> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.buildai.space/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Overview
> Personal AI teammates that work for you - getting things done on your behalf, around the clock.
Digital employees are personal AI teammates that work for you. You describe the kind of helper you want, and BuildAI hires you a digital employee with its own personality, memory, and tools - then it gets to work on your behalf, 24/7.
You don't have to drive every step. Tell your digital employee what you need and it takes it from there - writing, researching, reaching into your Gmail or Calendar, and handling the follow-through. Think of it as hiring a smart assistant who gets better at helping you the longer you work together. **And the best part? They even talk in your language.**
Digital employees are an early feature. Some channels (WhatsApp, Telegram) are coming soon - for now your employee lives inside BuildAI web chat.
***
## How to Hire a Digital Employee
1. Open BuildAI and go to your **Employees** dashboard.
2. Describe the kind of employee you want in the prompt box. For example:
> "A marketing assistant that writes blog posts and manages my social media."
3. Click **Hire Employee**. BuildAI will give your new employee a name, a personality, and a private workspace, then open it in the builder.
You can also **hire from our ready team** - a curated set of skilled digital employees (Emma the newsletter pro, Ryan the leads hunter, and more) pre-trained for common roles. Click any of their cards on the Employees page to bring them into your account.
***
## Meet Your Employee
Once your employee is hired, you land in the **builder**. This is where you chat with your employee and shape how it thinks and works.
The layout has two parts:
* **Sidebar (left)** - navigation between Chat, Connectors, Memory, Skills, Files, Tasks, and Settings
* **Chat panel (center)** - where you talk to your employee
Your employee greets you with its name, a short intro, and a suggestion for what to do next based on the prompt you used to hire it.
***
## Chatting with Your Employee
The **Chat** tab is the main way you work with your employee. Just type what you want - it's designed to respond like a capable coworker, not a form to fill out.
You can ask it to:
* Write, summarize, or edit content
* Do research on the web and give you the highlights
* Save facts and preferences for later ("remember that my business is called Acme")
* Connect to your Gmail or Google Calendar and act on your behalf
* Build and run small background tasks for you
You don't need to learn commands or trigger words. The employee figures out what tools it needs and uses them behind the scenes.
***
## Memory
The **Memory** tab is where you shape who your employee is and what it knows about you. It includes:
* **Profile** - your employee's name, emoji, avatar, creature type, and vibe
* **Soul** - your employee's personality, boundaries, and core values
* **User** - what the employee has learned about you (your name, timezone, preferences, notes)
* **Memory** - long-term notes the employee has saved from your conversations
* **Knowledge files** - any documents or notes you want the employee to be able to reference
You can edit any of these directly, and your employee will also update them on its own as it learns more about you.
***
## Connectors
The **Connectors** tab is where you plug your employee into the services you already use - Gmail, Slack, Notion, HubSpot, Stripe, and 25+ others. Once connected, your employee can read, write, and act in those tools from inside a normal conversation - sending emails, booking meetings, posting updates, pulling reports, and more.
To connect a service, click **Connect** on the connector card and authorize BuildAI in the popup window.
See the full list of supported services in [Connectors](/digital-employees/connectors). Need something not on the list? Your employee can also call any HTTP API via a [Custom integration](/integrations/custom-integrations).
***
## Skills
The **Skills** tab is a built-in catalog of curated capability packs you can teach your employee — playbooks for specific kinds of work, like writing weekly newsletters, vetting inbound leads, or running research deep-dives. Browse the catalog, open a skill, and click **Teach \[your employee]**: the playbook drops into your employee's workspace and syncs to its sandbox on the next run.
See the [Skills guide](/digital-employees/skills) for how to teach, unlearn, and combine skills.
***
## Files
The **Files** tab gives you a peek inside your employee's private workspace. Every employee gets an isolated sandbox - a clean, safe environment where it can create files, run scripts, and store working documents.
You can browse folders, open files, and edit them directly. This is helpful when your employee is working on something longer like a report, a script, or a multi-step project.
***
## Tasks
The **Tasks** tab is for automations that run on a schedule. You can hand off recurring work and your employee will run it in the background. For example:
> "Every weekday morning at 8am, check my calendar and email me a summary."
Your employee sets up the schedule and runs the task automatically. Tasks can run once at a future time, or on a recurring schedule (hourly, daily, weekly, and so on).
***
## Settings
The **Settings** tab is where you manage secrets - things like API keys or passwords your employee might need to talk to other services.
Secrets are encrypted and never shown in chat. If your employee needs a key it doesn't have, it will ask you to add it here.
***
## Channels
The **Channels** section at the bottom of the sidebar shows where you can reach your employee.
* **BuildAI Chat** - available now, this is the web chat you're already using
* **WhatsApp** - coming soon
* **Telegram** - coming soon
When new channels ship, you'll be able to message your employee from anywhere and pick up the conversation right where you left off.
***
## Frequently Asked Questions
An app is something you build with pages, buttons, and a user interface - whether it's for your customers, your team, or just you. A digital employee doesn't have a UI you design; you shape it by chatting with it, and it works by holding conversations with you.
Yes. Your employee uses the **User** and **Memory** files in the **Memory** tab to hold on to facts about you, your preferences, and past work. You can view or edit these any time.
Yes. Every employee gets its own isolated sandbox that only you can see. Nothing your employee does is shared with other users or other employees.
Yes. Open the **Memory** tab and edit the **Profile** or **Soul** files. Your changes take effect right away.
Only through services you've connected under **Integrations** and given permission for. Your employee will usually confirm with you before doing anything that goes outside the chat - like sending an email or posting to Slack.
Go back to your **Employees** dashboard, open the employee's menu, and choose **Delete**. This removes the employee, its workspace, and its memory.