> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.heyy.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Choose channel and extra guidelines for the step
> Configure the channel, employee, and optional per-automation extra guidelines on the AI Employee action.
The **AI Employee** automation action has several fields that determine how the step runs.
| Field | What it controls |
| ------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Channel** | Which connected channel this step applies to — Live Chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, or Facebook Messenger. |
| **AI Employee** | Which configured, live employee runs in this step. |
| **Extra guidelines** | Optional extra instructions that apply only inside this automation — see [Automation guideline overrides](/help/ai-employees/going-live/automation-guideline-overrides). |
| **Exit points** | Which of the employee's exit points are allowed to move this automation forward — see [Use exit points in automations](/help/ai-employees/going-live/use-exit-points-in-automations). |
| **If contact has not replied** | An optional reply timeout that moves the automation on when the customer goes quiet — see [Set reply timeouts](/help/ai-employees/going-live/reply-timeouts). |
| **Response delay** | An optional randomized pause before the employee replies, so it reads more naturally and can batch quick follow-up messages. |
## Channel must match the trigger
The channel selected on the AI Employee action must match where the automation's trigger fires. A mismatched channel is the most common reason an employee never runs — the trigger fires, the automation executes, but the AI Employee step is configured for a different channel and silently does nothing.
If an employee is not replying and everything else looks correctly configured, check this field first — it is a frequent, easy-to-miss misconfiguration.
Only a **live** employee appears in the picker — see [employee status](/help/ai-employees/going-live/how-ai-employees-work-in-automations#employee-status-active-inactive-retired) if the one you expect is missing.
With channel and employee both set, the step already works. Extra guidelines, exit points, reply timeout, and response delay — covered below — are all optional.
## Extra guidelines
Below **AI Employee**, you'll find **Extra guidelines**. This is where you hand the employee instructions that apply only inside this one automation, on top of everything it already knows from its own base guidelines.
Use it when this specific automation needs something the employee's default setup doesn't cover — a narrower boundary, a one-off instruction, a rule that only makes sense in this particular flow. Click **New** to add one.
If nothing here needs to differ from how the employee normally behaves, skip it — its base guidelines still apply in full either way. See [Automation guideline overrides](/help/ai-employees/going-live/automation-guideline-overrides) for the full walkthrough.
## Exit points
Right below Extra guidelines sits **Exit points**. This controls which of the employee's exit points are allowed to move this automation forward.
An exit point set up on the employee doesn't carry over here automatically. If it isn't selected in this step, the AI won't use it, no matter how it's configured on the employee itself.
See [Use exit points in automations](/help/ai-employees/going-live/use-exit-points-in-automations) for how to map exit points to the next step in the flow.
## If contact has not replied
Scroll down and you'll find two more toggles that shape how this step behaves over time.
**If contact has not replied** lets you set a timeout, in hours, for the customer's response. If they go quiet past that window, the automation moves on — closing the ticket, reassigning it, or handing off to another employee, whatever you've built downstream. See [Set reply timeouts](/help/ai-employees/going-live/reply-timeouts) for the full configuration options.
## Response delay
Right beneath it is **Response delay**. Turn this on, and the AI Employee waits a short, randomized pause before replying instead of answering the instant a message lands.
It does double duty:
* The pacing feels more natural.
* If a customer fires off a few quick messages in a row — "Hi," "hello," "I wanted to ask about..." — the delay lets the employee gather all of them and reply once, instead of jumping in after the first message alone.