Ace Autopilot: Autonomous Follow-Up, Drafts-First

Ace Autopilot is one follow-up system with configurable workflows for new leads, re-engagement, and long-term nurture. All three are included with Ace Trove and use the same account controls, draft review, conversations, and handoff path.

One workspace, finite follow-up plans

Use Activity for outcomes, Workflows for new leads, re-engagement, and nurture, and Controls for targeting, review, channels, knowledge, and action permissions. All workflows share one account switch and account budget. Enable and review each workflow explicitly.

• New leads: planned touches on days 0, 3, and 7.
• Re-engagement: days 0 and 7.
• Nurture: days 0, 7, and 21.

These are finite plans measured from the run start. You may set a workflow daily cap and optional spacing of 2–90 days; blank spacing keeps the default offsets. Eligibility, sending windows, review, and a minimum 48-hour gap between actual touches can delay a step. Completed runs do not restart. Verified replies pause unsolicited cadence while conversation permissions govern the next step.

Start a workflow with a tag

1. An account admin opens Autopilot in the admin dashboard and confirms the account has Ace Trove. The page opens on the Activity tab, which shows past Autopilot activity and outcomes — there is nothing to switch on here. The settings live on the other tabs.
2. Open the Controls tab and turn on Autopilot on for this account. Leave Review every touch as a draft first on (it is on by default).
3. Still under Controls, under Who Autopilot may work, choose Only contacts I tag.
4. Open the Workflows tab and turn on the one workflow that fits the contacts you want to work — for example New lead — first touch. Leave every other workflow off until that one feels right, and leave its Review as drafts switch on. Turning the account switch on by itself sends nothing: a workflow must be enabled too.
5. In Follow Up Boss, add ace-autopilot to a contact, a selected group, or an action plan. In tagged mode, this is explicit enrollment: this enrollment requires no separate contact-level consent artifact.
6. Connect each assigned agent's own Gmail for email delivery. An admin can configure the optional SMS bridge described below.
7. Review the first drafts in the assigned agent's existing Ace queue. An enabled playbook considers matching contacts on a scheduled pass; tagging is not a promise of an immediate message.

A tagged contact still needs an assigned agent, usable contact context, a matching enabled playbook, and a working channel. Explicit opt-outs, exclusions, human or other-assistant activity, sending hours, and daily limits still apply. If the dashboard says awaiting activation, settings are saved but the platform rollout switch has not enabled the loop.

Choose the right targeting mode

Only contacts I tag uses ace-autopilot as explicit enrollment. The whole eligible book considers contacts across the account and retains the existing relationship-evidence requirement. The ace-autopilot-exclude tag excludes a contact from every modern Autopilot workflow, including nurture in either mode, even when the include tag is also present.

Graduate one playbook at a time

Draft review starts on. To allow autonomous sending, turn off the account-wide review switch and confirm Enable per-playbook graduation. This unlocks the controls while keeping every playbook in review. Then turn off Review as drafts for one playbook and confirm that playbook's graduation. Other playbooks retain their own review settings. Turn review back on for a playbook, or turn the account-wide review switch on, to return to drafts-first.

Choose requested actions and check effective permissions

Under Conversation controls, choose Off / Draft / Execute for replies and supported CRM actions. The requested mode is separate from the current effective permission. Account and playbook draft-review settings remain a ceiling; Trove, activation, current capabilities, targeting, and existing account, playbook, and per-contact limits still apply. Choose allowed stage transitions and sequences by name. Appointment preferences offer only Off or Draft.

Choose no knowledge, all eligible account knowledge, or selected entries for grounding. Global AI exclusions and approval requirements still apply. If you revoke or change a knowledge source included in a pending composition, Ace must recompose before acting.

Choose your communication style and topics

In the admin dashboard, open Autopilot → Controls → Communication style & focus. Choose Clear and conversational, Warm and encouraging, or Direct and concise.

Under Topics to emphasize when relevant, choose any of the five options: financing questions, dated local market trends, moving timeline and constraints, buying options and tradeoffs, or selling preparation and next steps. Leave them unchecked to let the contact’s needs guide the topic. Select Save communication preferences and wait for Preferences saved.

These preferences guide future outreach and replies. They do not rewrite existing drafts or messages already sent. The contact’s current question comes first: choosing a topic does not make Ace insert it into every conversation or establish a rate, trend, listing, or opportunity as a fact. Relevant facts still need available supporting information. Sending permissions, review mode, targeting, knowledge access, opt-outs, and daily limits are controlled separately.

Review the message Ace submitted

1. Open Autopilot → Activity in the admin dashboard.
2. Find the contact’s activity card and expand Review submitted messages.
3. Read the recorded content and timestamp. An email also shows its subject; the plain-text record includes the signature and opt-out text submitted with that email.

Email accepted by sender means the sending service accepted the email. Text request submitted means Ace submitted the request to Leadngage. Neither label confirms that the recipient received, read, or replied to the message.

