Last week, during our meeting at Stanford, I had an insightful conversation with Neelu about copilots and autopilots. We discussed how B2B companies can leverage the right AI to enhance productivity and automate tasks.
Before diving into copilots vs. autopilots, let us offer a bit of context on why we chose to co-author this piece. Our goal is to unpack the difference in a way that’s both strategic and actionable for modern B2B teams.
While the industry focses on team copilots, Cast.app is building the next generation of Digital Customer Success — AI CSMs that operate as autopilots. They don’t just assist; they engage, influence, act, and grow revenue autonomously.
Neelu Shaikh is a seasoned SaaS and cloud executive with over 15 years of experience leading global customer success, post-sales, and partner strategy at companies like Google Cloud, Zoominfo, Coupa and Tipalti.
As the founder of OmniSaintAI, she advises B2B organizations on scaling secure, AI-first customer experiences that drive automation, predictability, and long-term growth. Neelu is passionate about transforming reactive team-based models into proactive, autonomous customer ecosystems—making her a leading voice on the future of Autopilot AI in B2B.
Neelu's compelling slide comparing copilots and autopilots in her presentation, instantly reminded me of a paper I wrote during my 2017 MIT class on advanced analytics and AI, where I described the Analytics maturity curve and its mapping from tools to assistants, operators, peers, and eventually, autonomous managers. Here is the article and a modernized visualization for reference.
Here is what Neelu said in her presentation titled “How AI is Reshaping SaaS CX” about copilots and autopilots. Neelu Shaikh explores how AI is fundamentally transforming customer experience (CX) in SaaS. She argues that AI is not just a tool for efficiency—it’s becoming a strategic enabler for proactive, predictive, and personalized customer engagement at scale.
She outlines how AI has helped CX in three key ways:
AI-driven health scoring, churn prediction, and usage analytics help teams as copilot AI. Unfortunately, health-based scoring is a lagging indicator and identifies accounts in red and yellow, but rarely preempts an account on its way to becoming yellow or red.
Dynamic segmentation and personalized engagement powered by AI allow for more relevant, timely interactions tailored to customer intent and journey stage.
Automation of onboarding, support workflows, and success playbooks is freeing up human teams to focus on high-value, strategic customer relationships.
Neelu also emphasizes the importance of trust, governance, and ethical AI use in maintaining customer confidence—especially in enterprise SaaS. She concludes that companies who successfully embed AI into their CX DNA will not only scale efficiently but unlock meaningful, long-term customer value.
In aviation, copilots and autopilots have distinct roles.
A copilot assists the pilot, offering guidance on navigation, monitoring systems, and providing a second opinion. It’s a collaborative effort, but the pilot remains in charge.
An autopilot, on the other hand, controls the flight, managing the entire flight process. It handles everything from staying on course to adjusting altitude and even landing, while the pilot keeps a close eye on things.
That said, “autopilot” doesn’t mean fully autonomous. Modern aircraft often use fly-by-wire systems, where electronic signals send both pilot and autopilot inputs to the aircraft’s control surfaces instead of physical cables or hydraulic systems.
Copilots assist your internal teams — helping with productivity, content drafting, or data analysis.
Autopilots go further — replacing manual workflows by engaging customers directly, triggering actions, and delivering outcomes autonomously.
Think of copilots as intelligent assistants embedded in your team’s workflow — helping users work faster and more effectively.
Autopilots, by contrast, act as dedicated specialists. They operate independently, take initiative, and manage entire workstreams without human prompting.
As AI continues to evolve, it’s no longer just a tool or assistant — AI is evolving into an autonomous operator.
While most AI solutions assist internal teams, Cast was built for the next tier of automation: AI agents that operate independently, engage customers directly, and deliver outcomes at scale.
As organizations adopt AI across their operations, the real differentiator isn’t whether AI is being used — it’s how it’s being used.
Most companies stop at AI as a tool or copilot: helpful for speeding up tasks like content generation or analysis — but still reliant on human initiation and oversight.
The next step up is AI as an operator — what we call an autopilot.
These agents don’t wait to be asked. They take initiative, follow playbooks, operate within defined business logic, and drive outcomes on their own — triggering workflows, engaging customers, and adapting to changes in real time.
While copilots help individuals work faster, autopilots help businesses scale.
They reduce cognitive load not just for internal teams, but for customers as well — handling repetitive, high-volume interactions that would otherwise require a growing team.
The table below breaks down this shift — from basic AI tools, to copilots, to full autopilot agents — and what each stage means for your workflows, teams, and customers.
Cast’s AI Agent takes on the full role of a Customer Success Manager — not as a tool or a copilot, but as an operator.
It engages every customer directly with personalized, data-driven presentations, onboarding, product guidance, and growth recommendations — all without requiring human coordination.
This goes beyond automation. Cast is a scalable, proactive customer experience engine — one that ensures every account is reached, supported, and guided at the right time.
Achieve complete lifecycle coverage — onboarding, adoption, expansion, retention — without hiring a single additional CSM. Cast ensures that even the long tail of customers gets continuous, proactive engagement.
Free your human CSMs from repetitive tasks like pulling data, drafting QBRs, or chasing meeting follow-ups. Cast handles the groundwork, so your team can focus on building strategic relationships, identifying upsell opportunities, and driving value where it matters most.
You can effectively engage and influence every contact (users, executives, and financial decision-makers) at every account across all segments, all without adding headcount.
These accounts often fall through the cracks. With Cast, they receive the kind of personalized attention and proactive communication previously only possible for enterprise clients — improving satisfaction, loyalty, and expansion potential.
Even in strategic accounts, Cast enhances the experience by reducing delays, anticipating needs, and ensuring every conversation is backed by up-to-date insights. Customers feel more supported, more understood, and more connected to your value.
Copilots assist your internal teams.
Autopilots like Cast work on your behalf — engaging customers directly, driving outcomes at scale, and giving every account the experience it deserves.
This is how modern businesses grow — without growing headcount.