AI actions, approvals, and Autopilot

The dealer AI can do real work for you: add a vehicle, move a lead, start a deal, even record a loan payment. Every write starts as a reviewable proposal card. In Ask first mode, nothing changes until you choose Approve. In web chat, you can also reply a plain "yes" when the AI's latest reply contains exactly one proposal in total. If the owner has enabled Autopilot for an eligible routine action, the application may try it automatically after the AI finishes its reply and all final safety checks pass.

How it works

For a manual-only proposal reply, the AI explicitly says “Nothing has changed yet.” If one reply contains both manual and Autopilot-eligible cards, that sentence applies only to the manual cards it identifies; the automatic cards are still only conditional attempts until their final checks finish.

When you Approve, the card runs the real action: the same one the manual screens use, with the same rules and audit trail behind it. Autopilot uses that same execution path and rechecks its permission at the last moment. On confirmed success the card flips to an Applied badge, and for a new vehicle, lead, or customer you get a View link to jump straight to the record. (Other actions, like a status change or a loan payment, simply show Applied, with no View link.)

If the application cannot confirm the result after execution may have started, the card becomes Needs review and cannot be approved again. Choose Reload status for a fresh check. If it remains Needs review, inspect the affected record and activity trail before taking another action. AutoDealer also pauses every new AI-proposed change for the dealership until that receipt is reconciled. Other pending cards may remain visible, but they cannot run. Contact support after you inspect the affected record so AI changes can be resumed safely. This prevents an uncertain email, payment, or record change from being repeated.

If you Reject instead, the card collapses to a Dismissed badge. Rejecting only stops a card that's still waiting. It never reverses something you already approved.

Approve in web chat by just saying "yes"

You don't have to hunt for the button. If the AI's last message proposed a single change, you can simply reply yes (or "ok", "do it", "go ahead", "approve") and it runs. Reply no (or "cancel", "skip", "nevermind") to dismiss it.

If the shortcut is refused before an action starts, the card stays Needs approval so you can review and click it directly. Needs review is reserved for the different case where execution may have started but its result could not be confirmed.

Autopilot: skip the approval for routine changes

If you own the dealership, you can pre-authorize specific routine actions so the application can try them after the AI's final reply, with no approval tap. Turn it on under Settings → AI assistant → Autopilot and tick the actions you trust it with (creating tasks, updating lead statuses, changing a price, and so on).

Four things stay true no matter what you tick:

• Money and irreversible actions always ask first. Recording a payment, marking a deal sold, sending an email or text: these can never be put on autopilot. The setting won't offer them, and the server refuses them independently.
• Reading outside content pauses Autopilot for that response and related follow-ups. If the AI read something written by someone outside your team while working on your ask, any action from that response comes as a normal approval card instead of applying automatically. This includes lead or customer messages, attachments, imported vehicle descriptions, outside pricing labels, saved schedule text, activity details, and accounting records when that feature is available. The safety state is saved with the conversation or background job and stays manual while that context is carried forward. Start a new conversation for unrelated work. This keeps outside text from triggering an unattended change, no matter what it says.
• Everything is logged. An autopilot change shows in the activity trail marked as applied automatically, so you can always tell what the AI did on its own versus what someone approved by hand.
• Final checks can still require you. A changed setting, role, entitlement, or safety condition can leave the proposal waiting for approval. If execution may have started but the result cannot be confirmed, the card becomes Needs review instead. Do not approve it again; reload its status and inspect the affected record.

Only the owner can change autopilot settings, and each staffer's role limits still apply: the AI acting for a salesperson can only auto-apply what that salesperson could do themselves.

Background jobs: hand it bulk work

For work too big for one reply ("reprice every SUV over 60 days old", "clean up the listings missing photos"), the AI can run a background job. Starting one is itself an approval card showing the job's name and exactly what it will do. Once you approve, the job runs on its own in segments, posting its progress back into the same chat.

A job never gets special powers: every change it wants to make goes through the same approval cards (or your Autopilot settings) as if you'd asked in chat. When a step needs your approval, the job pauses, you get a notification, and it continues automatically after you decide. You'll get a notification when it finishes, and asking "how's my job going?" gives you the status any time.

If a run is interrupted after it may have saved or applied work, AutoDealer.io marks it as Needs review instead of repeating it automatically. Check the chat to see how far it got before you intentionally start it again.

