> Source: https://builder.ema.ai/v2/templates
> Title: Templates

# Templates

A template is a pre-built AI Employee (AIE) — a complete workflow, agent configuration, and starting settings — that you clone into your own tenant and customize. Instead of assembling a workflow node by node, you start from a known-good blueprint, connect your data, adjust a few Instructions and categories, and publish. Ema ships a set of curated templates spanning support, sales, marketing, HR, IT, and finance, and you can also save any of your own AI Employees as a template to reuse across your team.

## What a template is

Every template carries the same building blocks as a hand-built AI Employee:

-   **A workflow** — a directed graph of typed nodes (a `start` node, one or more `agent` nodes, and a `publish` node) wired together with edges. The curated templates use the configurable agent types `intent_classification`, `search_respond`, `extraction`, `rule_validation`, and `custom`, plus `respond` for free-form chat replies and `document_agent` for longer document generation (the Proposal Writer and Content Generator templates). See the [Agent reference](/builder/v2/agent-reference) for every agent type.
-   **Starting Instructions** — each agent node ships with a system prompt and, where the agent type needs it, a `type_config` (for example, the intent categories for an `intent_classification` agent, or the output schema for an `extraction` agent).
-   **A starting configuration** — model selection (EmaFusion™ "Let Fusion Pick" by default), an optimization priority, feedback settings, and, for chat templates, a welcome message and conversation starters.
-   **Recommended data sources** — guidance on which Knowledge bases to connect for the best results.

A template is not connected to your live data when you clone it. It is a launch-ready starting point: you connect your Knowledge bases and Tools, adjust the Instructions, and publish.

> [INFO]
> **Clone, not link.** Creating an AI Employee from a template copies the template's workflow into a new, independent draft. There is no ongoing link — later changes to the template do not flow back into AI Employees you already created, and your edits never change the template.

## Curated templates

Ema ships a set of curated templates (shown with the **Ema** source label in the picker), grouped into six categories. The table below lists every curated template available in ema-next.

Template

Category

Type

What it does

[Customer Support Chat](/builder/v2/templates/customer-support-ai-employee)

Support

Chat

Classifies the customer's issue, searches your Knowledge base, and generates a cited response across multi-turn conversations.

[Agent Assist](/builder/v2/templates/agent-assist-ai-employee)

Support

Chat

Suggests real-time resolutions to human agents by classifying the query and searching internal knowledge.

[Sales Development Rep](/builder/v2/templates/ai-sdr)

Sales

Chat

Generates personalized outreach grounded in product docs and case studies.

[Proposal Writer](/builder/v2/templates/document-proposal-ai-employee)

Sales

Form

Researches company knowledge and assembles a structured proposal document.

[Content Generator](/builder/v2/templates/content-generator-ai-employee)

Marketing

Form

Drafts marketing content from a brief, then refines it for brand voice and formatting.

[Lead Qualification](/builder/v2/templates/lead-qualification-ai-employee)

Marketing

Form

Extracts lead data from intake submissions and scores it against configurable rules.

[Employee Onboarding](/builder/v2/templates/employee-service-ai-employee)

HR

Chat

Answers new-hire questions by classifying the topic, searching HR docs, and composing an answer.

[Policy Assistant](/builder/v2/templates/policy-assistant-ai-employee)

HR

Chat

A focused Knowledge base search across HR policies, returning cited policy sections.

[IT Helpdesk](/builder/v2/templates/it-helpdesk-ai-employee)

IT & Ops

Chat

Classifies IT tickets, searches runbooks, and resolves or escalates.

[Data Extraction Pipeline](/builder/v2/templates/data-extraction-pipeline-ai-employee)

IT & Ops

Form

Pulls structured data from documents using a configurable extraction schema.

[Invoice Extraction](/builder/v2/templates/invoice-extraction-ai-employee)

Finance

Form

Extracts invoice fields and validates them against business rules.

[KYC Document Review](/builder/v2/templates/kyc-document-review-ai-employee)

Finance

Form

Extracts identity data, runs compliance checks, and generates a review summary.

Each of these 12 templates has a reference page covering what it does, the workflow and agents it ships with, its starting configuration, and how to create an AI Employee from it. See [Template reference pages](#template-reference-pages) below.

> [INFO]
> **Naming.** In the product, curated templates use short functional names (for example, "Customer Support Chat"). Throughout this documentation we refer to the AI Employee you create from a template using the "\[Name\] AI Employee" pattern — for example, the [Customer Support AI Employee](/builder/v2/templates/customer-support-ai-employee) is the AI Employee you build from the Customer Support Chat template.

