Use AI Research

Overview

AI research on Apollo allows for AI-powered insights into people and companies that reduce manual research time and help you craft personalized messages. Use AI research to narrow your targeting, personalize your emails, and get to know your prospects more deeply. Just enter a prompt or use one built by Apollo, and Apollo delivers insights unique to your goals in seconds.

You can use your AI research to filter search results or to write highly personalized emails when you reach out.

Check out the following sections to run AI research from a template or to create custom AI research with prompts.

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Use an AI Research Template

To run an AI research from a template:

1. Launch Apollo and click People or Companies.
2. Add filters to refine your search, then click Run AI research > Start with a template.

3. Select a template from the AI research template library, then click Try it.

4. Apollo displays the AI prompt and previews a result for a contact.

5. Click › to preview the results on additional contacts.

6. When finished, click Save & run, then click:
• Save & run first 10 rows to run the AI research on the first 10 rows of your prospecting results.
• Save & run first 25 rows to run the AI research on the first 25 rows of your prospecting results.
• Save & don't run to save the AI research and run it later.

7. Apollo runs the AI research on your prospects. Review the results in the AI research field.

8. Hover over an AI research result to view more details.

9. Click a research result to edit the output, or click Regenerate to rerun the research.
10. To run the AI research on additional prospects, click the AI research column, then click Run AI research.

You have now used AI research on Apollo. You can use the AI research to filter prospects or in messaging to contacts.

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Run Custom AI Research

1. Launch Apollo and click People or Companies.
2. Add filters to refine your search, then click Research with AI > Run custom AI prompt.

3. Choose how you want to write a custom AI prompt:

• Assisted: If you're new to AI prompts or need some guidance, use assisted mode and Apollo generates a prompt for you based on your goals.
• Prompt: If you're a seasoned AI prompt writer and know about AI prompt best practices, create a custom prompt from scratch.

• Assisted
• Prompt

To run a custom AI prompt in assisted mode:

1. Write the goal you want to achieve in plain, natural language.

Wondering what AI research can do? Check out these popular use cases:

Use case		Example goal
Refine targeting	Use AI research to find the right prospects.	Determine if these contacts are decision makers or influencers within their organization.
Qualify prospects	Use AI research to determine whether individuals or companies are truly ready to engage with your product or service.	Determine if these accounts have the necessary technical skills to implement a new CRM.
Personalize messaging	Use AI research to generate highly personalized messages for outreach over email, social, or phone.	Write a short, 4-5 sentence introductory email that describes our product and how it can help resolve their company's pain points.

2. Click Preview to preview the results on a real contact.

 

Preview Tips

Use previews to ensure you're getting the results you expect. If the preview doesn't match what you expect, edit your goal then run the preview again. Previews help you finetune your request without using up all the your AI research on your plan.

3. (Optional) Click Prompt to edit the prompt.

4. Next, edit the field name so it's easy for you to reference in emails or other AI research. The field name becomes a custom field and a dynamic variable in your Apollo account.
5. Set a field type:
• Single-line text: Best for categorizing, summarizing, or targeting.
• Multi-line text: Best for emails, LinkedIn messages, call scripts, or comprehensive research.
• Single-select picklist: Best for prospect research and useful for limiting your results to "yes" and "no," or other specific options.

 

A Field Fact

Did you know? You can't edit the field type after you've created an AI research field.

6. Select whether the AI research field is private and visible only to you, or global and visible to everyone at your organization.

 

Permission Required

To make a research field global and visible to everyone at your organization, you need permission to add or edit definitions of custom fields. If you don't have permission, reach out to an Apollo admin at your organization for help.

7. When finished, click Save & run, then choose how you want to run the AI research.

 

Run Limit

Need more rows? Your Apollo plan determines the maximum number of records you can select for AI research. To increase your limit, upgrade your plan. If you have questions about plans or pricing, reach out to the Apollo sales team.

Apollo runs the AI research on your prospects. Review the results in the AI research field column.

You have now run custom AI research. You can use the research to filter prospects or to personalize your messaging.

