Summary
Every Alta campaign runs in one of two modes: Auto-Pilot (Katie sends touchpoints automatically as the sequence progresses) or Co-Pilot (every prospect waits for human approval before each touchpoint goes out). This article explains the difference and when to use each.
Who this is for
Anyone launching a new campaign and deciding how much human oversight to keep in the loop. SDR managers calibrating risk, AEs ramping new motion, or anyone running outbound to a high-stakes audience.
The two modes at a glance
Auto-Pilot
Katie sends every touchpoint automatically on schedule, no human in the loop. Prospects move through the sequence as soon as they're added.
Co-Pilot
Every prospect entering the campaign lands in Waiting for Review. A human approves or rejects each message before it sends. The sequence only advances after each approval — every step still requires review.
How Co-Pilot mode works (step-by-step)
A prospect enters the campaign with the status Waiting for Review.
Open the campaign and filter by status Waiting for Review to see only prospects needing a decision.
Click a prospect's name to preview the generated message on the right-hand panel.
Choose:
Send — approves the message and sends that specific touchpoint.
Reject — removes the prospect from the sequence.
Approving sends only the current step. The next scheduled step also requires review when it comes due.
You can also bulk-select prospects and use Approve or Reject to act on many at once. See How to Approve / Reject Prospects Who Are "Waiting for Review" from a Co-Pilot Campaign for the click-by-click walkthrough.
When to use Auto-Pilot
Mature playbook. The prompt, audience, and sequence have shipped before, you trust the output.
High volume, low risk. Broad ICP, low-stakes accounts, you can absorb a mediocre touch.
Iterative tuning. You're A/B testing variants and want clean throughput.
Ops-heavy team. You don't have headcount to approve every send.
When to use Co-Pilot
New campaign or fresh prompt. You haven't validated the message quality at scale yet.
High-value accounts. Strategic, named-account, or ABM outreach where one bad email costs the deal.
Regulated audiences. Healthcare, finance, public sector — anywhere outbound text is reviewed.
Ramping reps. New reps get to learn what good outbound looks like by approving Katie's drafts.
Sensitive personalization. When you're referencing news, layoffs, leadership changes — a human gut-check before send is cheap insurance.
Switching modes mid-campaign
A campaign's mode is a setting, not a one-way door. Common patterns:
Start in Co-Pilot, graduate to Auto-Pilot. Run the first cohort under review, get a feel for the output, then flip the campaign to Auto-Pilot once you're confident.
Start in Auto-Pilot, fall back to Co-Pilot. If response rates drop or you spot a quality issue, flip to Co-Pilot temporarily to put a human checkpoint back in.
Per-audience split. Run two campaigns to different audiences in different modes — VIP accounts in Co-Pilot, broad ICP in Auto-Pilot.
Tips and common pitfalls
Co-Pilot needs daily attention. If nobody reviews the queue, prospects pile up in Waiting for Review and the sequence stalls. Assign an owner.
Approving is per-step, not per-prospect. Approving one message doesn't mean future steps go automatically — every step waits for review. Plan for it.
Use bulk approval after a smoke test. Once you've reviewed 10 messages and they look great, bulk-approve the rest of the batch to save time.
Use Slack notifications. Pipe Co-Pilot review queues into a Slack channel so your team sees pending approvals in their daily flow (see How to Connect Your Slack Channel).
Reject is permanent for that sequence. Rejecting removes the prospect from the campaign. If you want to pause-and-resume instead, use the prospect-level pause control rather than Reject.
Score before approving. Use Message Scoring to quickly evaluate Katie's draft — score and one-click prompt improvements speed up reviews dramatically.
Related
How to Approve / Reject Prospects Who Are "Waiting for Review" from a Co-Pilot Campaign
How to Use Message Scoring in Alta
How to Create a Personalized Message in Alta (Katie)