You don’t need to fill Wembley Stadium with contacts, you just need to find the 100 people who are looking for what you’re selling right now. For years, we believed data is king with more contacts, more companies, more everything. But 100,000 contacts mean nothing if none of them are ready to buy. In 2026, it’s all about relevancy. We rebuilt Lusha from the ground up with AI, compliance, and intent signals at the core, because prospecting isn’t a numbers game anymore but a timing game.
You don’t need to fill Wembley Stadium with contacts, you just need to find the 100 people who are looking for what you’re selling right now.
For years, we believed data is king. More contacts, more companies, more, more, more. Whoever had the biggest database won, and we were winning.
But here’s the truth now: 100,000 contacts mean nothing if none of them are ready to buy.
In 2026, it’s all about relevancy. That’s where the real goals are scored.
We built the best database, then made it smarter
For the better part of a decade, we built Lusha on a simple premise that data is king. More contacts meant more opportunities, bigger databases meant bigger wins. We were right about the foundation, and we still are.
Today, Lusha has one of the most comprehensive, verified B2B contact databases in the world. We’ve spent years perfecting data accuracy, coverage, and compliance because without quality data as your foundation, everything else falls apart.
But having the best database is just the starting point. The question became: how do you use that data intelligently?
Back when buyers had fewer choices and less information, cold outreach worked because prospects hadn’t already researched five competitors before breakfast. If you could reach enough people with a decent message, the math worked.
So we obsessed over coverage by asking how many phone numbers we could verify, how many email addresses we could find, how many companies we could profile. We were winning the database wars and our customers were hitting their numbers, but something fundamental changed in how people buy.
The moment everything shifted
I started noticing it in our own sales conversations when prospects would join discovery calls already knowing our pricing, our competitors, and exactly which features they cared about. They’d done their homework before we even knew they existed.
The average B2B buyer now consumes 13 pieces of content before engaging with sales, researching solutions on industry forums, comparing vendors in private Slack channels, and building shortlists we never see coming.
This isn’t just a trend but a complete rewiring of the sales process. When buyers control more of the process, having great data becomes even more critical, but using that data intelligently becomes the differentiator.
Why our database needed to get smarter, not just bigger
Here’s what I learned watching thousands of sales teams use our platform: having access to verified contact data is essential, but knowing which contacts to prioritize and when to reach them is what separates good results from great results.
While industry averages show cold email reply rates hovering around 4%, our customers consistently tell us they’re seeing double-digit response rates when they focus on the right contacts at the right time. The difference isn’t the quality of the data but the intelligence behind how it’s used.
We started seeing patterns in our customer feedback where teams with access to the same high-quality Lusha data were getting vastly different results. The top performers weren’t using more contacts but were using the right contacts at the right time. They reported spending 60% less time on list building and significantly more time having actual conversations.
When prospects are actively researching solutions they respond, and when they’re not, they don’t. The signals that indicate buying intent are everywhere through website visits, job postings, technology adoptions, funding announcements, and leadership changes, and we already had much of this data but weren’t connecting the dots intelligently.
So we rebuilt Lusha from the ground up
We didn’t replace our database but made it intelligent. We rebuilt Lusha from the ground up, with AI, compliance, and intent signals at the core, because prospecting isn’t a numbers game anymore. It’s a timing game.
But intelligence without integration is just another tool to juggle. That’s why we built our platform to seamlessly integrate into existing sales workflows through Lusha API and Model Context Protocol (MCP). These aren’t just technical features but the infrastructure that makes intelligent prospecting actually work at scale.
Through our API, verified contacts with intent signals flow directly into your CRM, sales engagement platforms, and outreach tools. Your reps don’t need to log into another dashboard or export another list. The intelligence lives where they’re already working.
Lusha MCP takes this further by enabling AI-powered workflows that adapt to your specific sales motion. Whether you’re using ChatGPT to craft outreach, Claude to analyze prospects, or any other AI tool, MCP ensures they have access to Lusha’s verified data and intent signals in real-time. It’s not just about having smart data but making that data accessible to every part of your revenue stack.
Our new Playlist Catalog doesn’t just give you access to millions of contacts but curates the specific contacts who match your ideal customer profile AND show signs they’re actively looking for solutions like yours. Every morning your reps see prospects from our verified database who are worth their time right now, automatically synced into their existing workflows.
Our customers tell us this has changed their entire prospecting motion. Instead of starting each day wondering who to call, they start with a curated list of prospects who actually want to hear from them. Teams report booking more meetings with fewer dials and feeling confident about every conversation they start.
The AI learns from your closed deals to identify patterns within our data, noticing that your best customers tend to hire sales development reps within six months of their Series A. It flags when a company in our database adopts the same technology stack as your recent wins and prioritizes contacts whose behavior matches the signals that historically predict deals.
Industry research shows that intent-driven outreach performs 3x better than traditional cold outreach, and our customers consistently report results at the higher end of this range because they’re not just getting more data but smarter data that integrates seamlessly into how they actually work.
Let your competition play for the crowd
Here’s what this means for your go-to-market strategy: having access to comprehensive, verified contact data is still essential because you can’t prospect effectively with incomplete or inaccurate information. That’s why we continue investing heavily in data coverage, accuracy, and compliance.
But data without intelligence is just noise, and intelligence without integration is just another login. While competitors might have large databases, they can’t tell you which contacts are ready to buy right now, and they certainly can’t deliver that intelligence directly into your existing workflows without friction.
Our customers consistently tell us they feel more confident in their outreach because they’re not interrupting someone’s day with an irrelevant message but joining conversations prospects are already having internally. They’re reaching verified contacts who are genuinely interested in hearing from them at exactly the right moment, all delivered through the tools and workflows they’re already using.
The companies that get this right aren’t just hitting their numbers but redefining what’s possible in their markets. They’re having conversations competitors can’t access because they’re operating with the same comprehensive data but using it more intelligently and integrating it more seamlessly into their revenue operations.
At Lusha, we’re not just building the best database but making it the smartest database that works exactly how your team works. Let your competition play for the crowd. You’re playing to win.
Ready to see how intelligent data changes the game? Explore Lusha AI Prospect Playlists
