Autopilot

What is Autopilot?

Autopilot is the built-in assistant that lives on every page of the Ema platform. Instead of navigating through menus and settings to configure your AI Employees (AIEs), you can describe what you need in plain language and Autopilot handles the rest — from building and editing AIEs to testing conversations, managing data, and answering platform questions.

Autopilot is aware of the page you are currently viewing, so its responses are always grounded in your current context. Whether you are reviewing a list of AI Employees, configuring a workflow, or browsing integrations, Autopilot picks up where you are and works from there.

What the documentation covers:

• What Autopilot is & how to open it — the floating button, side panel, expanded view, recent chats, and starting new conversations
• Core actions — creating, editing, and testing AI Employees, managing data, generating documents, connecting integrations, organizing groups, and more
• Permissions & scoping — what Autopilot can access, when it asks for approval, and what happens when something is out of scope
• Tips, limits & examples — example prompts, keyboard shortcuts, Fast and Thorough mode, file uploads, feedback, and troubleshooting

Opening Autopilot

You can open Autopilot from anywhere in the platform using the floating button, or from a dedicated entry point on the AI Employees page.

The floating button

A small green Ema logo button sits in the bottom-right corner of every page. This is the fastest way to reach Autopilot.

1. Look for the green Ema icon in the bottom-right corner of any page. Hovering over it shows the tooltip “Hey, this is Ema Autopilot” with the message “Describe what you want to build — I’ll handle the rest.”
2. Click the button to open the Autopilot side panel on the right side of the screen.

From the AI Employees page

The AI Employees page offers a second entry point tailored for building from scratch.

1. Navigate to the AI Employees page.
2. Find the banner with the “Build your own AI Employee” button.
3. Click “Build your own AI Employee”.
4. Autopilot opens directly in expanded view and automatically sends the message “Help me build a new AI Employee from scratch.” on your behalf.

This entry point skips the side panel and starts you in a full-screen conversation with a clear starting prompt, so you can jump straight into building.

The Autopilot interface

Autopilot has two viewing modes — a compact side panel for quick tasks and an expanded view for longer conversations — plus built-in history so you never lose your work.

Side panel and expanded view

When you first open Autopilot from the floating button, it appears as a side panel: a fixed right sidebar that stays visible alongside the page you are working on. This is ideal for short questions or quick edits while you keep your current page in view.

For more involved work, switch to the expanded view, which takes over the full screen with a centered chat column. This gives you more room to read long responses, review generated configurations, or work through multi-step builds.

To toggle between the two views:

• Click the Expand button in the side panel header to switch to expanded view.
• Click the Collapse button in the expanded view header to return to the side panel.

Both views share the same conversation, so you can switch freely without losing your place.

When the side panel first opens with no active conversation, you see the welcome heading “What are we building?” with the subheading “Describe it, I’ll handle the rest.” Below the heading, three suggestion cards help you get started:

• Build a sample AI Employee
• Evaluate and refine an AI Employee
• Research and explore the platform

Click any card to send that suggestion as your first message.

Recent chats

Every conversation you have with Autopilot is saved automatically. To revisit a past conversation, open the Recent chats list from the Autopilot header. Each entry shows the conversation title along with status indicators:

Click any conversation in the list to resume it exactly where you left off.

Starting a new chat

To begin a fresh conversation without losing your current one:

1. Click the New chat button (the plus icon in the header toolbar).
2. A new, empty conversation opens with the welcome screen and suggestion cards.
3. Your previous conversation stays accessible in Recent chats — nothing is deleted.

Starting a new chat is useful when you want to switch tasks. For example, if you were debugging an AI Employee and now want to build a completely different one, a new chat gives Autopilot a clean slate.

Related sections: Core actions · Permissions & scoping · Tips, limits & examples