AI Product Tools Documentation

Schedule background content generation tasks to run automatically, allowing you to update your entire catalog without manual intervention.

Automation Jobs allow you to scale your content creation by scheduling AI tasks to run in the background. Whether you need to update descriptions for thousands of products or generate SEO meta tags for new arrivals, Automation Jobs handle the heavy lifting while you focus on other aspects of your business.

Automation Jobs are a Pro-only feature. You must have an active Pro license to create and run jobs.

Accessing Automation Jobs

Navigate to: AI Product Tools > Automation Jobs

The interface is divided into two primary tabs:

Automation Jobs: Manage your scheduled tasks and view their progress.
Draft Contents: Review and approve content generated by jobs before it goes live.

Managing Your Jobs

The Automation Jobs tab provides a comprehensive list of all your tasks.

Job List Features

Filter Bar: Search for jobs by name or filter by status (Running, Paused, Completed, Scheduled, Failed).
Tool Type Filter: Filter by the type of generator used (Standard, Advanced, or Title).
Auto-Refresh: Set the list to refresh automatically every 2 to 60 seconds to monitor live progress.
Status Indicators:
- Running (Blue): The job is currently processing products.
- Paused (Amber): The job has been manually paused.
- Completed (Green): All products in the job have been processed.
- Scheduled (Purple): The job is waiting for its next scheduled run time.
- Failed (Red): The job encountered an error and stopped.

Actions Per Job

Each job row offers several actions:

Play/Resume: Start or continue a job.
Pause: Temporarily stop a running job.
Stop: End a job immediately.
View Logs: See detailed technical logs for the job.
Edit: Modify the job settings.
Duplicate: Create a new job based on this one's settings.
Retry Failed: Attempt to process only the products that failed in the previous run.
Delete: Remove the job and its history.

Creating a New Job

Click the New Job button to start the 7-step creation wizard.

Step 1: Select Tool

Give your job a descriptive name (e.g., "Weekly SEO Update") and select the tool type:

Advanced Description: Best for high-quality, long-form content.
Standard Description: Faster, more concise descriptions.
Title Generator: Specifically for optimizing product titles.

Step 2: Tool Settings

Configure the AI provider, model, language, and style. You can also set content limits (e.g., word count) to ensure consistency across your catalog.

Step 3: Custom Prompts

For Advanced and Standard generators, you can define custom system and user prompts. This allows you to give the AI specific instructions, such as "Always mention our 2-year warranty" or "Use a professional yet friendly tone." This step is skipped for the Title Generator.

Step 4: Content Settings

What to Generate: Select the fields you want the AI to create (Title, Description, Short Description, Tags, etc.).
Status: Choose whether generated content should be saved as a Draft (requires review in the Draft Contents tab) or Published (goes live immediately).
Backup: Enable this to save the original content before overwriting it. This is highly recommended.
Notifications: Toggle email alerts for job completion or failures.

Step 5: Schedule

Choose between a one-time run or a recurring schedule:

Once: Runs at a specific date and time.
Recurring: Runs Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
Timezone: Ensure you set the correct timezone so the job runs during your store's off-peak hours.

Select which products the job should process. You can use powerful filters:

Categories: Target specific product lines.
Tags: Use tags to group products for automation.
Price Range: Only update products within a certain price bracket.
Stock Status: Only process products that are currently in stock.

Step 7: Review

Review a summary of all your settings. If everything looks correct, click Create Job.

Monitoring Progress

When a job is running, you can click on it to see the Job Details view.

Statistics Cards: View the overall progress percentage, number of products processed, success/failure counts, and an estimated time of completion (ETA).
Processing List: See a real-time list of products currently being handled by the AI. You can see the status of each individual product.

Logs Viewer

If a job fails or behaves unexpectedly, the Logs Viewer is your first stop for troubleshooting.

Filter logs by level: Error, Warning, Info, or Debug.
Use the search bar to find specific product IDs or error messages.
Context Tags: Each log entry includes tags like the product ID and the specific step where the error occurred.
Copy All Logs: Use this button to share details with our support team if you need assistance.

Draft Content Review

If you set your job to save content as "Draft", you must approve it in the Draft Contents tab.

Stats: See the total number of pending, approved, and rejected drafts.
Filters: Filter by content type (Title, Description, etc.) or product category.
Comparison View: The interface shows the original content side-by-side with the AI-generated version. This makes it easy to spot improvements or errors.
Actions:
- Approve: Save the generated content to the product.
- Reject: Discard the generated content.
- Bulk Approve: Select multiple drafts and approve them all at once.
- Delete All: Clear all pending drafts with a single click (requires confirmation).

