There are over 376 billion emails sent per day, making it tricky to break through with your email marketing campaigns. But as one of the highest-converting channels, the effort is worthwhile. To improve your email campaigns and stand out in the inbox, you may want to work with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms.
AI-based email marketing combines the nuanced touch of a human writer with the precision of AI technology. Marketers use AI tools to analyze user behavior, write email subject lines, optimize email deliverability, and boost overall customer engagement.
Here’s more on AI-driven email marketing and tool recommendations for your marketing team.
What is AI email marketing?
Artificial intelligence email marketing, or AI email marketing, leverages computer algorithms to build more specific and optimized campaigns. Through machine learning techniques that analyze customer behavior and automate and personalize content creation, AI can help email marketing teams attain better open rates.
AI email marketing tools complement the work of email marketers. A human worker may draft personalized emails for specific segments of the email list, then ask the AI application to suggest a subject line, flag invalid email addresses, and schedule messages for optimal delivery times based on historical conversion rates.
9 uses for AI in email marketing
- Smart segmentation
- Email personalization
- Send-time optimization
- Subject line suggestions
- Content creation
- A/B testing
- Data analysis
- Spam filter avoidance
- Workflow automation
Integrate AI into your email marketing efforts to save time and accelerate your creative process. Whether you aim to generate leads, close more sales, or extract customer insights, here’s how AI platforms can optimize your email marketing strategy:
1. Smart segmentation
AI can segment email lists by analyzing data like demographics, purchase history, and engagement levels. For example, if you sell women’s and men’s clothing, you can segment shoppers based on their purchase history to deliver more relevant emails.
Shopify's Segmentation features let you create dynamic groups right from your admin. Start from pre-built templates and refine them with drag-and-drop filters covering demographics, purchase patterns, customer metafields, and more.
Push any segment straight into Shopify Email, discount rules, or Flow automations to trigger personalized campaigns at scale. Vacuum brand Airsign built a discount campaign for a high-intent segment inside Shopify and “saw about 30 % of those people convert.”
2. Email personalization
AI can analyze customer data to create highly personalized email content tailored to individual preferences and behaviors. For example, with purchase history, a generative AI program can craft entire emails aimed specifically at individual recipients.
Shopify Email layers powerful commerce-first features on top that AI magic. For example, inside the email editor, Shopify Magic suggests subject lines, body text, and images so you can compose emails easily. The tool pulls live data from your store, like pricing and checkout links, so customers can easily tap the "Buy Now" button.
3. Send-time optimization
Marketing emails only work if the recipient opens them. AI can determine the optimal times to send emails to each recipient based on their past behavior, increasing the likelihood of opens and engagement.
Shopify Email optimizes send time for each audience and gives every store ten thousand free emails per month, with additional sends starting at $1 per thousand.
4. Subject line suggestions
Subject lines are key to email performance; they determine whether the recipient opens the message or sends it straight to the trash.
Using natural language generation capabilities, AI writing tools like Shopify Magic can suggest subject lines for your marketing emails. Or if you prefer to do the writing yourself, these tools can analyze your work and offer tweaks for the most compelling subject lines.
5. Content creation
If you don’t feel confident in your writing skills, generative AI can help. AI email marketing tools can leverage natural language processing (NLP) to compose your email text. Human marketers should oversee this process to ensure the copy accurately reflects the brand voice and provides correct information.
6. A/B testing
AI can automate A/B testing—running two versions of an email to see which performs better—and analyze results. With these variations in place, it will help you extract insights from email open rates and link clicks, and then apply the results to continually improve campaign performance.
7. Data analysis
AI can predict customer behaviors and outcomes. Using historical data and known user preferences, tools can estimate what a user might want to purchase in the future, letting you build campaigns that target customers more effectively.
Once a campaign is over—or even while an extended campaign is underway—AI can analyze performance data to provide actionable insights and recommendations for future initiatives. This can come in handy throughout the customer lifecycle.
With Shopify Sidekick, you can pull data from your campaigns through a conversation.
Ask plain-English questions like “Why did email-driven revenue drop last week?” and Sidekick pulls signals from your campaigns, product catalog, inventory levels, and customer segments to find the reason. It will also recommend fixes like "tweak the subject line" or "send at a different hour". Plus, it can run reports, create segments, set up discount codes, and more. All with your approval.
8. Spam filter avoidance
Ending up in the spam folder can harm your email communication efforts. AI tools help you create emails that avoid this by suggesting subject lines and adjusting sender addresses to meet email validation criteria set by providers like Google and Yahoo, meaning your targeted email campaigns are more likely to reach the intended recipients.
9. Workflow automation
An AI-powered program can take complete control of your email management. Email automation includes drafting, scheduling, linking to product pages, managing responses, and updating email lists. Fully automated emails free your team to focus on higher-level strategies and business operations.
Deliverability and compliance rules for 2025
AI gives you the power to get more done. You can send more emails faster to subscribers. But, that doesn't come without restrictions.
