With more than 347 billion emails flooding inboxes worldwide daily, managing your email can be an uphill—but vital—climb.
Fortunately, AI email assistants have emerged as powerful tools to help you regain control of your inbox and your time. They leverage machine learning to serve as AI-powered email management assistants, organizing messages by urgency, summarizing incoming emails, and banishing unwanted mail to a spam folder.
Artificial intelligence email assistants can also act like a personalized email writing coach. They use natural language processing (NLP) to analyze message sentiments and generative AI to craft nuanced email drafts. From corralling spam to crafting tailored customer service emails, AI email assistants are your virtual partner in effective communication.
How can AI enhance email?
The best email assistants transform how you interact with your inbox, streamlining communication and saving valuable time.
Here are some key ways AI can enhance email management:
Inbox organization
A chaotic inbox isn’t just a bane to professionals; it’s a mental health hazard. AI email assistants excel at inbox organization, transforming disarray into well-structured systems with just a few clicks.
Here’s how: AI tools leverage machine learning to sort incoming messages based on priority and relevance. They can help establish personalized inbox management systems, separating critical emails from less urgent correspondence.
Sentiment analysis
Advanced email assistants incorporate sentiment analysis to evaluate the emotional tone of incoming messages. This allows AI tools to detect concerning sentiments (like urgency or frustration), as well as positive correspondence (such as glowing product reviews that can be used as user testimonials). These tools can suggest appropriate response strategies and alert you to situations requiring your immediate attention.
Sentiment analysis also helps improve communication by providing valuable insights into how your messages might be perceived. It can recommend adjustments to ensure professional emails strike the perfect tone.
Email drafting
One of the most impressive capabilities of modern AI email management tools is their ability to draft professional emails to match your writing style. These AI email writers use generative AI and natural language processing to write new drafts or personalized responses for various communication scenarios, from quick acknowledgements to detailed business proposals. Some assistants can even help hone your writing skills, offering real-time writing assistance and coaching on tone and clarity.
It’s important to note, no AI-powered writing assistant can match your unique writing style exactly, nor can it fully replace the human touch. AI still hallucinates and it often misses important nuances in tone and style. In short, the best AI email assistants should elevate your email correspondence, not eliminate you from it.
What to look for in an AI email assistant
Like most artificial intelligence assistants, AI email assistants are powerful tools designed to free up time for more creative tasks, but not all tools are created equal.
Here are some key features to consider when choosing an AI email assistant:
Data privacy
Data privacy should be a primary concern when selecting an AI email assistant. Since these tools require access to your inbox and contact details, protecting your critical information is essential. The best AI email assistants employ robust encryption methods (made stronger by AI) and transparent data policies to clearly explain how your personal data is handled and stored.
Before integrating any AI tool with your email client, carefully review the provider’s privacy practices and terms of service. Look for solutions to limit data collection to necessary functions that allow you to control what information can be accessed within your inbox management system.
Integration
Seamless integration with your existing email platform and suite of tools is another crucial factor when choosing an AI email assistant. Whether you use a Gmail account, Apple Mail, or Microsoft Outlook, an AI solution should work harmoniously with your preferred email client. Tools offering Chrome extensions, web app functionality, and mobile compatibility provide even greater efficiency across all your devices. Put simply, the best AI email assistant works with your current systems.
Inbox management
Effective inbox management is foundational. Look for systems that intelligently categorize incoming messages, highlight essential emails, and filter out low-priority correspondence. The best AI email assistants learn from your behavior over time, continuously improving their ability to sort incoming messages based on your unique preferences and priorities, ensuring critical information is never buried.
AI features
When choosing an assistant, consider the sophistication of its artificial intelligence capabilities. Leading solutions use generative AI and advanced natural language processing to understand context, recognize patterns, and adapt to your communication needs. AI email assistant software should offer continuous learning capabilities, becoming more personalized and effective with extended use. Read expert write-ups and user reviews to avoid falling prey to AI washing (when companies exaggerate a product’s AI capabilities).
Productivity
Ultimately, the value of any email assistant software lies in its ability to enhance productivity. These tools save time by automating repetitive tasks like sorting messages, drafting responses, and scheduling meetings.
When choosing an AI email assistant, consider how its features align with your productivity challenges and communication needs. Remember, the best email assistants balance automation and customization, handling routine correspondence while providing valuable support for human communication.
10 top AI email assistants
When you’re ready to overhaul your inbox, here are some of the best AI email assistants to consider:
1. Superhuman
Tool type: Fully featured AI email assistant with productivity features
Superhuman stands out with its ultra-minimalist design and keyboard-driven user interface. But it isn’t just aesthetically pleasing—it has powerful AI capabilities, like drafting and sending entire emails, highlighting urgent correspondence, sending automated follow-up messages, and providing read receipts.
Superhuman is ideal for busy entrepreneurs and teams seeking a streamlined, distraction-free email management experience. It currently supports Gmail and Outlook users.
Pricing: Plans start at $30 per month when billed monthly or $25 per month when billed annually.
