Configure AI Employee channels
Open the employee and find Reaches by. It reads as one sentence per channel: texts, email, and calls. Each channel has a switch on the right, and every underlined phrase in its sentence opens the editor for that setting.
Open Automations, select the AI employees tab, open the employee, and on its page find Reaches by. Each channel has a switch and a sentence whose underlined phrases open its settings.
Turning a switch off never deletes the channel. Its settings are kept for when you turn it back on.
Turn on Send texts when the employee may send texts. The sentence’s phrases set:
- Which lines it may text from: Any of your lines, or Only these lines to pick specific numbers.
- Texting hours, the days and times it may send.
- Wait before replying to a text, from Right away to a few minutes.
- Who texts skip: contacts on the do-not-call list and known litigators.
- How [employee] texts: whether it sends, suggests, or both (see below).
Turn on Send emails when the employee may send from your team’s connected mailboxes. The phrases set which mailboxes it may use (Any of your mailboxes or Only these mailboxes), Emailing hours, Wait before replying to an email, and How [employee] emails.
A configured email channel still reads and wakes on inbound mail when the switch is off; the switch only controls whether it sends.
Turn on Place calls when the employee may dial out. The phrases set:
- Which lines it may call from.
- Its Voice, and its Opening lines (or the Inbound line it answers with while outbound calling is off).
- Transfers: who it may put a call through to.
- Calling hours, and Who calls skip (do-not-call and known litigators).
- Give up on a deferred call after: how long a call waiting for calling hours is kept before it is dropped.
An employee with a configured call channel can still answer inbound calls routed to it, for example as your workspace’s missed-call cover, while outbound calling is off.
Call transfers
Section titled “Call transfers”Select the transfers phrase, then Add a person: enter the name the caller asks for and pick the number to transfer to, then select Save transfers. With nobody listed, the employee never transfers calls.
The employee transfers when the person on the call asks for one of those names, or when its instructions say to. If the transfer cannot go through, the caller stays with the employee, which offers to take a message.
Choose what it may send
Section titled “Choose what it may send”The How [employee] texts and How [employee] emails phrases choose what the employee may do on that channel. It covers every message the employee writes there, its own outreach and follow-ups as well as replies:
- Can’t text / Can’t email: the employee neither sends nor suggests on that channel.
- Suggest only: every message waits for a person to send, edit, or dismiss it.
- Send only: messages go out without a person; the employee does not suggest on that channel.
- Suggest or send: the employee’s instructions decide which messages wait for a person.
A message that waits for you shows as a suggested reply on the contact’s page, like any other suggestion. You can send it as written, edit it first and send your version, or dismiss it. Suggesting a message notifies nobody on its own; it waits on the contact for whoever opens it.
The contact has at most one suggested reply per channel. A newer one replaces the older one. When the conversation moves on, for example because the contact wrote again or someone replied, the employee’s next look at the contact keeps, rewrites, or dismisses its waiting suggestion; until then the suggestion says what came in since it was written. If something would stop delivery, such as the contact having opted out, sending shows the reason.
Whether the employee asks first or acts on its own also follows the trust of the person it is working for. See AI Employees.
When to hand off to you
Section titled “When to hand off to you”Under Also, select the hand-offs sentence to open Hand-offs and notifications. When to hand off to you sets when the employee passes a lead to a person on your team: As soon as they’re interested, or Once I have their price and timeline. The same dialog sets who hears about what.
The choice is saved as a paragraph in the employee’s instructions. If those instructions have no such paragraph, or you reword it yourself, the setting reads Set by instructions and the instructions decide.
Channel readiness
Section titled “Channel readiness”A channel can show a readiness note when something it needs is missing, such as a connected mailbox. Resolve the note before relying on that channel; the switch alone does not prove a channel can complete every action.