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To run custom AI research in prompt mode:

1. Select a model for your AI research:
• Perplexity Sonar: Leverage AI to research details on the web for any contact or account.
• OpenAI GPT-4o mini: Target, categorize, and summarize existing Apollo data with no web access.
• Anthropic Claude Haiku 3.5: Use data you've gathered inside Apollo to generate personalized messages.
2. Write your research prompt or click 💡 to start with an example prompt.

Example Prompt

You are a seasoned B2B research analyst. Determine if {{contact.first_name}} {{contact.last_name}} is a decision-maker or influencer at {{account.name}}. Search only LinkedIn or Facebook posts. Provide only a one-sentence rationale citing their role, post, or recent accomplishment. If you can’t find any relevant info, respond with ‘Not Found.’

3. Click { } to reference a dynamic field in your prompt, like a prospect's name or other AI research fields you created.

 

Prompt Precision

Follow Apollo's AI Prompt Best Practices for the best results. Be specific in your request, set fallbacks, and structure your output so you get the results you need. Use { } to reference existing Apollo data or other AI research fields you've created with dynamic variables.

You are an expert SDR researcher. Your goal is to conduct research online to figure out if {{account.name}} uses Salesforce. To gather accurate information, you must conduct the following searches for each technology:

  - Does {{account.name}} use Salesforce?
  - Are there jobs at {{account.name}} requiring Salesforce skills?
  - Is there a {{account.name}} case study including Salesforce?
  - Has {{account.name}} teamed up with Salesforce on projects?

After performing these searches, review the results and provide a 'Yes' or 'No' for each question. Only return yes or no.

4. (Optional) Check Show citations to add sources to the end of your AI research.
5. Edit the field name so it's easy for you to reference in emails or other AI research. The field name becomes a custom field and a dynamic variable in your Apollo account.
6. Set a field type:
• Single-line text: Best for categorizing, summarizing, or targeting.
• Multi-line text: Best for emails, LinkedIn messages, call scripts, or comprehensive research.
• Single-select picklist: Best for prospect research and useful for limiting your results to "yes" and "no," or other specific options.

 

A Field Fact

Did you know? You can't edit the field type after an AI research field is created.

7. Select whether the research field is private and visible only to you, or global and visible to everyone at your organization.

 

Permission Required

To make a research field visible to all, you need permission to add or edit definitions of custom fields. If you don't have permission, reach out to an Apollo admin at your organization for help.

8. Click Preview to preview the AI research results on a real contact or account.

 

Preview Tips

Use previews to ensure you're getting the results you expect from your prompt. It may take trial and error to find the right prompt. If the preview doesn't match what you expect, edit the prompt then run the preview again. Previews help you finetune your request without using up all of your AI research runs. Learn more about AI Prompt Best Practices.

9. When finished, click Save & run, then choose how you want to run the AI research.

 

Run Limit

Need more rows? Your Apollo plan determines the maximum number of records you can select for AI research. To increase your limit, upgrade your plan. If you have questions about plans or pricing, reach out to the Apollo sales team.

Apollo runs the AI research on your prospects. Review the results in the AI research field.

You have now run custom AI research. You can use the research to filter prospects or in messaging to contacts.

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Filter Prospects with AI Research

When you search for people or companies, you can filter by AI research results to hone in on your target buyers:

1. Launch Apollo and click People or Companies.
2. Click an AI research column, and then click Apply filter.

3. Alternatively, click Show filters > AI Filters.
4. Select your AI research and a value to filter by, like Contains "Yes."

5. Apollo filters your results. Hover over the AI research field to view more details.

You have now filtered prospects with an AI research.

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Use AI Research in Messaging

To write an email with AI research:

1. First, run AI research on your prospects.
2. Next, add contacts to a sequence, then add or edit an automatic or manual email step.
3. Click the email step to modify your email template.

4. Click Insert AI variable > Existing AI variable, then select your AI research to generate messaging automatically.

5. Alternatively, add a dynamic variable to reference a specific AI research field. Click { } > Recently created or scroll to custom fields to select your research.

6. Apollo uses your research to automatically personalize the contact's email.

You have now used AI research to write a personalized email to contacts.

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Next Steps

Here are a few next steps to leverage Apollo’s AI features for your prospecting:

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