Emergent vs. 11x: The Factory vs. The Freelancer

At this point, you might be starting to see that “digital employee” is a lot like “manager” in that it’s not very clear. It could be a useful chatbot or a robot that can do everything on its own, like steal your lunch from the fridge.

In this match, we are looking at two very different ideas about what the foreseeable future of work will probably be like. Emergent is the platform that lets you build the tools you need to run your business from the ground up. On the other hand, 11x is a business that doesn’t want you to build anything. Instead, they want you to “hire” their ready-made digital workers, Alice and Jordan.

It’s not simply choosing between two pieces of software; it’s also a choice between two ways of managing. Do you want to make your team that much more efficient, or do you want to get rid of the team and use a robot instead?

The Two Visions: Emergent vs. 11x

Let’s begin with 11x. Their pitch is appealing because it is so simple. They don’t sell software; they sell results. They’ve appointed “digital workers” with names and personalities. Alice is a Sales Development Representative. Jordan works as a phone agent.

You don’t buy a tool to help you send emails when you go to 11x. You are hiring Alice. You give her a job and a space to do her job, and then you leave her alone. She finds the leads, writes the emails, answers them, and sets up the meetings. She is meant to be able to work on her own, live in the cloud, and work all the time.

Emergent, on the other hand, is the best “factory.” It doesn’t come with employees who already have names. It has potential. Emergent is a place where English instructions are used to design your own software. You don’t “hire” an SDR from Emergent. Instead, you say, “Build me a dashboard that scrapes LinkedIn, adds to the data, and lets me send emails with one click.”

Emergent thinks you know your business best, so it gives you the tools you need to build the exact infrastructure you need. 11x thinks they know the job best, so they send you a worker who already knows how to do it.

The Emergent vs. 11x Onboarding Process

With 11x, the experience is like hiring a very expensive consultant. When you log in, you meet Alice. You don’t need to tell her how to write a sales email; she has read millions of them. You don’t need to show her how to use a CRM because she already knows how. You basically give someone else the keys to your email account and tell them to “Go get ’em.” It’s like a “black box” experience. You trust the agent to do the work, and you judge it by how many meetings they set up.

When you use Emergent, it’s like walking into a workshop with a lot of cool tools. You sit down and say, “I want to fix our problem with getting leads.” You type out a prompt that tells the process exactly how you want it to work.

• “I want a table that shows all the companies in this space.”
• “I want a button that makes a draft email in the way we usually talk.”
• “Please give me a ‘Reject’ button that saves the lead.”

Then Emergent codes and builds the app right in front of you. You are not putting your trust in a black box; you’re making the box. You can look at the database. You can change the logic. You are making a unique asset that works exactly how you want it to.

The Emergent vs. The 11x: What is the Scope of Work?

11x is a specialized agency. Alice is great at making sales calls, and Jordan is great at making phone calls. Alice can’t help should you need to keep track of your HR costs, manage your inventory, or update your website. That’s all she does; she’s an SDR.

Emergent can do anything because it makes software. You can use Emergent to make an SDR bot today and then use it tomorrow to make a logistics tracker, a customer service portal, or an internal holiday booking system. Emergent is a general-purpose engine. It doesn’t focus on sales; it focuses on turning your ideas into working code.

But there is a problem. Alice comes with strategies that work because 11x is an expert. You need to tell Emergent that “subject lines with emojis have a lower open rate” for it to know. Emergent makes what you ask for, but 11x does what works.

Emergent vs. The 11x: Control and Freedom

How much of a control freak are you? 

If you’re after autonomy, you have to use 11x. You are saying, “I don’t care how the sausage is made, just give it to me.” You are paying for the privilege of not having to think about the process. Alice takes care of her own email. She chooses when to follow up. It’s hands-off, which is great until she sends you an email you don’t like and you realize you can’t easily “tweak” her mind.

If you’re after control, use Emergent. You are the owner of the code. You own the interface. Emergent will code the “Send Email” button to be bright red and ask for a password confirmation if that’s what you want. You are making the “Iron Man suit” that your team will wear. Instead of replacing your human workers with digital ones, you are giving them custom software to make them more productive.

The Cost Equation

The way they set prices shows what they believe.

11x prices itself as if it were a person. You often have to pay a lot of money each month, like a salary, or based on how well you do. If Alice hires a new junior sales rep for $60,000 a year, then paying her $1,000 or $2,000 a month seems like a great deal. You are paying for work.

Emergent prices itself like infrastructure. You are paying for the ability to build and the computer. You own the app once you make it on Emergent. You are not paying the app a “salary”; you are paying to keep the servers up and running. With one subscription to Emergent, you could make ten different internal tools. You are paying for a service.

The Emergent vs. 11x Decision

So, what digital path should you take?

If you have a specific problem (like outbound sales or phone handling) and want it to go away, choose 11x. You don’t want to think about it, build it, or run it. You want to hire someone who can get to work right away and get things done while you sleep. You want to see what happens.

Choose Emergent if you want to turn your unique business processes into digital ones. You want to make tools that make sure that things are done the way you want them to be done. You want to make a “Company OS” where you can control a custom app that takes care of all the boring tasks. You want a system.

Ultimately, 11x is the person you hire to do the work for you. Emergent is the place where you make the robots yourself.