--- title: "Artisan killed its $2 million 'Stop Hiring Humans' slogan and is now hiring a human" description: "Two years and $2 million of billboard rage bait later, the AI sales startup apologized with a cake, rebranded to \"Be More Human,\" and is hiring its first human BDR. The product did not change; the buyers did." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Applications" published: 2026-11-01T19:03:04.893Z modified: 2026-11-01T19:03:04.893Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/artisan-killed-its-2-million-stop-hiring-humans-slogan-and-is-now-hiring-a-human language: en keywords: "AI Agents, Marketing, Startups, Sales Tech, Brand" --- # Artisan killed its $2 million 'Stop Hiring Humans' slogan and is now hiring a human > Two years and $2 million of billboard rage bait later, the AI sales startup apologized with a cake, rebranded to "Be More Human," and is hiring its first human BDR. The product did not change; the buyers did. ## The apology came with cake Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, co-founder and chief executive of [Artisan](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/artisan), the San Francisco startup whose AI rep Ava sends cold sales emails for a living, has apologized for his company's signature insult. "Last month, [we officially retired the slogan after 2 years](https://www.kron4.com/news/technology-ai/ai-startup-behind-stop-hiring-humans-billboards-to-retire-slogan/)," he posted in September, alongside a cake baked as an apology [1]. "Artisan is a pro-human company. Ava the AI BDR just handles the work that makes people miserable" [1]. A BDR, a business development representative, is an entry-level outbound sales job. The new slogan: "Be More Human" [1]. ## What the bait bought The insult was expensive. Artisan spent $2 million putting "Stop Hiring Humans" across billboards in San Francisco and New York over two years, per its own blog [1]. Its last disclosed financials date to April 2025: [a $25 million Series A led by Glade Brook Capital](https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/09/artisan-the-stop-hiring-humans-ai-agent-startup-raises-25m-and-is-still-hiring-humans/), with Y Combinator, Day One Ventures, [HubSpot](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/hubspot) Ventures and Oliver Jung participating, 250 customers, $5 million in annual recurring revenue, and 35 human employees [2]. *Chart: **The billboard bill ate 40 percent of a year of revenue** Column chart comparing Artisan's $25 million Series A, its $2 million billboard campaign and its $5 million annual recurring revenue* *Artisan's last disclosed figures, April 2025: the two-year billboard campaign cost 40 percent of its annual recurring revenue, and nearly a tenth of its Series A. Sources: TechCrunch, Artisan blog via KRON4. [1][2]* ## The product did not change [Fast Company's verdict on the rebrand](https://www.fastcompany.com/91589172/artisan-ai-stop-hiring-humans-new-marketing): "Its product hasn't changed at all" [3]. Ava still runs outbound sales once handled by people; the pitch flipped from rage bait to hope. Artisan's own site still markets Ava as "10x more productive than a human, at one-tenth of the cost" [4], and the company is hiring its first human BDR [1]. ## The retreat reads as enterprise math Since mid-September, Artisan's blog has ranked AI sales vendors for enterprise sales teams on "autonomy, CRM depth, governance, and cost," and sales dialers on "compliance, admin controls, and scale" [4]. Rage bait does not survive procurement. The ceiling showed up in its biggest named customer: SaaStr's Jason Lemkin credits Artisan with running his warm outbound and "booked millions of closed won," yet [built his own tool for top accounts](https://www.saastr.com/we-run-monaco-agentforce-and-artisan-for-outbound-we-still-built-our-own-ai-abm-tool-for-our-top-accounts/) because deep personalization "can't be bought" [5]. The Inference covered that split on October 9, 2026 [5]. ## The dead campaign still walks AI-generated trade press still sells the retired billboards as fresh news. Tech Pulse, the news feed of TheNextGenTechInsider, [published on October 9, 2026](https://www.thenextgentechinsider.com/pulse/artisan-launches-national-campaign-to-drive-adoption-of-autonomous-ai-sales-agents), that Artisan "has launched a large-scale billboard advertising campaign" using "Stop Hiring Humans," self-labeled "Generated by Aaira AI Research Assistant, Fact-check recommended" [6]. The campaign it describes died in August. Two things settle whether this is a real turn: the first human BDR landing on the payroll, and an ARR figure newer than April 2025. ## Takeaway Artisan spent $2 million insulting its own buyers, then apologized with cake and hired its first human BDR. The product did not change; the customers it wants next, enterprise teams with procurement, did. ## Sources 1. [KRON4, AI startup behind 'Stop Hiring Humans' billboards to retire slogan, 10 September 2026](https://www.kron4.com/news/technology-ai/ai-startup-behind-stop-hiring-humans-billboards-to-retire-slogan/) 2. [TechCrunch, Artisan, the 'stop hiring humans' AI agent startup, raises $25M -- and is still hiring humans, 9 April 2025](https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/09/artisan-the-stop-hiring-humans-ai-agent-startup-raises-25m-and-is-still-hiring-humans/) 3. [Fast Company, Will this AI company's pivot away from 'stop hiring humans' work?, 13 August 2026](https://www.fastcompany.com/91589172/artisan-ai-stop-hiring-humans-new-marketing) 4. [Artisan Blog, The Artisan Blog (Ava product claims and September 2026 enterprise comparison posts), accessed 1 November 2026](https://www.artisan.co/blog) 5. [SaaStr (Jason Lemkin), We Run Monaco, Agentforce and Artisan for Outbound. Why We Still Also Built Our Own 'AI ABM' Tool for Our Top Accounts, as collected 8 October 2026](https://www.saastr.com/we-run-monaco-agentforce-and-artisan-for-outbound-we-still-built-our-own-ai-abm-tool-for-our-top-accounts/) 6. [TheNextGenTechInsider, Tech Pulse, Artisan Launches National Campaign to Drive Adoption of Autonomous AI Sales Agents, 9 October 2026](https://www.thenextgentechinsider.com/pulse/artisan-launches-national-campaign-to-drive-adoption-of-autonomous-ai-sales-agents) --- Artisan killed its $2 million 'Stop Hiring Humans' slogan and is now hiring a human — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/artisan-killed-its-2-million-stop-hiring-humans-slogan-and-is-now-hiring-a-human