Glossary · AI Employees For Real Job Roles
What is an AI employee?
An AI employee is a single named cloud worker you hire for a real business job — handling enquiries, chasing invoices, triaging support. Unlike a chatbot that only answers, or a workflow that only runs fixed steps, an AI employee owns the whole job: it carries context and rules, works across your chat channels, waits in Review for Actions with Require approval on, leaves run evidence, and gets better as you correct it.
An AI employee owns a job, not a step
A workflow tool moves a known step: when X happens in one app, do Y in another. That is perfect when the path never changes. But a lot of business work is not a fixed path — the next move depends on the context, the rules, and a judgment call. That is a job, not a pipe. Zapier automates steps. Vavio automates jobs.
An AI employee is briefed on the job the way you'd brief a new hire, then owns it: it reads the situation, decides the next move, does the safe part, and holds the risky part for you to approve — with a record of what it did and why.
What makes a worker an “employee”
Six things separate an AI employee from a bot or a script:
- It wakes itself from a declared Trigger such as a schedule, forwarded email, or webhook.
- It finishes or escalates: once work is accepted, the run reaches an honest ending instead of silently disappearing.
- It follows the standing rules you teach it in Training and Skills.
- It respects which Actions Require approval and keeps the exact held work in Review.
- It leaves proof through run evidence: what it checked, why it acted or held, what changed, and what it cost.
- It improves from correction: your fixes become durable rules you can see, edit, or remove.
How you set one up
There is no builder to assemble. The employee is ready from the first click with a name and a personality, and you train it by talking to it. Brief the work, refine it in Chat, and give it a Trigger such as forwarded email, a schedule, or a webhook; each run leaves evidence and current safety floors can still hold work.
What an AI employee is not
- Not a workflow canvas — you don't map every branch in advance.
- Not a chatbot — it does the work, not just the conversation.
- Not a prompt helper — it keeps context, rules, memory, and evidence around one job over time.
- Not blind autopilot — the point is delegation with control, not handing the business over.
What's live today (and what isn't)
Vavio is pre-launch — here's the honest picture
Live today: accepted work is recorded before Vavio says it is on it; an interrupted run can retry under the same record where safe or end visibly failed instead of disappearing; a connected read-first source can produce exact held work with evidence; Review can show the draft for approval, editing, or denial; corrections become durable learned rules with before/after proof; typed or spoken briefs and supported files in web Chat; web chat, email, Telegram, and Slack channels; a website chat bubble; and a Supabase/Postgres Data-API database connection. Owner-approved Gmail read/write/delivery is production-tested twice on Vavio's already-connected company account—not a customer result. A new owner's branded connection still awaits Google verification; recurring inbox results and unattended sending remain outside that proof. This is product proof, not customer evidence, an uptime SLA, or a promise that every job succeeds. WhatsApp and phone calls are not live. Video is not supported. There are no customer logos or usage numbers to show — the proof is the working employee, the evidence, and the controls.
Frequently asked questions
- What is an AI employee in simple terms?
- A single named cloud worker you hire for one real business job. You brief it in plain English, it does the work across your chat channels, Actions with Require approval on wait in Review, and it leaves evidence of what it did.
- How is an AI employee different from a chatbot?
- A chatbot answers questions inside a conversation. An AI employee owns a job end to end — it takes actions (with approval), works through the business's connected channels, leaves run evidence, and improves from your corrections. A chatbot talks; an AI employee works.
- How is an AI employee different from Zapier or workflow automation?
- Workflow tools run fixed steps you map in advance. An AI employee owns a whole job and decides the next move in context, asking first on the risky parts. Zapier automates steps; Vavio automates jobs.
- Can an AI employee send emails on its own?
- With Require approval on, the employee holds a send with the exact recipient, subject, and body for approval, editing, or denial. Run evidence helps you decide whether that requirement stays on, but unattended dispatch is not completed public proof and current safety floors still apply.
- What channels can an AI employee use?
- Web chat, email, Telegram, and Slack are the live channels today, plus a public share link and a website chat bubble you place on your own site. Voice input and supported voice notes are live; WhatsApp and phone calls are planned, not live.
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