You're overwhelmed. Your inbox is bursting at the seams. You spend half your day slogging through emails, falling further behind by the minute.
But what if AI could lend a hand?
Time to meet AI email assistants: These handy helpers can help take away any and all inbox woes. But how? Stick around, because in this article, you’ll learn all about them.
We’ll cover:
What’s an AI email assistant, and how does it work?
A small recap of the best 5 AI email assistant
What can you use them for?
What should you look for in an AI email assistant?
A detailed analysis of our top 5
Is there a free AI email assistant?
Let’s get going!
What is an AI email assistant, and how does it work?
An AI email assistant is, in a nutshell, software that helps manage your inbox. It uses Artificial Intelligence to automatically sort, filter, and respond to emails for you.
AI email assistants use machine learning algorithms trained on huge datasets of emails. They learn to detect patterns that help determine the importance and purpose of incoming messages.
The assistant then takes actions like:
Filtering out annoying spam and unwanted promotions
Adding smart labels to categorize messages
Suggesting quick replies to common questions
Flagging emails that need responses
Scheduling follow-ups
An awesome feature is that, with regular use, the AI assistant adapts to your unique communication style and the types of emails you receive.
It essentially gets smarter over time, allowing it to handle more of the busy work in your inbox so you can focus on higher-level tasks. (Or playing Solitaire, whatever floats your boat).
Overall, some of the main benefits of these AI email assistants are:
Less time spent on email triage and filing
Fewer distractions from unimportant messages
Quicker responses to routine questions
Improved organization and searchability
Increased focus on high-priority tasks
The best AI email assistants
Here’s the TL;DR list for you, but if you want to learn more, keep scrolling down!
Lindy: Lindy offers mini-virtual assistants that can do it all, from email management through smart triage, context-aware replies, and limitless integration.
Superhuman AI: A high-speed email client for power users, offering sophisticated triage, follow-ups, read receipts, and social connections for efficient email management.
Mailbutler: Improves your Gmail or Outlook with advanced features like email tracking, scheduling, snoozing, templates, and integrated task management for a more refined emailing experience.
Sanebox: An AI-driven tool that declutters your inbox by intelligently filtering out less important emails, offering summaries, and providing a blackhole feature for unwanted messages.
LeaveMeAlone: Focuses on unsubscribing you from unwanted emails and newsletters automatically, offering peace and a cleaner inbox with options to block or filter spammy senders.
What can you use an AI email assistant for?
Like everything in life, there are strengths and limitations.
First, let’s take a look at what they can do:
Generating great emails: AI email assistants can create emails from scratch. You provide some basic instructions or context, and the AI will generate a draft for you to review and edit.
Email suggestions: AI assistants can work within your email client, offering inline suggestions and autocomplete options to speed up your composing process.
Filtering and prioritizing: AI assistants can learn your preferences and automatically categorize emails as important, urgent, or low priority, saving you time on manual sorting.
Summarizing long emails: If you're facing a wall of text, an AI assistant can condense the email down to its essential points.
Searching inside your inbox: Some AI assistants act as powerful search engines, finding that crucial email from months ago with just a few keywords.
Grammar and style checks: AI assistants can double-check your writing for grammatical errors and offer suggestions for improved style and clarity.
Translation: Some assistants can translate emails on the fly, breaking down language barriers in communication.
Reminders: AI assistants can pick up on dates and deadlines mentioned in emails and automatically set reminders for you.
Data extraction: They can pull out key information (contact details, invoice numbers, etc.) and add those directly to your CRM or management tools.
Scheduling: If an email has a discussion about scheduling a meeting, an AI assistant can offer to look at your calendar and suggest open slots, time, etc.
Sounds like all sunshine and rainbows, right? Not quite.
Here are some limitations of these AI email assistants:
No complex problem-solving: AI email assistants can’t perform the kind of complex, creative problem-solving that humans do. They can’t brainstorm solutions to thorny issues, provide strategic advice, or think outside the box.
Misinterpreting emotional cues: Incorrectly judging the sentiment of an angry customer email could lead to an unsuitable, automated reply worsening the situation.
A lack of general strategic understanding: AI cannot replace the nuanced thinking required to decide whether to offer a discount or a free upgrade to resolve a customer issue.
