Great AI Agents Start with the Right Data: 6 Data Sources That Power Agentic Workflows

It’s a tale as old as time: great data out needs great data in. When it comes to Outreach AI Agents, whose function is to automate repetitive sales work so reps can focus on building relationships and closing deals, great data in is a necessity. These AI agents need timely, relevant data about accounts, prospects, and buying signals in order to effectively support the revOps motion. 

Outreach supports multiple ways to bring data into the platform, such as data enrichment providers, AI-driven research, CRM syncs, cloud data warehouses, and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs.) Each source plays a different role in strengthening targeting, personalization, and automation. 

In this guide, we’ll break down the six primary ways to enrich your Outreach motions with data and how each option fuels AI agents across real revenue workflows. While these options are often used together, each serves a distinct purpose depending on your data maturity and use case. 

1. Outreach Engagement and Conversation Intelligence (CI) Data 

The first advantage of using Outreach AI Agents is that they have immediate access to all your rich sales engagement and conversation data already stored in the platform. Outreach captures a rich set of first-party engagement and conversation intelligence data directly from sales activity, including emails, calls, meetings, and more. 

This data reflects real buyer behavior. It shows how prospects engage, what they respond to, and what is being said in live conversations. Because it is native to Outreach, it requires no setup and is continuously updated as reps work – the more meetings you have with Outreach’s CI, and the more active your teams are, the more valuable this data becomes. 

These signals are especially powerful for Outreach agents, which rely on engagement patterns and conversation insights to surface risk, identify momentum, and guide actions. 

How it plays out

If Conversation Intelligence detects repeated mentions of pricing concerns or delayed follow-ups in late-stage calls, the Outreach agents can flag the deal as at risk and recommend immediate actions to re-engage or involve the right stakeholders, leading to earlier intervention that helps save deals before they stall or slip. 

2. Outreach Research Agent 

The Research Agent enriches accounts using contextual insights gathered from online sources, Outreach activity, and meetings. It helps you understand buyers more deeply, sharpen account strategy, and personalize engagement at scale. 

You can use the Research Agent as a standalone enrichment source or layer it alongside other enrichment inputs. Unlike traditional enrichment, it goes a step further by surfacing qualitative insights that inform account planning and AI-driven actions. 

How it plays out 

If the Research Agent identifies a company’s new funding round, it can automatically prioritize the account. It also can surface key business challenges from conversations and update the Smart Account Plan. Once the account is updated and prioritized, Outreach agents can begin prospecting using these insights to tailor messaging around the company’s strategic initiatives.  

3. Smart Data Enrichment 

Smart Data Enrichment brings trusted account and prospect data from enrichment partners such as ZoomInfo or SalesIntel, directly into Outreach. With the Amplify SKU, this data is available at no additional cost. 

This enrichment helps you expand your ICP by sourcing new contacts 24/7, sharpen targeting, and personalize outreach at scale. Setup is simple and does not require technical expertise. 

How it plays out

When Smart Data Enrichment detects spikes in activity from an account or prospect, Outreach agents use those signals, along with the URLs visited, to craft immediate, natural, and personalized outreach aligned to the prospect’s topic of interest, engaging the right person with the right message while buyer intent is high. 

4. CRM Sync 

Some of the most valuable signals already live in your CRM. CRM Sync allows you to bring both your proprietary data, such as account tier, product usage ,or customer health, and trusted enrichment provider data, such as online reviews, directly into Outreach accounts, prospects, and opportunities via custom fields or objects (personalization may be limited with objects today). 

This data strengthens targeting, gives sellers deeper context, and enables Outreach agents to engage the right prospects around the clock. Setup is straightforward but is best when you have a clear understanding of CRM data syncing. 

How it plays out 

CRMs often collect inbound leads from many sources. With Outreach triggers, those leads flow directly into Outreach and are routed to automated follow-up. The Personalization Agent then uses the lead source and engagement details, such as what a prospect downloaded or registered for, to generate relevant messaging. This creates fast, hyper-personalized lead follow-up without waiting on reps. 

5. Snowflake Connector 

For many organizations, the cloud data warehouse is the central source for customer data, extending beyond what lives in CRM. An advanced use case is Snowflake connector allowing you to bring custom data, such as product usage, license counts, or purchase history, directly into Outreach. 

This data enhances both autonomous and seller-led workflows by giving AI agents and reps a richer, more complete view of accounts inside Outreach. 

How it plays out

By syncing product usage data from Snowflake, Outreach agents surface early signals of declining account activity and proactively engage customers before churn risk escalates. The creates more timely outreach that protects retention and strengthens what matters most: customer relationships. 

6. APIs 

If your CRM or cloud data warehouse does not have a native integration with Outreach, APIs provide a flexible way to enrich accounts, prospects, and opportunities. APIs allow you to bring in custom data sources and tailor Outreach to your unique data architecture, ensuring AI agents still have access to the signals that matter most. 

How it plays out 

Outreach’s custom objects let you bring any data you need into Outreach via APIs to prioritize outreach. By pulling in the signals that matter most to your business, the Revenue Agent can target the right accounts at the right time. Those same signals also power Personalization Agent, enabling outreach that feels timely and relevant to each prospect. The result is an extensible platform that adapts to your sales motion and supports the processes that are most critical to your business. 

AI agents are only as powerful as the data they’re built on. Outreach brings together first-party engagement activity, research insights, enrichment, and proprietary business data into one connected platform so agents can act on what’s actually happening across your revenue motion. When the right data flows into Outreach, AI agents can drive smarter decisions, more relevant engagement, and better outcomes across the funnel.