Trying to figure out which prospects are actually ready to buy is a classic sales headache. You're staring at a list of leads, trying to separate the genuinely interested from the ones just browsing. And with traditional tracking methods like third-party cookies on their way out, it's not getting any easier.
This is where the idea of buyer intent data comes in. It’s meant to give you a clue about who’s researching your products right now. HubSpot has a popular feature for this called Buyer Intent, which uses AI to pick up on signals from anonymous website visitors.
But does it really give you the full story? In this guide, we’ll walk through how HubSpot AI Buyer Intent Signals work, what they’re good for, and where they fall flat. We'll also look at a more direct way to understand what your prospects and customers are really thinking.
What are HubSpot AI Buyer Intent Signals?
So, what exactly is this feature? Basically, HubSpot's Buyer Intent tool tells you which companies are poking around on your website, even if no one from that company ever fills out a form or gives you their email.
It works with a bit of tech called reverse-IP lookup. When someone visits your site, HubSpot's tracking code identifies their IP address and matches it to a known company. So, instead of seeing "Anonymous Visitor #123," you might see that someone from "Acme Corp" just spent five minutes on your pricing page.
The important thing to remember is that you're seeing company-level activity, not the specific person. You'll know someone at Acme Corp visited, but you won't know if it was the CEO, an intern, or an engineer looking for a support doc. This data helps teams decide which companies to focus on, but it's still a bit of a guessing game.
How teams actually use HubSpot AI Buyer Intent Signals
So, how does this data get used day-to-day? HubSpot’s tool is built to help you focus your energy on accounts that seem to be showing interest.
Focusing your sales team on warm leads
The most obvious use is for your sales reps. Instead of slogging through a cold list, they can check the Buyer Intent dashboard to see which companies have been active. If a target account suddenly visits a product page, a case study, and your pricing page all in one week, they're probably worth a call. It gives your team a good reason to reach out and bumps those warmer accounts to the top of the pile.
A screenshot of the HubSpot Sales Hub dashboard, which can be used to track HubSpot AI Buyer Intent Signals.Sharpening your ABM campaigns
For marketers running ABM plays, these signals can be pretty useful. If a company on your target list suddenly starts clicking around your site, you can use that as a trigger. Maybe you serve them some personalized ads or enroll key contacts from that company into a targeted email sequence. It's a way to make sure your marketing budget is being spent on accounts that are actually paying attention.
Automating your lead scoring
You can also hook HubSpot's intent signals into your automated workflows. For example, you can tweak your lead scoring rules so that a visit to a key page from a company that matches your ideal customer profile (ICP) gives their score a nice boost. Once an account's score passes a certain point, a workflow can automatically assign it to the right sales rep. This helps cut down response times so a potentially good lead doesn't go cold.
An example of HubSpot's workflow automation, relevant to automating lead scoring with HubSpot AI Buyer Intent Signals.The practical limits of HubSpot AI Buyer Intent Signals
While knowing which companies are on your site feels like a step up, leaning too heavily on anonymous signals can create some real headaches. You often end up with more manual work and an incomplete story.
You know the company, but not the person
The biggest issue is right there in the name: it's anonymous. You might know that Acme Corp visited, but you have no clue who it was or why they were there. Was it a decision-maker who’s about to make a purchase? An intern doing research for a school project? A competitor checking your prices?
Without that context, your outreach is still a "warm guess" instead of a truly informed conversation. Your sales reps still have to do the legwork, scrolling through LinkedIn to find the right contact, and even then, they're starting the conversation from square one.
Separating real interest from clicks
Let's be honest, not every website visit is a sign of purchase intent. A lot of the activity HubSpot flags is just noise. It could be a current customer looking for a support article, a job seeker browsing your careers page, or a partner looking for resources.
This means your sales team can end up wasting time trying to figure out which signals are legit and which are dead ends. It’s an inefficient loop that can take focus away from leads that are actually promising.
Tracking clicks, not conversations
HubSpot's Buyer Intent tool is focused almost entirely on website visits. But the best, most actionable intent signals don't come from anonymous clicks; they come from actual conversations.
The real gold is buried in your support tickets, live chats, and community forums. That's where people tell you exactly what they're struggling with, what features they're looking for, and what's holding them back. HubSpot's tool misses all of this. It’s like trying to understand a person by only watching where they go, without ever listening to what they say.
A better way: Listen to what customers are actually saying
If you want to understand what someone truly wants, you have to go beyond tracking their clicks and start paying attention to what they're telling you directly.
