The phrase "automatic pilot" means someone is doing something without thinking or paying much attention. It's like when a pilot turns on a system that controls the airplane, so they don't have to manually steer it. Full definition
Somehow just keeping those goals top of mind can change our actions during the day, as if we go on automatic pilot toward our goals. (mindbodygreen.com)
The mechanism of observing our actions helps us to keep our performance objectives top of mind, to get our behavior off of automatic pilot and to instead make conscious choices. (slaw.ca)
Some work suggests that changing the usual conditions under which an athlete performs a task can reverse a flawed automatic pilot setting. (scientificamerican.com)