Starting AI work (research, qualify, reach out)
Your AI Agents get to work when you ask them to. For qualifying and drafting, you ask by moving a contact or company into an "AI stage." Think of these stages as a request: "please check whether this qualifies," "please draft an intro." Research you start with one click on the record, or by asking your AI Agent.
The AI stages are:
- To Enrich: fills in missing details about the prospect. Enrich only fills what's empty: anything you typed stays as you wrote it.
- To Qualify: the Qualifier decides whether they qualify.
- To Contact (contacts only): the Message Writer drafts an intro.
Four ways to start
- The Status control on any contact or company page: pick the stage from the dropdown.
- Drag the card into that column on the Pipeline. The AI columns show a small AI marker.
- Bulk "Change status": select rows in your Contacts or Companies list and move them all into an AI stage at once. Great for qualifying a whole segment in one go.
- Just ask your main AI Agent in plain language: "research this company," "refresh the research on Maria," "does she qualify?", "draft an intro to this person."
To research one company or person yourself, open its Research tab and click the sparkle button (Run AI research now).
If you hide the AI columns in your Pipeline settings, you lose the drag shortcut. No problem: the Status control on the record always works.
What each action needs
| Action | How to start | What you need first | Where the result shows up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Research | Click Run AI research now on the record's Research tab, or ask your AI Agent | A saved company or contact | A written summary with sources on the Research tab |
| Enrich | Move to To Enrich | A saved record | Missing details about the prospect get filled in on the record |
| Qualify | Move to To Qualify, or ask "does this qualify?" | An active ICP with at least one active persona; for a person, their company mustn't match an ICP you've paused | A verdict (Qualified, Disqualified, or Insufficient data) with reasoning on the record, and as colors on the Pipeline |
| Reach out (draft a message) | Move a contact to To Contact, or ask "draft a message" | The contact is qualified and matched to a persona; your ICP has at least one linked problem; the contact has a usable, switched-on channel (email, or LinkedIn where your account is connected and you're connected to them); you're within your sending limits; and the contact has an owner | A draft waiting in your Tasks to review and send |
If a reach-out can't go ahead, the contact moves to "Could Not Contact" with a plain-English reason so you know exactly what to fix.
It doesn't auto-advance. Finishing research does not automatically start qualifying, and qualifying does not automatically draft a message. Each of those steps is a deliberate move you make, or a request you make to your AI Agent. The one exception: once a company or person qualifies, the Researcher starts on them by itself, unless an Admin turned that off in Automatic AI work.
The Note, Email, and Call buttons on a contact record what already happened. They don't start any AI work. To kick off the AI, use the Status control or just ask your AI Agent.