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Job is Stuck at 0%

Ensure your AI provider API key is valid.
Check if you have enough credits.
Verify that WP-Cron is enabled on your site.

Job Fails with "Timeout"

This usually happens on low-resource servers. Try:

Reducing the Batch Size in the global settings.
Using a faster AI model.
Scheduling the job during a time when your site has very little traffic.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I run multiple jobs at once?

Yes, but we recommend limiting concurrent jobs to 2-3 to avoid hitting API rate limits or slowing down your server.

What happens if my server goes down during a job?

The plugin is designed to be resilient. Once your server is back up, the job will attempt to resume from where it left off during the next cron cycle.

Will automation overwrite my manual changes?

If you set the job to "Published" and don't have a backup enabled, yes. We always recommend using the "Draft" status or enabling "Backup" for important products.

Setting up a "real" cron job on your server (instead of relying on WP-Cron) is highly recommended for reliable automation. This ensures your jobs run exactly when scheduled, even if your site has low traffic.

If you see a "WP-Cron Disabled" warning, your scheduled jobs will not run automatically. Please contact your hosting provider or check your wp-config.php file.

Real-World Use Cases

The "New Arrival" Optimizer

Set up a recurring job that runs every Monday morning. Configure it to target products added in the last 7 days that have empty descriptions. The job will automatically generate high-quality content for all your new inventory while you're having your morning coffee.

Catalog-Wide SEO Refresh

If you've recently changed your brand's SEO strategy, you can run a one-time job to update the meta titles and descriptions for your entire catalog (e.g., 5,000 products). By setting the status to "Draft," you can review the changes at your own pace before they go live.

Seasonal Tone Shift

Create a job that changes the "Style" of your product descriptions to "Festive" or "Urgent" during a holiday sale. Once the sale is over, you can run another job to return the style to "Professional."

Pro Tips for Automation Success

Start Small: When creating a new type of job, run it on a small category (5-10 products) first to ensure the prompts and settings produce the results you want.
Use the "Retry Failed" Button: If a job stops due to an API error or server timeout, don't delete it. Use the "Retry Failed" button to process only the remaining products, saving you time and credits.
Leverage Notifications: Enable email notifications for "Job Failure" so you can address any issues immediately without having to check the dashboard every day.
Schedule During Off-Peak Hours: To ensure the fastest processing and minimal impact on your server, schedule large jobs to run at night (e.g., 2:00 AM).

Technical Details

Automation Jobs use a "Claim-Based Queue" system. This means that even if you have multiple jobs scheduled at the same time, the plugin manages them efficiently to prevent server overloads. Each product is "claimed" by a job before processing, ensuring that no product is processed twice.

The system is fully integrated with the WordPress Action Scheduler and WP-Cron. It uses "time-slicing" to process products in small batches, which prevents the PHP "Maximum Execution Time" errors that often plague other bulk processing plugins.

If a job is interrupted (e.g., due to a server restart), the state machine architecture ensures that it can resume exactly where it left off. All progress is saved in real-time to the aipt_automation_jobs database table.

Glossary of Terms

Cron Job: A time-based job scheduler in Unix-like operating systems. It is used to run tasks automatically at fixed times or intervals.
WP-Cron: The built-in WordPress system for scheduling tasks. It runs whenever someone visits your site.
Batch Processing: The execution of a series of jobs in a program without manual intervention.
Time-Slicing: A technique where a large task is broken into small pieces that run for a short time, preventing server timeouts.
State Machine: A design pattern used in the plugin to track the exact progress of a job, allowing it to pause and resume without losing data.
Claim-Based Queue: A system where each task is "claimed" by a worker before processing to prevent duplicate work.

Conclusion

Automation is the key to scaling a successful WooCommerce store. By using Automation Jobs, you can ensure that your product catalog is always up-to-date with high-quality, AI-generated content without having to spend hours on manual updates. The powerful scheduling and filtering options give you full control over your content strategy, while the draft review system ensures that you always maintain high standards of quality.

From small daily updates to massive catalog-wide refreshes, Automation Jobs provide the reliability and flexibility you need to grow your business efficiently.

Need Help?

If you encounter any issues while using Automation Jobs or have questions about the best settings for your store, our support team is here to help.

Documentation: Visit our Help Center for more guides.
Support Ticket: Open a ticket through the Support page in the plugin.
Community: Join our community forum to share tips and tricks with other store owners.

Bulk Description Generator: Learn about the advanced bulk content generation features.
Prompt Settings: Master the art of writing prompts for better automation results.
Credits and Plans: Understand how credits are used for automation jobs.
Troubleshooting: Solve common connection and key issues.

Automation Jobs