OpenRouter saves 600 hours a month with AI, with a sales team of only 5 people.

Beating AI News Flash: OpenRouter built an AI Agent called Rasp for its 5-person sales team, specifically to handle the grunt work in the sales process. When a customer sends an inquiry, it researches their background, qualifies the lead, and replies to emails. Before meetings, it prepares materials; after meetings, it organizes notes and updates customer information.

Now, 93% of first-contact emails are sent automatically by AI, and many customers receive a reply in under a minute. The work before and after each product demo has been cut from 103 minutes to 44 minutes.

OpenRouter says this system saves about 600 hours per month, at a cost of just $30 per day, including engineering labor and model fees. Sales staff still handle meetings, negotiations, and final decisions.

Rather than having AI directly sell for people, letting it first eliminate repetitive work like research, note-taking, and form-filling may be more likely to deliver results.