AI replies to LinkedIn prospects: what to automate and what to keep

AI should draft your replies to LinkedIn prospects, not send them on its own. The setup that works sorts every reply, writes the answer from your offer and your rules, and puts it on your phone with one button to send. You keep the judgment; the AI removes the delay.

Speed matters more than most people think. A prospect who says “sounds interesting” on Tuesday morning and hears back on Thursday has often moved on. Here is how to answer within the hour without handing your deals to a model.

Why replies are where outreach tools stop

Most LinkedIn tools handle the first half well: find people, send the invite, send two follow-ups, stop when someone answers. Then they drop you in an inbox.

That is the expensive moment. The prospect replied. Now someone has to read it, decide what it means, write the right answer and send it from the right account, while the interest is still warm. With five accounts and three campaigns, that is a job in itself.

Step 1: sort the reply before writing anything

Not every reply deserves the same answer. Reachy sorts each one into four verdicts:

Verdict	Example	What to do
Interested	“Sounds interesting, how does it work?”	Answer with your next step: a call, a trial, a page
Objection	“Too expensive for us right now.”	One answer to the objection, then let go
Closed	“Not interested, please stop.”	A short polite close, or nothing
Over to you	“Can you do 40% off for 3 years?”	Nothing automatic. You decide

The fourth line is the one that protects you. Negotiation, questions outside your offer and doubts about your product are where a model invents an answer. A good system recognises them and stays quiet.

Step 2: give the AI something real to offer

An AI reply is only as good as what you let it offer. In Reachy you fill in a short context, once, for every campaign:

• A booking link for a call or a demo, or for a user interview
• A discount code, with what it gives (“1 free month on any plan”)
• A link to share: free trial, pricing page, case study
• When to offer which: “trial first for solo founders, call for teams”
• What never to promise: custom pricing, features on the roadmap, delivery dates

Each campaign can keep this context, use its own, or keep a fixed text you wrote yourself.

Step 3: answer objections once, then let go

Three objections cover most “no, but” replies: price, timing, and “we already have a tool”. Write your answer to each in a sentence or two. We collected examples in how to handle the three LinkedIn objections.

Then decide the strategy. In Reachy, the AI either tries once or never on an objection. Trying twice turns a polite no into an annoyed one.

Step 4: approve from wherever you are

This is what makes AI replies usable day to day. Each draft arrives where you already are:

• Telegram: your chat with @ReachyAIBot, buttons under the draft
• Slack: a direct message from the Reachy app, with an Edit form
• Discord: your private “Replies” thread
• Claude or ChatGPT: ask “Which replies need approval?” through the Reachy connector
• The Reachy Inbox, always on

Tap Send and the reply goes out at Reachy’s next run, from the account that holds the conversation, within its daily message limit. Setup takes a minute: see LinkedIn replies on Telegram, Slack or Discord.

The safety rules that should not be optional

Whatever tool you use, check these five:

1. Nothing sent without approval. Drafts wait for you.
2. Re-read before sending. If the prospect wrote again, or you answered yourself, the draft is cancelled. Reachy does this check every time.
3. A cap per conversation. Reachy writes at most 5 replies per person, then the conversation is yours.
4. You can take over at any moment. Answer on LinkedIn yourself and the AI stops.
5. A manual verdict wins. Change a verdict by hand and Reachy sends nothing else to that contact.

What to measure

Track three numbers per campaign for a month:

• Time to reply: from the prospect’s message to your answer
• Approval rate: the share of drafts you send as written. Low means your context needs work
• Next steps booked: calls, trials or interviews per 100 replies

If approval is low, the fix is almost always the context, not the model: a clearer offer, a clearer rule for when to offer what.

Try it

AI replies are included on every Reachy plan, including the 14-day trial, and off until you turn them on. Download Reachy, then open Settings, AI replies. More detail on the AI replies page.