Autopilot¶
Autopilot writes a blog post for you on a schedule and emails you a preview. You approve it with one click, or decline it. Nothing is published without your answer.
Turn it on in the Autopilot tab of the Dealer.ms > AI Blog page (administrators only). The left card has four tabs for the settings (Schedule, What it writes, AI credits and Approval). The switch to turn it on and the Save autopilot button stay at the bottom whichever tab you are on, and one save covers every tab. The right card has Status (on or off, the next planned post, the credits used this month) and Activity (a list of what it did lately).
What it does each time¶
- On the day and hour you chose, it checks that it is safe to go ahead (see the limits below).
- It looks at what it has already written and picks something new: new arrivals when at least 3 new listings came in, a spotlight on a listing that was not featured yet, or a guide for a make or model you have plenty of. It rotates between these, and between your inventory types.
- It writes the post in the background, the same way the Write post button does.
- When the draft is ready, you get an email with the title, the teaser, the photo and the first paragraph.
Price drops and recently sold posts are only written when at least 2 vehicles qualify.
It never repeats a listing it featured in the last 120 days, and a guide topic rests for 60 days. If there is nothing new or fresh to write about, it skips that week and says so in the Activity tab.
Settings¶
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Write posts on a schedule | The on/off switch |
| How often | Every week, every 2 weeks, or every 4 weeks |
| On and At | The weekday and hour, in your site timezone. The exact minute within that hour is chosen for your site, so many sites using the same time do not all reach the AI server together |
| Post type checkboxes | Untick any of new arrivals, spotlight, price drops, recently sold or guide. If you used Autopilot before price drops and recently sold existed, they stay off until you tick them |
| Inventory types | Which types to write about. Tick none to use them all |
| Most per month | A ceiling for the autopilot. At 5,000 credits a post, 20,000 is four posts |
| Always keep this many free | The autopilot stops before your balance would drop below this |
| Send approvals to | One or more email addresses. Empty means the site admin email |
Autopilot shares your AI credits
Posts use the same monthly AI credits as AI listing descriptions. A weekly post is about 21,700 credits a month. Set Always keep this many free to what you need for descriptions, and set a monthly ceiling you are comfortable with. When a limit is reached the autopilot pauses and tells you in the Activity tab.
There is also a daily safety limit of 5 posts per license on the Dealer.ms side.
The approval email¶
| Button | What happens |
|---|---|
| Approve and publish now | The post goes live right away |
| Approve and publish followed by a date and time | The post is scheduled for the day and hour of the next autopilot run. The button only shows when a next run is planned |
| Read the full post | Opens the whole post on a page you can read without logging in |
| Edit in WordPress | Opens it in the editor, where you can change it and publish it yourself |
| Decline | Deletes the post |
The buttons open a short confirmation page and only act when you press the button there. That keeps email security scanners, which open every link in a message, from publishing or deleting a post by accident. Each post can be decided once, and the links stop working after 14 days.
If you have not answered after 3 days you get one reminder.
You can also answer from the Posts tab: a post waiting for an answer shows Awaiting approval, and Review opens it in a window where you can publish, publish at the next planned time or decline. The AI Blog menu item shows a count of posts waiting. If you publish or delete the post from the editor yourself, that counts as your answer.
One post at a time
The autopilot does not write a new post while an earlier one is still waiting for your answer. Approve or decline it and the next run goes ahead as planned.
Switching the extension off¶
Deactivating the extension removes the Autopilot schedule and any approval reminders that were waiting. Your drafts and settings stay. When you activate it again, Autopilot puts its schedule back the next time you open any admin page.
Write the next post now¶
The Write the next post now link runs the same steps as a scheduled run, with the same limits, without waiting for the schedule. The result is shown at the top of the page and added to Activity.
Activity¶
A short log of what the autopilot did: started a post, sent an email, skipped a run and why, or paused because of a credit limit. Check it first if a week passes without a post.
If emails do not arrive¶
The approval email is sent with your site's normal WordPress email. If your host does not send email well, install an SMTP plugin. Check the spam folder, and use the Posts tab to approve in the meantime.