The Rise of Human-in-the-Loop AI Sales: Monaco, MarketBetter & More
A strange thing happened in the AI sales space in 2025-2026: the best-funded companies started backing away from full automation.
11x.ai raised $74M promising to "replace" SDRs with autonomous AI agents. Artisan pitched "Ava" as a digital sales worker that never sleeps. The narrative was clear: humans are expensive, slow, and inconsistent. AI is the future.
Then reality hit.
Fully autonomous AI SDRs produced mixed results. G2 reviews for 11x hovered around 3.5/5. Buyers reported generic-sounding outreach, missed context, and AI that didn't understand nuance. The dream of setting it and forgetting it turned out to be... forgettable.
In 2026, the pendulum is swinging. The smartest platforms are embracing human-in-the-loop AI — systems where AI handles the heavy lifting, but human judgment stays central to the process.
Two of the most notable examples: Monaco and MarketBetter.
What Is Human-in-the-Loop AI?
Human-in-the-loop (HITL) AI is an approach where AI systems perform tasks with human oversight, guidance, or intervention at key decision points. Instead of full autonomy, the AI recommends and executes while humans verify, adjust, and approve.
In sales, this means:
- AI drafts emails → humans review and adjust before sending
- AI identifies prospects → humans prioritize which ones to pursue
- AI suggests talking points → humans run the actual conversations
- AI prioritizes tasks → humans decide what to do and when
The key insight: AI is great at processing data, finding patterns, and automating repetitive work. Humans are great at judgment, empathy, relationships, and dealing with ambiguity. The best sales tools leverage both.
How Different Platforms Handle Human-AI Balance
Fully Autonomous: 11x, Artisan
Approach: AI does everything — finding prospects, writing emails, sending outreach, following up, even making phone calls. Humans set parameters and review results, but the AI runs independently.
Pros: Maximum efficiency, minimal human effort needed.
Cons: Quality control issues, brand risk from bad AI outreach, lack of nuance, buyers can tell they're talking to a robot.
Results so far: Mixed. 11x has a ~3.5/5 G2 rating. Multiple reviews mention generic outreach quality.
Expert-Guided: Monaco
Approach: AI handles the heavy lifting (outbound campaigns, CRM management, meeting notes), but experienced human salespeople are embedded in the process. These aren't your reps — they're Monaco's sales experts who monitor, guide, and improve the AI's output.
Pros: Better outreach quality than full autonomy, AI mistakes caught by experienced humans.
Cons: You're trusting Monaco's experts, not your own team. The guidance is outsourced. Also limited to email — no phone, no chat.
Status: Public beta, launched February 2026. Too early to evaluate results.
SDR-Empowered: MarketBetter
Approach: AI empowers YOUR SDRs to be dramatically more productive. Visitor identification tells them who's interested. The Daily Playbook tells them what to do. AI drafts emails and provides call scripts. The smart dialer makes calling efficient. The chatbot handles inbound 24/7.
But the SDR is always in the driver's seat. They decide which leads to pursue, how to tailor the message, when to pick up the phone, and how to run the conversation.
Pros: Your team maintains relationships and judgment. AI handles the grunt work. Best of both worlds.
Cons: Requires humans — you need SDRs. (But you should have them anyway.)
Results: 4.97/5 G2 rating, proven customer base including CallRail and Hologram.
Why Human-in-the-Loop Is Winning
1. Buyers Can Tell
Today's B2B buyers are sophisticated. They know what an AI-generated email looks like. They've seen the patterns — the over-personalized first line ("I see you went to University of Michigan — Go Blue!"), the generic value prop, the calendar link drop.
When every company uses the same autonomous AI SDR, every outreach sounds the same. Human-in-the-loop platforms produce outreach that's genuinely different because a human added judgment, context, and personality.
2. Sales Is Relational
Closing a B2B deal isn't like booking a restaurant reservation. It requires trust, rapport, understanding, and judgment. AI can get you to the conversation, but a human needs to have it.
Human-in-the-loop platforms optimize for getting humans into conversations faster — not replacing the conversations.
3. Brand Risk Is Real
When a fully autonomous AI sends an embarrassing, tone-deaf, or incorrect email, it's your company's reputation on the line. One bad AI email to the wrong executive can damage a relationship permanently.
Human oversight catches these mistakes before they happen.
4. Nuance Matters in Sales
Should you lead with pricing or ROI? Is this prospect in buying mode or research mode? Is the tone right for this industry? These are judgment calls that AI handles poorly and humans handle well.
The Best Human-in-the-Loop Sales Stack
Based on what's working in 2026, here's what a best-in-class HITL sales stack looks like:
- Demand identification (AI): Website visitor identification reveals who's interested — MarketBetter
- Prioritization (AI): Daily Playbook ranks what matters most — MarketBetter
- Outreach drafting (AI): AI writes personalized emails and call scripts — MarketBetter
- Inbound capture (AI): Chatbot engages visitors 24/7 — MarketBetter (FloBot)
- Outreach execution (Human): SDR reviews, adjusts, and sends — your team
- Conversations (Human): Phone calls, meetings, demos — your team
- Pipeline management (AI + Human): CRM with AI insights — HubSpot/Salesforce + MarketBetter
Notice the pattern: AI handles data, research, and preparation. Humans handle judgment, relationships, and conversations.
The Future of AI Sales
The fully autonomous AI SDR isn't going away. 11x and Artisan will continue to improve. But the trajectory is clear: the most effective sales teams in 2026 and beyond will use human-in-the-loop AI.
Monaco gets this right philosophically with embedded human experts. MarketBetter gets this right practically with the Daily Playbook, visitor identification, and tools that empower your existing team.
The best AI doesn't replace your SDRs. It makes them superhuman.
MarketBetter's human-in-the-loop approach gives your team superpowers. Visitor identification, daily playbook, smart dialer, AI chatbot — all designed to make humans more effective, not replace them. Book a demo.