Schedules: standing work on a clock

For work you want done on a rhythm rather than once ("every weekday at 7:30, check for leads nobody has touched and brief me"), create a schedule. Ask the AI for something recurring, or manage them under Settings → AI assistant → Schedules: pause, edit, delete, see each run's history, or hit Run now to try one immediately. Times are your dealership's local time.

A schedule is just a clock on the background-job machinery, so nothing changes about safety: each run's proposed changes still arrive as approval cards (or apply via your autopilot settings), and the run's briefing lands in your AI chat marked as an update so you can't miss it. Creating a schedule always needs an explicit approval, even with autopilot on: standing behavior is something you say yes to yourself. Schedules pause themselves and tell you why if their creator leaves the team or three runs in a row fail, and owners and managers can have up to ten.

Editing a card that needs approval

A card waiting for approval is editable. You can change the values the AI suggested before approving: a price, a status, a description, options checkboxes, and so on. Money fields accept "18000", "18,000", or "$18,000.50"; they're cleaned up for you. An Autopilot card may already have a final outcome by the time it appears, so it is not presented as a pending edit form once settled.

What you can't change is which record the action points at. The vehicle, lead, or customer being acted on shows as a read-only line on the card. That's on purpose. It means an approval can never be retargeted to a different (or another dealer's) record.

What the AI can do

There are 26 actions today, grouped by area:

• Inventory: create a vehicle, edit it, change its price, change its status, publish it, rewrite its description.
• Leads: create, change status, assign to a salesperson, convert to a customer.
• Customers: create, edit.
• Tasks: create, assign, set status, add a comment.
• Deals: create a deal, move a deal through its stages (including mark sold).
• Title: move title work through its stages.
• BHPH: record a loan payment.
• Communications: draft and send an email or SMS after explicit approval.
• Memory: remember a fact for your own future chats.
• Background work: start a background job.
• Schedules: create recurring work (always requires explicit approval).
• Support: escalate an AI-support issue with its conversation reference (always requires explicit approval).

Who can approve what (role gating)

Each action is gated to your role, and the AI only ever offers you actions your role is allowed to perform:

• Owner / Manager: everything.
• Sales: inventory, leads, customers, tasks, deals, title work, communications, background jobs, personal memory, and support escalation. Not loan payments or schedules.
• Accounting: customers, tasks, title work, communications, background jobs, personal memory, support escalation, and recording BHPH loan payments. Not inventory, schedules, or the sales pipeline.

Saving a personal Memory isn't restricted. Every role can do that, since it only affects your own future chats.

The gate is checked twice: once when deciding what the AI can even offer, and again on every apply attempt, whether manual or Autopilot. So a proposal for something your role can't do is refused before execution with a message like "Your role can't perform this action."

FAQ

Will the AI ever change something without me approving?

Only when the dealership owner has deliberately enabled Autopilot for that eligible routine action. Even then, the application rechecks the live policy, your role, feature access, action risk, proposal values, and injection safeguards before it tries the change. Money, irreversible actions, communications, background-job starts, schedules, and support escalation still require an explicit approval.

Can I undo an approval?

The action runs the same as if you'd done it by hand, so undo it the same way you would manually. Change the price back, say, or move the status again. Rejecting a card only stops a pending proposal; it doesn't reverse one you already approved.

I clicked Approve and it said the action can no longer be applied.

A proposal can become unavailable if AutoDealer.io disabled AI, your dealership stopped its assistant, billing is blocked, your role changed, or the assistant is set to Answers only. The message tells you which state applies. An owner or manager can turn the dealership's assistant back on under Settings → AI assistant; platform and billing blocks must be cleared in the place named by the message.

The pending card stays in the conversation. After the blocking state is lifted, review the card again before approving it. A plain "yes" still follows the latest-message and 24-hour safety rules.

What does "Edited values are invalid" mean?

A value you typed on the card didn't pass validation, and the message names the field. Fix that field and Approve again; the rest of the proposal is preserved.

What does "Needs review" mean?

AutoDealer.io could not prove whether an action finished after execution may have started. The card is locked so the same effect cannot be repeated. Choose Reload status, then check the affected record and activity trail. If the card still says Needs review, do not approve or re-create the action. New AI changes are paused dealership-wide until the receipt is reconciled, so contact support after you confirm what happened.

Do decisions and Autopilot applications leave a record?

Yes. Approved and rejected actions are written to the audit log. Automatic applications are marked as Autopilot and tied to the initiating user plus the owner's standing policy, so you can distinguish them from a fresh manual confirmation.

Can the AI act on another dealer's records?

No. Everything is scoped to your dealership, and the record an action targets is locked on the card and can't be retargeted.