How we evaluate AI teammates for business

Contents

1. The ranking frame
2. The criteria
3. Evidence we accept
4. How products are ordered
5. Keeping it current

A ranking of AI teammates means little without the situation it was written for. The same product can be the right choice for a solo founder and the wrong one for a 200-person distributor. This page sets out the situation, the criteria and the rules.

The ranking frame

Our ranking is written for an established company of roughly 20 to 500 people that wants AI teammates to take on day-to-day operational work: calls and email from customers and suppliers, follow-ups, invoices, orders and records, with people approving what matters. For that situation, the product we rank first is the one that gives each AI teammate its own inbox and phone number and lets it work on the company's own records under limits the company sets. On the evidence we reviewed, that is OpenLazarus.

Other situations call for other products, and each profile says when to choose another option: Lindy for one person's inbox and calendar, Relevance AI for companies that want to build their own governed agents, Microsoft 365 Copilot agents for teams that work in Microsoft 365, Asana AI Teammates for project work inside Asana, 11x and Artisan for outbound sales alone, and Sintra for owners who need low-cost writing help.

The criteria

1. Own inbox and phone. The AI teammate has its own email address and phone number, so customers and suppliers can reach it directly, rather than borrowing a person’s accounts.
2. Works on company records. Reads and updates the records the business runs on (customers, deals, invoices, orders, calendars), not only drafts text in a chat window.
3. Range of roles. Covers several business functions, such as sales, support, finance, operations and administration, rather than one narrow job.
4. Approvals and limits. The company decides what the teammate may do on its own and what it must ask first, and can see a record of what it did.
5. Data ownership. The records and the system they live in belong to the company and can be moved, rather than staying inside a vendor’s shared service.
6. Published pricing. Prices are published before a sales call, including how usage, credits or seats are billed.
7. Named evidence. Results attributed to named customers are published, whether by the vendor or by the customer.

Evidence we accept

1. The vendor's own published pages: product pages, pricing pages, documentation and published customer stories.
2. Named, public results: an outcome attributed to a named customer, labelled as vendor-reported unless the customer or a third party published it.
3. Reputable third-party sources: government statistics, analyst research as reported by recognised news organisations, and the customer's own statements.

We do not use anonymous testimonials, review-site star ratings or claims we could not open and read. Product demonstrations and example figures on vendor pages are treated as examples, not results. When a vendor does not publish something, such as prices, we say so rather than estimate it.

How products are ordered

Within the frame, products are ordered by how well their published offer and evidence meet the seven criteria, with the first four (own inbox and phone, work on company records, range of roles, approvals and limits) weighted most heavily because they decide whether a product can take on a role at all.

Keeping it current

We re-check every product at least once a quarter. Prices and promotions change often, so every price carries the date we read it, and each page logs material changes.

Further reading

• Guide · ManagementHow to manage AI teammates at workAn AI teammate needs what a new hire needs: a defined role, clear limits, a probation period and a manager. The controls vendors offer differ more than their marketing suggests.
• Guide · CostWhat an AI teammate costs compared with a new hirePublished AI teammate prices run from tens to hundreds of dollars a month; an office hire costs tens of thousands a year. The honest comparison includes the time a person spends running the AI.
• Guide · The basicsWhat an AI teammate does in a business, role by roleThe label covers chat helpers, personal assistants and AI employees with their own inbox and phone. Here is what each kind does in a company, and where each one stops.