Autopilot replies

Mailnitio Autopilot can do two things for a customer: acknowledge a new email, and answer it from your approved knowledge base. You decide, category by category, whether it does either, and whether it acts for real or only records what it would do.

Shadow mode and live mode

In shadow mode, Autopilot reads and decides as normal, but nothing reaches the customer: no ticket, no acknowledgement, no answer. Each decision is recorded in the Inbox log, so you can check its work before you trust it. In live mode, Mailnitio creates tickets and replies as you have set.

Where you set it

Mode is set in two places, and the stricter one wins:

• Each mailbox, in Settings then Mailboxes: Live, Shadow for all categories or Paused. Paused stops processing altogether. Shadow for all categories overrides every category. New mailboxes start in shadow mode, and making one live asks you to confirm.
• Each category, in Settings then Autopilot then Replies: Shadow or Live. When the mailbox is live, the category decides. New categories start in Shadow.

So you can run Enquiries live while Redemptions stay in shadow, on the same mailbox. The banner at the top of the Replies tab tells you when a mailbox is overriding the category settings.

The Autopilot pill in the top bar shows Live, Shadow or Paused across your mailboxes. It reads mailbox modes only.

Per-category settings

Open Settings then Autopilot then Replies. Each row is a category, with its team and three settings:

• Mode: Shadow or Live.
• Acknowledgement: on or off, with its text.
• Autopilot answer: Off, Suggest to agent or Send automatically.

Select Save replies to apply your changes; each save becomes a new configuration version. Discard undoes unsaved changes. Only owners and admins can change reply settings.

Some categories are restricted, whatever you choose:

• Spam is always skipped: never acknowledged or answered.
• Complaints and categories that belong to the escalation team cannot have an Autopilot answer. They always need a person.
• Account-specific requests can be suggested to an agent but never sent automatically.

Acknowledgements

An acknowledgement is a short automatic reply that confirms you have received the email. It is sent when a new ticket opens in a live category with acknowledgements on.

You can use these variables in the subject and message: {{customer_first_name}}, {{ticket_number}}, {{team_name}}, {{business_hours}}, {{signature}} and {{subject}} (the subject of the customer's email).

Three more switches can stop acknowledgements:

• Each mailbox has a Send acknowledgements master switch in Settings then Mailboxes. When it is off, nothing is acknowledged from that mailbox.
• If the Replies tab shows Acknowledgements are off for this workspace, contact Mailnitio support to turn them on.
• Loop protection holds back repeat acknowledgements to the same sender, so two automatic systems never email each other in a loop.

Acknowledging a category that belongs to the escalation team asks you to confirm, because customers will get an automatic reply on sensitive emails.

Knowledge base answers

Autopilot answers only from approved answers in Settings then Knowledge base. Drafts and archived answers are never used. See Knowledge base. Choose what happens for each category in the Autopilot answer column.

Suggest to agent

Autopilot drafts an answer and shows it on the ticket as an Autopilot suggestion, with the knowledge base topics it used. The agent selects Insert into reply, edits the text and sends it. If the draft fails the guardrail check, the ticket says Autopilot draft held back by the guardrail check and explains why, and the agent replies in their own words.

Send automatically

Autopilot replies to the customer without a person checking first. Mailnitio asks you to confirm when you choose it. An answer is sent only when all of these are true:

• the email was routed without review, so Autopilot was confident about the category
• the draft uses approved answers only and passes the guardrail check
• the mailbox is live and can send email
• the ticket is not escalated or in Needs review, and its sender needs no confirming
• no agent has replied yet, and the ticket is still New or Open

Otherwise the draft stays a suggestion for an agent. After an automatic answer, the ticket moves to Pending (waiting on customer) rather than closing. If the customer writes back, it opens again for your team.

What customers see

• Acknowledgements and answers arrive from your own mailbox address, in the same email thread as the customer's message, as a formatted email with your logo and footer. Answers are signed with your team or workspace name. An acknowledgement that already ends with your acknowledgement signature is not signed again. Both are marked as automatic replies, so out-of-office systems do not answer them.
• Agent replies also come from your address, in the same thread, signed with the agent's name.
• In shadow mode, customers receive nothing from Mailnitio. Your team still answers them in the mailbox as before.

In the ticket, automatic messages appear as Auto-reply by Autopilot, so your team can see exactly what the customer was sent.