Not good at tense situations: Drafting an appropriate public response during a company scandal requires sensitivity and understanding that AI just doesn’t have yet.
A tendency to hallucinate: An AI assistant suggesting incorrect historical dates in a client presentation could have embarrassing consequences. This is what’s called a hallucination.
What to look for in an AI Email Assistant
You need to look out for several things before you invest in an AI email assistant.
Lucky for you, our choices tick most, or all of these boxes:
Excellent features
Automated email sorting, scheduling, and templating.
Intelligent categorization of emails.
Suggestions for responses to common emails.
Creation of email templates.
Use of machine learning to customize to user needs.
They play well with other systems
They work with major email services (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail).
Some are compatible with third-party email apps and CRM software.
They don’t make privacy and security an afterthought
Encrypted data.
Strong security protocols.
Zero sharing or selling of user information.
Some companies use user emails to train machine-learning models, but not all.
They won’t set your wallet on fire
Typically ranges from free to $200/month.
Free versions offer the chance for a test drive.
Paid plans give more advanced functionality, larger email allowances, and premium support.
Some charge per user, others charge a flat monthly or annual rate.
Lindy is an incredibly versatile AI platform where you can build custom AI "employees”, each trained to handle specific inboxes, customers or types of email.
Its template system allows you to get the all-around best AI email assistant on the block, with state-of-the-art tools to supercharge your inbox.
How? AI employees (each a sub-instance of Lindy) can communicate with each other. Each can play to the other’s strengths, and you can combine them to your heart’s delight.
Why does it stand out?
AI-powered email triage to highlight important messages.
Smart replies with context-aware suggestions. You can write emails starting from a single line. Plus, autocorrect can boost typing speed from 30-50%.
Automated reminders and follow-ups to prevent things from slipping through the cracks.
Virtually endless combinations of Lindies.
Integration with existing email clients, allowing direct interaction with your inbox, as well as 3,000 other integrations.
Individuals and businesses who are looking for an easily customizable email solution with integrations, suggestions, and infinite flexibility.
Businesses with different departments, like support and sales, who need an adaptable AI email assistant that can handle the nuances of each interaction.
Mailbutler brings ease of use and comfort to your existing Gmail or Outlook experience with a suite of powerful tools.
Why does it stand out?
Smart compose to help you get started.
Smart summarize for the TL;DR.
Contact finder to help find relevant information about your contacts and add them instantly.
Templates for recurring email types.
Task and note management integrated within your inbox.
Who would love it?
For individuals and teams who are comfortable with their current email provider and don't want to switch, Mailbutler allows them to add professional-grade features directly within their familiar interface.
Pricing:
Mailbutler offers a tiered pricing structure, with a free plan and paid options starting at around $9/month.
Sanebox is an AI-powered inbox declutterer, with a hard focus on allowing you to zero in on tasks that are important to you.
Why does it stand out?
Its intelligent filtering system learns your preferences, automatically sorting newsletters, notifications, and other low-priority items for later review.
Summaries and digests for less-important inboxes.
Blackhole feature to banish unwanted senders permanently.
Who would love it?
Businesses and individuals who really could use a bit of neatness in their lives. And who among us couldn’t?
Pricing:
Sanebox has individual and business plans ranging from $7/month to $36/month.
LeaveMeAlone (I think we know what crowd this one caters to) is a dedicated unsubscribe assistant, specifically designed to tackle the relentless tide of promotional emails and newsletters.
Why does it stand out?
It automatically identifies subscriptions, handles the tedious unsubscribe processes, and even offers options to block or filter unwanted senders.
Automates the unsubscribe process with minimal effort needed from you.
Provides options to block or filter future emails from unwanted senders.
Who would love it?
We’re going to go out on a limb, but we’ll say it’s for people who want to be left alone and spared from an endless deluge of spam.
Pricing:
LeaveMeAlone offers a variety of plans ranging from a free option to a $9.99/month unlimited tier. The free option is way more limited, though.
Summing up
Now have a good sense of the top AI email assistants available in 2024.
While they can't still fully replace your own discernment, these tools can help you manage the tide of emails more efficiently.
Now that you know what the best are, it's up to you to pick the one that best fits your needs and budget, and get cracking!
