AI Email Assistant: A Sorted Inbox and Replies Ready to Review
An AI email assistant sorts every message, summarizes long threads, drafts replies in your voice and reminds you of what’s still waiting on an answer. Sluak sets it up in Outlook or Gmail, with your rules, and you stay in control of everything that gets sent.
InboxToday
- Ms. LawsonQuote request for MarchQuote
- Example FreightDelivery delayed?Urgent
- Accounting firmMissing documentsTo do
- Supplier newsletterWhat’s new this monthLater
Daily summary
2 replies due, 1 urgent, 1 follow-up to send
Draft readyTo review
Hi, thanks for your message. Delivery is confirmed for Thursday morning; I’m attaching the delivery…
Send
When an AI email assistant is worth it
Four signs that an inbox is taking up more room than it should.
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Requests getting buried?
A quote request gets lost among the newsletters, the invoices and the messages you’re only cc’d on.
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Answering email at night?
The day is spent in the field or in meetings, and the inbox waits until the day is over.
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Follow-ups forgotten?
The quote sent on Tuesday gets no response, and no one thinks to follow up.
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A shared inbox?
Several people read the same contact address, without knowing who replied to what.
What is an AI email assistant?
It’s an AI that reads the emails landing in your inbox, understands what they’re asking and gets the work ready for you: sorting by priority, a summary when the thread is long, a draft reply when the question is a common one, a reminder when an important message goes unanswered. Email management becomes a matter of reviewing rather than a chore.
- 1SortEvery message labeled by what it’s asking forOrder
- 2DraftReplies prepared in your voiceAI
- 3Follow upWhatever’s waiting on a reply no longer gets lostTracking
It’s neither an email autoresponder, which sends the same text back to everyone, nor an inbox rule that files messages by sender: the assistant reads the content and can tell a complaint from a quote request. It doesn’t decide for you: by default, it drafts and you send.
What the assistant does in your inbox
Each feature is switched on separately: we often start with sorting and the morning briefing, then add drafts once the rules are dialed in.
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01
Sort and label
Every message in its place
Customer requests, quotes, invoices, suppliers, newsletters: each message gets a label or goes into a folder, and urgent ones rise to the top.
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02
Summarize long threads
Twenty messages, a few lines
A long thread among several people fits into a few lines: what was decided, what’s still open, what’s expected of you.
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03
Draft the replies
A draft in your voice
For the questions that keep coming back (lead times, availability, order tracking, documents to provide), the assistant writes a draft based on your template replies. You review, edit and send.
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04
Follow up at the right time
Nothing left hanging
A quote sent with no response, a requested document that never arrives: the assistant spots it and drafts the follow-up.
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05
Turn an email into an action
From request to calendar
A meeting date becomes a proposed event on the calendar, a request becomes a task, if your calendar and your software allow it.
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06
Get a briefing every morning
Know where to start
A daily summary: the messages waiting on a reply, the urgent ones, the follow-ups to send. Enough to pick your priorities before you open the inbox.
From incoming message to draft
Three everyday messages, and what the assistant prepares for each. The draft waits for your review: you’re the one who hits send.
Quote requestLabel: Quote
Ms. LawsonHello, could you send me a quote for repainting two bedrooms in March?
Draft to reviewHi Ms. Lawson, thanks for reaching out. To put the quote together, could you tell me the square footage of the two bedrooms and what shape the walls are in?
Customer follow-upLabel: Urgent
Mr. MorrisHello, I emailed you Monday about my quote and haven’t heard back.
Draft to reviewHi Mr. Morris, I apologize for the delay. Your quote is being priced now; you’ll have it by [date to confirm].
Appointment requestLabel: Appointment
Ms. ParkerHello, I’d like to schedule an appointment next week, preferably late in the day.
Draft to reviewHi Ms. Parker, I can see you Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. or Thursday at 6 p.m. Which of the two works better for you?
AI in Outlook or in Gmail: starting from what you have
Both major email platforms now come with their own AI. We start from the one you already use: no new app to learn.
| Your email | Outlook | Gmail |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in AI | Copilot | Gemini |
| What it does, among other things | Summarizes a conversation at the top of the thread | Summarizes long threads, drafts emails, suggests replies |
| Access | Depends on your Microsoft subscription | Eligible Google Workspace or Google AI plan |
| If your subscription includes it | Setup, instructions and template replies | Setup, instructions and template replies |
| Shared inbox, business rules, links to your software | Dedicated assistant, connected to Microsoft 365 | Dedicated assistant, connected to Google Workspace |
These AIs help each person at their own desk; out of the box, they know nothing about your sorting rules, your template replies or your turnaround times. Features taken from Microsoft’s help pages (summarize an email thread with Copilot) and from Gmail Help’s page on Gemini.