Google, for example, changed its policies in 2024. Any domain that looks like a bulk sender (any brand that sends out more than 5,000 messages to Gmail users in 24 hours) must prove its identity and maintain compliance. Otherwise, you risk automatic spam filtering and rejection.
Google's guidelines are pretty clear. Keep your spam complaints under 0.3% (ideally, under 0.1%), and your emails will reach more customers. Check Google's Postmaster Tools to know when recipients mark your messages as spam and your domain's reputation.
Add a DMARC policy and Shopify's CNAME records to your domain to connect to the Shopify Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) records. This will ensure your email is delivered to your customer.
Most importantly, respect the content and recipients' inboxes. Use clear, accurate subject lines and display names. Send different message types (receipts vs. promos) from distinct From addresses. And never purchase lists or auto-opt-in subscribers. High spam reports will tank your reputation and hurt your email deliverability.
Privacy and ethics for sending AI emails
It's true that AI helps personalize at scale. But that trust disappears the moment a campaign violates privacy laws or slips biased language into a customer's inbox.
The EU's GDPR treats email addresses as personal data. You need explicit consent before you process or profile a subscriber. California's CCPA gives residents the right to know, delete, and opt out of any sale or sharing of their data. Non-compliant senders can face fines of up to $750 per violation.
To stay compliant with these regulations, be sure to:
- Document consent from each subscriber with a timestamped record.
- Explain how you'll use the subscriber's data upfront.
- Provide an easy, one-click opt-out.
- Respect any request to delete a customer's data.
Even if you are using generative AI for email, keep a human in the loop. These models often make mistakes and can use biased language that will upset recipients. Have an expert in email marketing and inclusive language review the final copy before pressing "Send".
8 AI email marketing tools
The market is chock-full of software applications that can do everything from suggesting optimal send times to drafting and sending entire email campaigns. Here are eight well-regarded email marketing programs in no particular order that use AI to varying degrees:
1. Shopify Email
Shopify Email is built for commerce. It offers everything you need to sell, from templates and reporting to automated workflows. You can design branded emails in minutes and manage your entire campaign in one dashboard.
Shopify Magic helps with AI generation. In a single click, you can generate marketing copy and images based on your own store's data. You can launch campaigns to any customer segment and feed the results back into those segments for continuous optimization.
Pricing is simple. You get 10,000 free emails per month. After that, it's only $1 per 1,000 emails.
2. Zoho Campaigns
Zoho Campaigns offers several AI-powered marketing automation tools, including A/B testing, interactive emails, and email deliverability features.
As an ecommerce-focused solution, Zoho offers features specifically for Shopify users, including abandoned cart emails and targeting based on purchase history.
Pricing: Zoho Campaigns offers a free tier, while paid plans start at $4 per month.
3. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a popular email marketing platform with AI features like audience segmentation based on demographics and purchase behavior and predictive sending for optimal delivery times.
Pricing: Mailchimp has a free tier, but AI-powered features require a paid plan, which starts at $20 per month.
4. Omnisend
Oriented around ecommerce, Omnisend’s AI-powered emails can include product recommendations, abandoned cart reminders, and automated segmentation based on purchase history.
Pricing: Omnisend has a limited free tier; a more useful standard tier costs $16 per month.
5. ActiveCampaign
Use ActiveCampaign’s built-in AI for lead scoring (ranking leads through different factors like demographics or social media use), customer journey mapping, and personalized email content based on subscriber behavior. It can fully automate emails, from send times to personalized content.
Pricing: Plans start at $15 a month.
6. Brevo
Formerly Sendinblue, Brevo is an all-in-one email marketing platform with multiple AI features like send-time optimization and personalized content recommendations. Brevo’s capabilities also include A/B testing, marketing automation workflows, real-time API scans, and customer relationship management (CRM) integration.
Pricing: There’s a free tier, but more functionality is available with paid plans, which start at $9 a month.
7. Seventh Sense
Seventh Sense is an email delivery optimization system that runs atop HubSpot and Adobe Marketo. It primarily uses AI to optimize send times by analyzing subscriber behavior, ensuring you send emails when your subscribers will most likely open them.
Pricing: Pricing depends on the platform you’re integrating. For HubSpot, it’s $80 a month (billed annually); for Adobe Marketo Engage, it’s $450 a month (billed annually).
8. Jacquard
Formerly known as Phrasee, Jacquard uses natural language generation (NLG) to analyze messaging history and brand voice to craft compelling subject lines, email body content, and calls to action (CTAs).
Pricing: Jacquard is a premium product for well-financed organizations. Pricing starts at $24,000 a year.
AI in email marketing FAQ
How is AI being used in email marketing?
Email marketers use AI to analyze data and personalize messages for each recipient, boosting engagement and campaign effectiveness.
Can AI write sales emails?
Yes, AI can write sales emails. It can also write subject lines, schedule delivery, and analyze campaigns for maximum effectiveness.
Are there limitations to using AI in email marketing?
Yes, while AI excels at data analysis and personalization, it can lack the human touch crucial for truly resonating with customers. Keep this in mind when trying to establish a personable brand voice or when reaching out to customers individually.
