Can AI help manage your business email inbox?
Yes, for the chores around the inbox. Google says Gemini in Gmail can summarize long threads, draft and refine emails, delete or label them, find details and propose meeting times, and Microsoft says Copilot in Outlook can summarize a thread. Treat what it writes as a draft you read before you send. Before relying on it, check your plan, what it can see in a shared inbox, and how customer details are handled.
What the makers say it can do
Google's Gmail Help page on Gemini in Gmail lists five jobs: summarizing long email threads into bullet points, creating or refining drafts for tone and clarity, organizing (for example deleting multiple emails or adding labels), finding details such as flight times or package tracking, and proposing meeting times based on your availability in Google Calendar.
Microsoft's Outlook page describes summarizing. You select Summary by Copilot (or Summarize) at the top of a thread, Copilot scans the thread for key points, and the summary may include numbered citations that link to the corresponding email.
Limits the makers state
- Plan. Google's page says the feature requires an eligible Google Workspace or Google AI plan. For Outlook, ask Microsoft or your administrator which plan includes Copilot.
- Your yes comes first. Google says emails are not deleted, archived, labeled or marked read or unread until you confirm, and a confirmed action can be undone for 60 seconds, as long as you have not sent Gemini a new prompt.
- Some things it cannot do. Google says you cannot create new Gmail labels with Gemini or ask it to mark multiple emails as spam.
- It can be wrong. Google's page says Gemini features "may suggest inaccurate or inappropriate information".
Drafts for you to send
As general advice, let the assistant write a draft and send it yourself after reading it. Replies that go to customers automatically are a different job. The related answer on whether a person should approve what AI sends to customers covers when review can be relaxed and what to keep a person on.
Summaries need the same care. Read the original message before acting on a date, an amount or a promise that a summary mentions.
Shared inboxes and customer details
A shared inbox, such as the address the front desk watches, may behave differently from your own mailbox. Plan and administrator settings can decide whether a feature is available at all, so test with one shared inbox and a test message before you rely on it, and ask your vendor what the tool can read there.
Mail holds customer names, addresses and quotes, and a summary or draft is made from that text. The related answer on putting customer information into ChatGPT covers reading the data terms for your plan before you switch a feature on, and the related answer on how AI systems connect to the tools you already use covers read-only access and switching a connection off.
A gentle way to start
Begin with summaries of long threads, since nothing is sent. Add drafting for one kind of reply next. Hold off on deleting and labeling until you are comfortable reading each confirmation.
Sources
- Google, Gmail Help, "Collaborate with Gemini in Gmail"
- Microsoft Support, "Summarize an email thread with Copilot in Outlook"
Related answers
- Should a person approve what an AI system sends to customers?
- Is it safe to put customer information into ChatGPT or another AI tool?
- How does an AI system connect to the tools you already use?
AI assistants and chatbots
A good assistant answers the question a customer asks at nine at night, in your words, from your information, and brings in a person when it should. We build that, and we test it on your real questions before a customer sees it.