## Creating an AI Employee from a template

1.  Go to the **AI Employees** list (the `/ai-employees` route).
2.  Select **Build an AI Employee**. The template picker opens.
3.  Browse or search the templates. Use the category chips — **All**, **Support**, **Sales**, **Marketing**, **HR**, **IT & Ops**, **Finance**, **Other** — to filter, or type in the search box.
4.  Select a template card to open its detail view. The **Overview** tab shows a workflow preview, the value proposition, and how-to-use steps. The **Configuration** tab (when the template includes a configuration) shows the model selection, optimization priority, feedback settings, welcome message, and recommended data sources.
5.  Select **Use template**. Ema clones the template into a new draft AI Employee and opens it in the AI Employee builder, where you finish configuring it.

To build a custom AI Employee instead of starting from a template, select the **Start from scratch** card in the picker. This opens the create dialog and gives you a blank workflow.

> [TIP]
> After cloning, work through the template's **How to use** steps in order. They tell you which Knowledge bases to connect, which categories or schema fields to adjust to match your taxonomy, and which Instructions to align to your brand voice before publishing.

### What happens on the API

The template picker calls the workflow service. Creating an AI Employee from a template is a single request:

```http
POST /api/v1/workflow/templates/{id}/create-workflow
Content-Type: application/json

{ "name": "My customer support AIE" }
```

The response is a new draft `Workflow` with the template's DAG definition, interaction type, and metadata copied into it. The new workflow is independent of the template. To list the templates available to you, the picker calls `GET /api/v1/workflow/templates`; starter (blank-modality) templates are hidden from this list and served separately via `GET /api/v1/workflow/templates/starters`.

## Saving your own template

Any AI Employee you build can become a reusable template for your team. From the AI Employee, open **Save as template** and provide:

-   A **name** and **description**.
-   A **category** (Support, Sales, Marketing, HR, IT & Ops, Finance, or Other).
-   **How to use** — up to four numbered steps that guide whoever clones the template.
-   A **value proposition** — up to four benefit points.

Saving creates a `custom` template (shown with the **Custom** source label) scoped to your tenant. Under the hood this is:

```http
POST /api/v1/workflow/templates
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "workflow_id": "…",
  "name": "Returns specialist",
  "category": "Support",
  "how_to_use": "1. Connect your returns policy KB. 2. …",
  "value_prop": "Cuts returns handling time. …"
}
```

Custom templates can be edited (`PUT /templates/{id}`) and archived (`DELETE /templates/{id}`) by their creator or a tenant admin. Curated (Ema-shipped) templates cannot be modified or archived.

## Sharing templates across tenants

If your organization has a tenant hierarchy, a `system_admin` of a parent tenant can grant a custom template to a descendant (child) tenant. The child tenant's builders then see the granted template in their picker alongside their own custom templates and the curated set. Grants are managed through the template grants endpoints (`GET`/`POST /templates/{id}/grants` and `DELETE /templates/{id}/grants/{tenantId}`). Only the owner tenant can grant or revoke.

## Template reference pages

Every curated template has a reference page, grouped below by category.

**Support**

-   [Customer Support AI Employee](/builder/v2/templates/customer-support-ai-employee) — classify, search your Knowledge base, and respond with citations.
-   [Agent Assist AI Employee](/builder/v2/templates/agent-assist-ai-employee) — suggest real-time resolutions to human agents.

**Sales**

-   [AI SDR](/builder/v2/templates/ai-sdr) — generate personalized, knowledge-grounded sales outreach.
-   [Document Proposal AI Employee](/builder/v2/templates/document-proposal-ai-employee) — research and assemble structured proposals.

**Marketing**

-   [Content Generator AI Employee](/builder/v2/templates/content-generator-ai-employee) — draft and refine on-brand marketing content from a brief.
-   [Lead Qualification AI Employee](/builder/v2/templates/lead-qualification-ai-employee) — extract lead data and score it against your ICP.

**HR**

-   [Employee Onboarding AI Employee](/builder/v2/templates/employee-service-ai-employee) — answer employee and new-hire questions from your HR Knowledge base.
-   [Policy Assistant AI Employee](/builder/v2/templates/policy-assistant-ai-employee) — return cited HR policy sections for any employee question.

**IT & Ops**

-   [IT Helpdesk AI Employee](/builder/v2/templates/it-helpdesk-ai-employee) — classify IT tickets, search runbooks, and resolve or escalate.
-   [Data Extraction Pipeline AI Employee](/builder/v2/templates/data-extraction-pipeline-ai-employee) — pull structured data from documents with a configurable schema.

**Finance**

-   [Invoice Extraction AI Employee](/builder/v2/templates/invoice-extraction-ai-employee) — extract invoice fields and validate them against business rules.
-   [KYC Document Review AI Employee](/builder/v2/templates/kyc-document-review-ai-employee) — extract identity data, run compliance checks, and summarize the review.