Summary: Every prospect in a campaign carries a status. Some statuses are set automatically by workflow rules, and others are assigned by AI when a prospect replies. This article explains what each status means, how to change a status manually, and how to customize the prompts the AI uses to classify replies.
Who this is for: Anyone running campaigns who wants to understand prospect statuses — and admins who want the AI's Interested / Not Interested classification to match their team's definitions.
The two kinds of statuses
Alta uses nine prospect statuses, split into two groups.
Fixed statuses are assigned automatically based on the prospect's workflow progress. You can't edit how they're assigned:
New — Prospect was recently created and has not been contacted yet.
Pending Outreach — Prospect is scheduled for outreach but no message has been sent yet.
Pending Reply — First outreach was sent and awaiting a reply from the prospect.
No Response — All outreach steps completed without receiving a reply.
Bounced / Invalid — Messages bounced or the prospect contact information is invalid.
AI classified statuses are assigned by AI after a prospect replies, based on what the reply says:
Interested — Prospect responded positively, asked questions, or showed clear engagement with the offer.
Not Interested — Prospect explicitly declined, said it is not relevant, or asked to stop contact.
Meeting Booked — Prospect agreed to or has booked a meeting, demo, or call.
Unclassified — Prospect replied but their intent is unclear — neither clearly positive nor negative.
Hover over any status badge in the prospects table to see its current description.
How to customize AI status classification
The descriptions above are also the prompts that guide the AI. Editing them changes how future replies get classified.
Open a campaign and go to its Prospects section.
Click the ⋮ (three-dot) menu next to the prospects list and select Status Settings.
In the Status settings dialog you'll see the Fixed statuses (read-only) followed by the AI classified statuses.
For each AI status, edit the Description prompt — this tells the AI when a reply belongs in that status.
Optionally, expand the Status reason prompt under a status. It guides the AI on what kind of short reason phrases to generate when classifying a prospect into that status (e.g. "requested a demo", "pricing too high", "out of office reply").
Click Save. You'll see a "Status descriptions updated" confirmation.
Customized statuses show a Reset to default button — click it any time to restore Alta's original prompt for that status.
How to change a prospect's status manually
In the prospects table, click the status badge on any prospect that has one of the four AI classified statuses.
Pick a new status from the dropdown — Interested, Not Interested, Meeting Booked, or Unclassified.
Fixed statuses (New, Pending Outreach, Pending Reply, No Response, Bounced / Invalid) can't be changed manually — they update on their own as the workflow progresses.
Tips and common pitfalls
Changes apply account-wide. Status prompts are shared across all campaigns, not per campaign.
The Save button stays disabled until you change something. If nothing is dirty, there's nothing to save.
Be specific in your prompts. The clearer the description, the more consistent the classification. For example, if a "send me info" reply should count as Interested for your team, say so explicitly in the Interested description.
Statuses can also change from other events. A prospect can become Not Interested after clicking unsubscribe, or Meeting Booked when a meeting is synced from a rep's calendar or a conversation is tagged as meeting booked in the inbox. The status reason on the prospect tells you why.
Only replies are AI-classified. Prospects who never respond move to No Response by rule, not by AI.
Related
Co-Pilot vs Auto-Pilot: When to Use Each Campaign Mode in Alta
How to Pause/Resume a Prospect in a Sequence
How Unsubscribes Work in Alta (Adding an Unsubscribe Link and What Happens When a Prospect Opts Out)