2. Mailbird
Tool type: Fully featured AI email assistant with multiple integrations
Mailbird is a highly customizable email client tailored to both Windows and Mac users. It offers a unified inbox and robust app integrations (such as Asana, Google Workspace, and Slack). Mailbird’s ChatGPT integration powers generative features like email drafting and writing suggestions. It also supports multiple accounts and boosts efficiency with features like email snoozing and keyboard shortcuts, making it ideal for ecommerce business owners and individual entrepreneurs.
Pricing: Free plan available. Subscriptions start at a pay-once rate of $99.75, or $4.02 when billed monthly.
3. Clara
Tool type: AI scheduling assistant that can also help manage your inbox
Clara is an intelligent scheduling assistant integrating directly with your inbox and calendar to automate meeting coordination and follow-ups. Clara interacts with your correspondents as a human would—asking what time would work best for a meeting and sending invites once a time has been chosen, for example. Users can interact with this AI assistant by CCing it and asking for help with natural language prompts. Clara learns your preferences over time, allowing it to schedule meetings with minimal input, making this tool well-suited for executives and busy teams.
Pricing: Clara currently has a waiting list for its 3.0 beta launch and will release new pricing soon.
4. SaneBox
Tool type: Fully featured AI email assistant that can unsubscribe from emails for you
SaneBox uses AI to automatically sort and prioritize your inbox, filtering unwanted emails to a spam folder and highlighting important messages based on your behavior. Its SaneLater feature automatically moves emails from unknown contacts to a designated folder, while Custom Snooze removes messages from your inbox for a specified time—both are effective tools for combating email overload. However, this email management tool has a learning curve; it requires some time and manual input to adapt to your preferences.
Pricing: After a 14-day free trial, Sanebox premium plans start at $7 per month. This first tier drops to $4.92 per month if you choose annual billing or $4.13 per month with biyearly billing.
5. Zoho Mail
Tool type: Fully featured AI email assistant for Zoho users
Zoho Mail integrates deeply with Zoho’s ecosystem, offering admin controls and customizable business domains. Its AI features—powered by Zia, its OpenAI-integrated AI assistant—include smart reply suggestions, email summaries, and clutter detection. This tool is ideal for teams already using Zoho tools and businesses concerned about data privacy.
Pricing: Zoho’s Mail Lite tier starts at $1 per month, when billed annually.
6. MailMaestro
Tool type: Fully featured AI email assistant with a focus on writing support
Previously called Flowrite, MailMaestro is designed for professionals who need deep contextual understanding and sentiment analysis. It is large language model (LLM) agnostic, integrating with ChatGPT, Claude, or custom models to craft emails in your preferred tone. It can optimize your written drafts and offer coaching based on quality, sentiment, tone, and clarity. MailMaestro doesn’t just generate emails; it also identifies action items and summarizes long messages.
Pricing: MailMaestro offers a free version with limited features. Its Professional tier starts at $17 per month when paid annually.
7. Missive
Tool type: Fully featured AI email assistant designed for teams
Missive turns email into a collaborative workspace, ideal for teams managing shared inboxes. It blends email with real-time chat and task assignment, streamlining internal communication around external messages. For example, its shared drafts and collision detection features reduce email overlap. Missive shines at consolidating inboxes across multiple channels (social media, WhatsApp, SMS, and email).
Pricing: Billed yearly, Missive’s Starter tier is $14 per month per user. Billed monthly, it starts at $18 per month (after a 30-day free trial).
8. Compose AI
Tool type: AI writing assistant that can help with emails via a browser extension
Compose AI is a Chrome extension bringing autocomplete and smart reply suggestions directly into Gmail (and Google Docs). It learns from your writing style to offer real-time phrasing suggestions and sentence completions. It’s excellent for improving writing flow, but the focus is narrow—Compose AI is strictly an AI-powered writing assistant that can be applied to your email-writing tasks.
Pricing: Compose AI is free for up to 1,500 words per month. Premium pricing starts at $9.99 per month when billed annually.
9. Hiver
Tool type: Email assistant designed for customer service contexts
Hiver offers a suite of customer service automation tools, including an AI-powered email management system. Built specifically for Gmail-loyal teams, Hiver offers shared inboxes, AI-powered tagging, workload analytics, and customer sentiment detection. Ideal for customer support environments, Hiver’s ticketing workflow is its standout feature, funneling emails to the right person and documenting every step of the process.
Pricing: Hiver offers a free plan with limited features. You can choose between monthly and annual billing for paid tiers, which start at $24 when billed monthly or $19 per month billed annually.
10. Clean Email
Tool type:Organization-focused AI email assistant that can unsubscribe from emails for you
Clean Email is a bulk inbox cleaning tool helping users quickly archive, delete, or organize large volumes of email. It uses smart filters and automation rules to reduce clutter and unsubscribe from unwanted senders. The Auto Clean feature instantly manages incoming emails based on your preferences to mitigate long-term inbox buildup.
Pricing: Clean Email starts at $9.99 per month or $29.99 per year for solo users.
Best AI email assistant FAQ
Does Gmail have an AI assistant?
Yes, Gmail includes built-in AI assistant features like Smart Compose and Smart Reply to assist with writing and quick responses.
Is there a free AI that writes emails?
Tools like Compose AI and MailMaestro offer free plans with basic AI-powered email writing capabilities.
Can ChatGPT write emails?
ChatGPT can write emails based on input, but it doesn’t directly integrate with email platforms or adapt to your writing style like other tools.