This view shows retained message records, not a complete inbox or permanent communication archive. Older touches may have no saved message content, and a draft is not a submitted message. If content is missing, check the contact’s record in Follow Up Boss: a message Ace sent from your own connected mailbox appears in the email history, and one sent through the Ace relay is written onto the contact as a note titled “Email sent” with the full text. Ace does not reconstruct an old message and present it as sent.

The same card includes Why Ace selected this contact and Research used. Use them to see the recorded selection reasons and available sources, with public source links and dates when recorded. A source being available does not mean every fact appeared in the message. Earlier activity may not have these details.

Use Autopilot from Companion

Open My Tools → Ace Relay → Ace Autopilot. The card reads your account's configured status: Off, Awaiting activation, Choose playbooks, Drafts-first, Mixed review modes, or Autonomous. It explains the current targeting mode, enrollment and exclusion tags, and the unified workflow controls. Companion also shows a read-only action-policy summary. Use the admin Autopilot view to refresh capability checks and save account permissions; a capability that Companion has not checked remains unverified. Admins can open Manage Autopilot; other agents follow the setup guide and review their assigned drafts. A failed status read says Status unavailable, not Off.

Email, SMS, and handoff

Email uses the assigned agent's connected delivery setup. The optional SMS bridge uses your account's own Lead Engage subscription: Ace composes and schedules a command in Follow Up Boss, and Lead Engage handles SMS delivery. An accepted command does not confirm delivery to the lead.

A verified reply starts or continues an eligible conversation while the day-spaced cadence pauses. Ace can keep replying under the effective action policy until a qualified or requested human next step calls for handoff to the assigned agent. Opt-outs and human takeover stop automation. Unavailable message content, unverified message origin, or an unknown prior action outcome pauses automatic work for review. A handoff alert being recorded does not prove the agent received it; provider cancellation can remain pending.

Calling and appointment preferences

A call request requires the account's active Lead Engage attestation and the writable Follow Up Boss text field Reason for Calling. With calling effectively enabled, Ace writes the reason, confirms the saved value, then applies the exact tag Leadengage outbound ai call. Trigger acceptance does not confirm ringing, connection, or a completed conversation.

Appointments are draft-only. Ace can prepare preferences or a proposed next step for human review. It does not check availability, reserve a slot, or book an appointment. The agent must check a real calendar and confirm the arrangement.

Recent activity shows the latest projected states for up to 20 recently updated runs. Draft proposals have not executed; accepted commands, accepted call triggers, handoff alerts, pending cleanup, and unknown outcomes remain separate. Check the actual contact activity or provider before retrying an uncertain action.

What is included?

Autopilot workflows for new leads, re-engagement, and nurture are included with Ace Trove. Modern workflows do not add a per-nurtured-contact charge. SMS and calling use your own Lead Engage subscription and its provider charges. Moving to unified Autopilot does not automatically cancel or migrate an existing legacy nurture subscription; review any legacy billing separately.

Bring existing nurture tags into a workflow

Old tags and old RANT settings do not turn on modern Autopilot. In Workflows, explicitly select the existing tags that a workflow may adopt, save your proposal, and use Only contacts I tag. New-lead workflows can adopt ai_nurture_new, ai_hot, or ai_offhours; nurture can adopt ai_nurture_long; re-engagement can adopt ai_rehash. Conflicting workflow tags require review. A tag cannot supply missing contact facts or override the contact’s current lifecycle.

ace-autopilot-exclude and ai_dead stop all modern Autopilot workflows, including nurture, in both targeting modes. Stops still require tracked cleanup for any provider work already accepted; a stop request is not proof that an external queue has cleared.

If no draft appears

1. Check the account status and whether at least one playbook is enabled.
2. Confirm the targeting mode, exact include tag, and absence of the exclusion tag.
3. Confirm the contact matches the playbook, has an assigned agent, and has enough useful CRM context to ground a message.
4. Check whether recent human activity, an under-contract state, or an opt-out blocks outreach. An ongoing Autopilot conversation pauses the cadence while verified replies follow the conversation policy.
5. Check the assigned sender, sending hours, daily limits, and whether the next scheduled pass has run.

For more detail, see how Autopilot decides who to contact and the SMS setup guide.

Useful messages, clear authorship

Autopilot needs readable, authorized contact information for a useful message. Its own activity receipts, hidden message bodies and unavailable call content do not count. A generic draft gets one rewrite attempt; if it still lacks a specific contact detail, Ace skips that touch instead of sending a generic check-in. Old preferences are something to confirm, not assume.

Automatic emails use your assigned agent's signature with a separate Sent automatically by Ace, an AI assistant. footer and an opt-out line. Paragraphs stay readable in HTML and plain text. Text messages keep a compact disclosure and the first-touch STOP notice. A draft you personally review and send follows your team's separate draft-disclosure setting.