Skills, playbooks, tools, connected apps, and automations all shape what your team can do, and each one does a different job.
Most of them sit in the same place, the Settings tab on a specialist's panel, so it's easy to assume they overlap more than they do. Once you can tell them apart, it becomes obvious which one you want.
The short version: tools and connected apps are what your specialists can reach. Skills are what they know how to do well. Playbooks are jobs you can run in one click. Automations are work that happens without you asking.
Tools and Connected Apps: What Your Team Can Reach
These two are the foundation. They determine what your specialists have access to.
Tools are capabilities built into Sam, grouped by what they do, covering things like reading your business profile, working with your media, and building reports. They are there from the start and you do not set them up.
Connected apps are the outside platforms you have linked yourself, such as your email platform, your ad accounts, or your store. These are the difference between a specialist working from what you have described and a specialist working from what is actually happening in your business.
Both are controlled per specialist in that specialist's Settings tab.
Skills: What Your Team Knows How to Do
A skill is a set of instructions that teaches a specialist to handle a particular kind of work a particular way. A skill for writing ad copy carries a proven method for writing ad copy, so the specialist follows it rather than improvising each time.
Skills change the quality and consistency of the work. They do not do anything on their own, and you never have to name one. You ask for what you want in plain language and the relevant skill gets applied.
Your specialists arrive with the skills for their own areas already in place. They come with your account, so there is nothing to browse or install.
Playbooks: Jobs You Can Run in One Click
A playbook is a complete piece of work packaged up and ready to run. Where a skill shapes how something gets done, a playbook is the thing getting done.
Selecting a playbook tells a specialist to go produce that specific output, drawing on the skills it has and the tools and connected apps it can reach. That is why a playbook description mentions combining skills, integrations, and automations: it is using the other pieces to do its job.
Each specialist has its own set, built for its own area.
Automations: Work That Happens Without You
Everything above waits for you. An automation does not.
You describe a task and when it should happen, and it runs on that basis from then on, whether that is every weekday morning or whenever something specific occurs in your business. The work still uses the same skills, tools, and connected apps. The difference is that nobody has to start it.
How They Stack Up
Think of it as layers, each one building on the ones below.
Your specialist can reach certain things, which is tools and connected apps. It knows how to do certain things well, which is skills. A playbook is a job that uses both. An automation is any of that, running on a schedule instead of on request.
So a playbook that builds an ad campaign uses your ads skills to write it properly, reaches your connected ad account for real performance data, and produces the campaign. Set that up as an automation and it happens every Monday without you opening Sam at all.
Which One Do You Want?
Work backwards from what you are trying to do.
- You want something made right now. Ask a specialist, or run a playbook if one matches the job.
- The output is not good enough. Check what skills that specialist has, and whether the right platform is connected. Missing data is the more common cause.
- You keep asking for the same thing. Turn it into an automation.
- A specialist is reaching for something you would rather it did not. Turn that tool or connected app off for that specialist in its Settings tab.
- You want work done a particular way every time. That is a skill. Ask Sam in a conversation to build one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the difference between a skill and a playbook?
A: A skill teaches a specialist how to do something well. A playbook is a specific job you run to get something made. Skills are knowledge, playbooks are action, and a playbook draws on skills to do its work.
Q: What is the difference between a tool and a connected app?
A: Tools are capabilities built into Sam and available from the start. Connected apps are outside platforms you linked yourself. Both control what a specialist can reach, but only connected apps involve your own accounts and data.
Q: Do I need to set all of this up before Sam is useful?
A: No. Tools are there already, and your specialists arrive with skills and playbooks for their areas. Connecting your platforms is the one thing genuinely worth doing early, because it is what lets your team work from your real data.
Q: Do I have to tell Sam which skill or tool to use?
A: No. Ask for what you want in plain language and the right pieces get used. The controls exist for when you want to deliberately limit something, not for routine work.
Q: Can an automation use a playbook?
A: Automations run the same kinds of work you would otherwise ask for, using the same skills, tools, and connected apps. If you want something running on a schedule, describe it to Sam and it will set it up.