Sable secured $45 million in funding from Sequoia to develop an AI that conducts product demonstrations in place of human presenters.

      Sable secured $45 million in funding from Sequoia and 8VC for its AI, Aidan, which conducts live product demonstrations and automates sales development operations. Aidan is designed to engage in real-time interactions, addressing customer inquiries and seamlessly changing languages during conversations. Founded less than a year ago, Sable envisions Aidan as an AI team member intended to replace not only chat support but also the entire process from demo to onboarding. This funding was exclusively reported by Fortune on Wednesday.

      In contrast to typical chat widgets found on most websites, Aidan operates within a shared browser window and actively demonstrates the product while potential buyers interact with it. The company enhances Aidan by providing it with recordings of top sales calls, internal documents, and marketing content, effectively creating what they term a reusable brain tailored for each client. According to CEO Nim Ravid, this setup results in a more human-like experience compared to traditional scripted bots, as Aidan can observe changes on the webpage and modify its presentation during the conversation.

      Currently, Aidan is being utilized by Notion and Decagon, an AI customer service startup. This model resembles the strategy BCG applied with its AI sales agent, Jamie, which learns from both successful and less successful sales representatives. However, Sable focuses on the customer-facing aspect of the sales process instead of internal training. The company claims Aidan can effectively cover four human roles: sales development representative, demo expert, solutions engineer, and customer success onboarding.

      Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire remarked that Aidan's demonstration "reminded me of what Stripe did for payments," after witnessing its ability to switch between English, Mandarin, and Spanish while guiding a buyer through a product. Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir and founder of 8VC, joins Maguire on the board, with angel investors that include HubSpot co-founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, Valor’s Antonio Gracias, and Cognition CEO Scott Wu.

      This funding coincides with the expansion of the agentic AI market, which is projected to reach approximately $9 billion to $10 billion globally by 2026, with estimates suggesting it could grow to $57 billion by 2031, as stated by Mordor Intelligence and Coherent Market Insights. Earlier this year, Sequoia raised $7 billion for its largest late-stage fund ever, positioning AI as a key focus under new leadership. Sable aligns with this strategy by betting on interactive AI to bridge the gap between product capabilities and buyer comprehension.

      Whether Aidan can dispel the skepticism stemming from years of unsatisfactory chatbots remains uncertain, a concern that Ravid himself acknowledges. Issues like trust, potential job displacement, and competition from platforms such as Notion’s own AI agents pose significant challenges for a company that seeks to automate the sales process. With Sable being less than a year in operation, the gap between delivering an impressive demonstration and creating a product that can consistently replace human sales engineers at scale is a challenge that many AI startups have promised to address, but few have achieved.

      Published July 16, 2026 - 4:25 pm UTC