Who is the assistant built for?
It’s most useful when one inbox receives a lot of messages of different kinds, and the person reading it has other things to do.
Small business owners
Sales, suppliers, accounting, customers: everything lands in the same place. Sorting and the morning briefing are often enough to get back on top of things.
“What’s urgent this morning?”
Shared inboxes and customer service
A contact address read by several people: the assistant labels, assigns according to your rules and drafts replies to frequent questions, like order tracking for an online store.
“Who replied to this customer?”
Professional practices and firms
Appointment requests, documents to provide, follow-ups: repetitive messages that still call for a careful, prompt reply.
“We’re still missing one document for the file.”
Getting set up, from inbox analysis to monthly reviews
Setup runs in five phases, and each one wraps up with a document that’s yours to keep. The assistant starts out in draft mode: nothing goes out without you until you decide otherwise.
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01Before any configuration
Inbox analysis
With you, on a sample of messages: the main categories, the questions that keep coming up, the replies you write most often, what should never be automated.
Deliverable: Your message map and the sorting priorities
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02After the analysis
Rules and template replies
Sorting rules, writing instructions (tone, level of formality, signature, length), template replies and the reference information the assistant is allowed to use.
Deliverable: The assistant’s guide, approved by you
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03Once the guide is approved
Connection
Configuration in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, with only the access that’s needed, then any links to your calendar and your business tools.
Deliverable: The list of access granted and what each is used for
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04First few weeks
Draft-mode period
The assistant sorts and drafts; you review and send. Every correction improves the instructions.
Deliverable: The updated guide
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05Every month
Monthly review
Messages handled, drafts sent as is or edited, sorting errors, new categories to create.
Deliverable: The month’s report and the adjustments made
To stop the assistant, just revoke its access: your messages stay in your email account, right where they are.
Your emails, your data: the safeguards we put in place
An inbox holds personal data about customers, employees and partners. Four safeguards apply to every setup.
Limited access
The assistant accesses your inbox with only the permissions it strictly needs.
A tool checked with you
We verify where messages are processed, how long they’re kept and whether they can be used to train the vendor’s models. These points are written into the agreement that governs how your data is processed.
Nothing goes out without you
By default, the assistant only prepares: it sends nothing without your approval and deletes no messages.
No mass outreach
It never writes to someone who hasn’t written to you first, and it isn’t used to send bulk cold email.
Your questions: AI Email Assistant
Can’t find your question? Ask us
Does the assistant send emails without me?
No, not until you decide it should. It prepares drafts that you review. Once the rules have proven themselves, you can allow direct sending for certain simple messages, such as an acknowledgment of receipt, and keep reviewing everything else.
Does it work with Outlook and Gmail?
Yes. We work with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, starting from the AI already included in your subscription when that’s enough, or with a dedicated assistant connected to your email when your needs go further.
How is it different from an auto-reply?
An auto-reply sends the same text to every sender, for example while you’re on vacation. The assistant reads each message and drafts a reply tailored to what it’s asking, based on your template replies.
Can replies be fully automated?
No, and that isn’t the goal. Direct sending is limited to the simple messages you’ve chosen; disputes, sensitive messages and anything that commits the company are still reviewed by a person. Sorting, summaries and reminders, on the other hand, happen with no intervention.
Are my emails used to train the AI?
That depends on the tool and the plan you’re on. We check this in the vendor’s terms before any setup, along with where messages are processed and how long they’re kept, and we pick a tool that meets your requirements.
Do I need a Copilot or Gemini subscription?
Not necessarily. The AI features built into Outlook and Gmail depend on the plan you have with Microsoft or Google; we look at what yours includes and only recommend an additional subscription if it adds something for the way you work.
Can the assistant manage a shared inbox?
Yes. A contact or customer service address read by several people is actually one of the cases where it helps the most: labeling, assignment according to your rules and drafts for frequent questions.
How much time will I save?
That depends on the volume and nature of your messages, and we don’t promise a number up front. We measure with you, before and after, the number of messages handled and the response time, so you can judge on the evidence.
How much does an AI email assistant cost?
Every setup gets its own quote, which also factors in the languages your contacts write in and the support you want once the assistant is running. The subscription for a dedicated assistant, when one is needed, is billed separately by its vendor. Calls or customer reviews to handle too? Take a look at our voice agent that answers the phone and our agent dedicated to Google reviews.
What changes the price
- 01The number of inboxes and users
- 02The tool: the AI in your subscription or a dedicated assistant
- 03The categories and template replies to prepare
- 04The connections to your calendar and your software