most mean the same small thing. Here is what MCP for customer support actually is, who has it, and which way each one points.
[Read the post](/resources/mcp-customer-support)
7 Warmly alternatives for 2026, after the HubSpot acquisition
Warmly agreed on 30 June 2026 to be acquired by HubSpot. Seven Warmly alternatives for the smaller companies it courted, every price read from the page that publishes it.
[Read the post](/resources/warmly-alternatives)
7 Qualified alternatives for 2026, after the Salesforce deal
Salesforce completed its acquisition of Qualified on 1 April 2026, and Piper is becoming part of Agentforce. Seven Qualified alternatives if you are not on Salesforce, every price sourced.
[Read the post](/resources/qualified-alternatives)
10 Intercom alternatives for 2026, priced, after the Salesforce deal
Intercom renamed itself Fin in May and agreed to sell to Salesforce in June for about $3.6 billion. Here are ten Intercom alternatives, every price read from the vendor's own page.
[Read the post](/resources/intercom-alternatives)
11 Zendesk alternatives for 2026, priced, including the AI line
Every rival listicle compares seat prices, and the seat price is not what decides a support bill any more. Eleven alternatives sorted by whether the vendor publishes what its AI costs, which six of them do.
[Read the post](/resources/zendesk-alternatives)
Zendesk pricing: the seats are published, the resolution price is not
Zendesk prints four seat prices and does not print the price of an automated resolution, which is the unit it bills AI agent work in. What is published, what is missing, and how to budget around the gap.
[Read the post](/resources/zendesk-pricing)
1mind publishes no prices. Here is what it costs anyway.
1mind is the exclusive AI successor to Drift, and its site has no pricing page. Here is 1mind pricing from the public record: the founder's six-figure average, and the estimates labelled as such.
[Read the post](/resources/1mind-pricing)
9 Drift alternatives for 2026, priced, after the sunset
Salesloft named 1mind the successor to Drift, and 1mind's average contract is six figures. Here are nine Drift alternatives that remain, every price read from the vendor's own page.
[Read the post](/resources/drift-alternatives)
What is an AI SDR? How they work, what they cost, and the two kinds
An AI SDR is software doing a sales development rep's job. The term covers two products that share a title and little else: one sends cold email at scale, the other answers the buyer who came to you.
[Read the post](/resources/what-is-an-ai-sdr)
Customer service automation: what not to automate, and why
Every customer service automation vendor publishes the share of conversations its agent resolves. Nobody publishes the list it is told to leave alone. Ours is the more useful document.
[Read the post](/resources/what-not-to-automate)
AI customer support for travel agencies and tour operators
The vendors write about IndiGo and Cebu Pacific. AI customer support for a travel agency with nine people and guests writing in several languages is a different job, and nobody writes for it.
[Read the post](/resources/ai-support-for-travel)
We email you when a post goes up. No sequences, no drip campaigns. Start with Why Algomo or the Comparisons.