B2B marketing teams have long chased the dream of automation that actually moves pipeline—not just leads. Now, Qualified says that shift is accelerating fast.

The company announced a 185% increase in new customer acquisitions since last quarter, fueled by demand for its AI SDR agent, Piper, and what it calls “full-funnel agentic marketing.” New logos include Dun & Bradstreet, Epson, and Sprout Social. Existing customers such as Blackbaud and LogicMonitor have expanded their use of the platform.

The message from Qualified is clear: marketing automation built on static workflows is giving way to autonomous AI agents that manage buyer engagement end to end.

From Lead Capture to Autonomous Funnel Management

The traditional inbound funnel has a math problem. Marketing generates more leads than sales teams can realistically follow up on. Response times lag. Conversations get missed. Buyer expectations, meanwhile, trend in the opposite direction: instant, personalized, always-on.

Qualified’s answer is Piper, positioned as the “#1 AI SDR Agent,” designed to operate across the full funnel. Instead of routing leads into predefined nurture tracks, Piper autonomously engages website visitors, follows up via email, qualifies prospects, and books meetings—without waiting on manual rules or human triage.

In effect, it replaces rule-based marketing automation platforms with an AI agent that determines the next best action in real time.

For B2B organizations under pressure to do more with leaner teams, that promise is compelling: fewer handoffs, faster engagement, and measurable pipeline lift.

Blackbaud offers a case in point. According to Troy O’Bryan, Senior Vice President of Global Growth Marketing, adopting Piper led to a 68% increase in meetings booked and a 118% increase in conversations. More importantly, the AI agent works continuously, allowing human reps to focus on high-value discussions rather than repetitive outreach.

PiperX: Multi-Agent, Multi-Modal, Multi-Stage

Growth alone isn’t the headline. Product evolution is driving it.

Qualified recently introduced PiperX, an upgrade designed to push the concept of agentic marketing further. The enhancements include:

• Multi-stage autonomy: Piper can manage engagement across multiple funnel stages, not just top-of-funnel chat.

• Multi-agent infrastructure: Coordinated agents handle different aspects of buyer interaction.

• Multi-modal interactions: Buyers can engage via text, voice, or video.

In practice, this means Piper isn’t limited to chatbot interactions. It can determine whether a text exchange, a voice conversation, or a video interaction is most effective—and adjust accordingly.

That flexibility aligns with a broader enterprise AI trend: systems that don’t just automate tasks but orchestrate complex workflows with contextual awareness.

For marketers, it also reduces tool sprawl. Instead of stitching together chat platforms, email automation, SDR tools, and analytics dashboards, the pitch is a unified agentic layer driving engagement across channels.

The Rise of Agentic Marketing

The phrase “agentic marketing” reflects a larger shift across the enterprise software landscape. AI is moving from assistive copilots to autonomous agents capable of executing goals.

In marketing and sales, that evolution is particularly visible in the AI SDR category. Vendors are racing to prove their agents can not only initiate conversations but also qualify, nurture, and convert prospects at scale.

The appeal is obvious. Inbound pipelines are increasingly crowded, outbound response rates fluctuate, and revenue teams face tighter budgets. An AI agent that can autonomously manage inbound and nurture sequences offers a path to improved efficiency without proportional headcount growth.

Qualified’s 185% quarter-over-quarter customer increase suggests that companies aren’t just testing AI SDR agents—they’re integrating them deeply into go-to-market operations.

According to Qualified CMO Maura Rivera, customers are “rebuilding their go-to-market motions around agentic marketing.” That’s a bold claim, but it reflects a growing sentiment: AI isn’t a side experiment. It’s becoming infrastructure.

Competitive Pressure in the AI SDR Market

The AI SDR space is heating up quickly, with multiple platforms vying to become the system of record for autonomous engagement. Differentiation increasingly comes down to depth of autonomy, channel breadth, and measurable revenue impact.

Qualified’s strategy centers on owning the inbound funnel and extending outward. By positioning Piper as capable of handling everything from initial website interaction through conversion, the company aims to make AI SDR agents foundational rather than supplemental.

The challenge for the broader market will be proving long-term ROI beyond early adoption enthusiasm. Meeting lift and conversation growth are strong leading indicators. Sustained revenue attribution will determine which platforms solidify their place in the stack.

Pipeline, Not Just Productivity

What distinguishes this wave of AI marketing tools from earlier automation cycles is the emphasis on commercial outcomes.

Qualified isn’t pitching time savings or incremental efficiency. It’s positioning Piper as a direct pipeline and revenue engine.

That framing resonates in a climate where CMOs and CROs are increasingly aligned around revenue metrics. If AI agents can reliably drive meetings and advance opportunities without degrading buyer experience, they shift from cost-saving utilities to growth levers.

And with buyers expecting instant engagement across channels, the alternative—slow follow-ups and manual bottlenecks—feels increasingly untenable.

For now, Qualified’s growth figures suggest that agentic marketing is moving from buzzword to budget line item. Whether Piper remains the category leader will depend on how effectively it continues to blend autonomy, personalization, and measurable revenue impact.

But one thing is clear: the inbound funnel is no longer just a sequence of forms and workflows. It’s becoming a space where autonomous agents work the pipeline—24/7.

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