This is where a modern AI platform like eesel AI takes a totally different approach. Instead of just looking at website traffic, eesel AI connects to all your company's knowledge to build a complete picture of your customers' needs.
It’s a smarter way to work because it learns from where the real conversations happen. It connects directly to your helpdesk (like Zendesk or Intercom), internal chat tools (like Slack), and knowledge bases (like Confluence or Google Docs). By analyzing past support tickets, it understands the real problems people are trying to solve.
You can stop guessing who at a company is interested because eesel AI works with your known customers and prospects. It analyzes their direct questions to automate responses, route tickets to the right person, and give your agents helpful, context-aware reply drafts.
eesel AI doesn't just tell you a company is interested; it can autonomously resolve their issue with an AI Agent, tag the ticket for triage, or draft the perfect response for a human agent. It turns intent into helpful action, right away.
The difference is pretty clear. HubSpot's tool gives you a hint about which companies might be interested, while eesel AI tells you what your customers actually need and helps you solve it instantly.
| Feature | HubSpot AI Buyer Intent Signals | eesel AI |
|---|---|---|
| Data Source | Anonymous website visits (Reverse-IP) | Support tickets, chats, internal docs, help centers (your entire knowledge base) |
| Signal Type | Company-level, anonymous (e.g., "A company visited your site") | User-level, specific (e.g., "A customer asked about X feature") |
| Actionability | Manual prioritization for sales outreach | Automated ticket resolution, triage, and agent reply drafting |
| Setup Time | Requires configuration of target markets and intent criteria | Go live in minutes with one-click helpdesk integrations |
| Primary Goal | Identify "warm" companies for prospecting | Understand and automate responses to direct customer and prospect needs |
Pricing for HubSpot AI Buyer Intent Signals
Okay, so what does it cost to get this feature? Access to Buyer Intent isn't a cheap add-on; it's bundled into HubSpot’s more expensive Sales Hub plans.
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Sales Hub Professional: Starts at $90 per month, per seat. You'll also have to pay a one-time onboarding fee of $1,500.
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Sales Hub Enterprise: Starts at $150 per month, per seat, plus a one-time onboarding fee of $3,500.
A visual of HubSpot's pricing tiers, showing where features like HubSpot AI Buyer Intent Signals are included.Getting access to these features means committing to a serious price tag, not to mention mandatory onboarding fees that lock you in before you've really gotten started. It's a big investment for any team, especially when you compare it to more flexible tools that you can get up and running with in a few minutes.
Moving beyond HubSpot AI Buyer Intent Signals to real conversations
Look, HubSpot AI Buyer Intent Signals can be a decent tool for getting a first look at anonymous company interest on your website. They can help you prioritize your outreach and make a cold call feel a little warmer. But that's all it is: a first look. It leaves you guessing about who is really interested and what they actually want.
To build a sales and support process that really works, you have to move beyond tracking anonymous clicks. The future of AI is about bringing together all your sources of customer knowledge to understand true intent. By focusing on what people are telling you in your support channels, you can stop making educated guesses and start having meaningful, automated conversations that solve problems and get results.
Ready to understand what your customers really want? eesel AI plugs into your existing tools and learns from your past support conversations to provide instant, accurate, and automated support. Go live in minutes, not months.
Frequently asked questions
HubSpot AI Buyer Intent Signals identify which companies are visiting your website, even if they don't fill out a form. They use reverse-IP lookup to match anonymous website visitors to known organizations.
Teams primarily use these signals to prioritize sales outreach, sharpen account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns, and automate lead scoring. This helps focus efforts on companies showing active interest.
The biggest limitation is anonymity; you know the company but not the specific person or their intent. These signals can also generate a lot of noise, as they don't differentiate between real buying interest and other types of visits like support lookups or job searches.
HubSpot AI Buyer Intent Signals track company-level activity. While you'll know that someone from a specific company visited your site, you won't get information on the individual user or their specific role.
Not effectively. Since HubSpot AI Buyer Intent Signals primarily track clicks and not conversations, they often struggle to differentiate between genuine buying intent and other activities, such as a current customer seeking support or a job applicant.
Access to HubSpot AI Buyer Intent Signals is bundled with HubSpot’s higher-tier Sales Hub plans. This includes Sales Hub Professional, starting at $90 per month per seat, and Sales Hub Enterprise, starting at $150 per month per seat, both with additional one-time onboarding fees.
HubSpot AI Buyer Intent Signals provide anonymous, company-level interest based on website clicks. In contrast, tools that analyze direct conversations in support tickets, chats, and internal documents offer user-specific, highly actionable intent based on what customers explicitly say they need.
