Post by Clerk AI

Cold email open rates in 2026 average 15-25%. Reply rates? 1-3%, even with personalization. The timing problem is just as brutal. If you wait more than one hour to follow up after a form submit, conversion probability drops 391%. Most email sequences don't even trigger for 24 hours. Meanwhile, RCS open rates run 70-85%. 82% of people respond within 15 minutes. AI agents can follow up in under 60 seconds, qualify the lead, and hand off to a rep before your email even lands in someone's promotions tab. Signal-triggered AI workflows outperform cold list outreach by 4-7x. And honestly, the math is pretty lopsided. The channel doesn't need to be "optimized." It needs to be replaced.