AI email automation for busy shared inboxes
For teams running info@, support@ or orders@ inboxes that fill faster than anyone can sort them. Every email is classified, routed and drafted for reply, and attachments land in the right system, while people approve what goes out.
- Timeline
- 2 to 3 weeks to first version
- Best for
- Teams sharing an inbox that receives 100 or more emails daily
- Usually starts with
- Classification and routing for your busiest shared inbox
Agent flow
What is email automation?
In the inbox sense, email automation means software that reads incoming messages, works out what each one is about and takes the next step. It can tag and route emails, pull details into your CRM or helpdesk, save attachments to the right folder and draft replies. A person reviews drafts before they are sent, so speed improves without losing control.
- Works in Gmail, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 Outlook
- Classifies each email by intent, urgency, customer and language
- Drafts replies in your tone, waiting for a person to approve
- Saves attachments to Drive, SharePoint, your CRM or accounting tool
Typical Email automation we ship
Each one scoped and quoted at a fixed price after a free review of your process.
Shared inbox triage
Every message to info@ or support@ is tagged by topic, urgency and customer, then assigned to the right person or queue, so nothing sits unread because everyone assumed someone else had it.
Draft replies for approval
For common questions, the AI drafts a reply using your policies, order data and past answers, and a team member reviews it, edits if needed and sends with one click.
Attachments filed automatically
Invoices go to accounting, CVs go to your applicant tracking system and signed forms go to the client folder, each renamed consistently and linked to the matching record.
Order and booking emails parsed
Confirmation emails from suppliers, marketplaces or booking platforms are parsed for dates, quantities and reference numbers, and those details update your order sheet or calendar without retyping.
Follow-up reminders on threads
If a customer or supplier has not replied within your set time, the thread owner gets a reminder with a suggested follow-up, so promised callbacks and quotes do not slip.
Multilingual inbox handling
Emails in Spanish, German, Arabic or Hindi are detected, translated for your team and answered in the sender's language, with the translation shown so reviewers know exactly what they approve.
A typical build, end to end
Reads the inbox, drafts replies from your templates and files everything in the CRM.
What changes for your team
Three people skim the same inbox and two answer the same email.
Each email is assigned once, to one owner, within a minute.
Attachments are downloaded, renamed and uploaded to folders by hand.
Attachments are filed into the right system with consistent names.
Routine questions wait an hour or more for a typed reply.
A ready draft waits for approval, so routine replies go out in minutes.
Four steps, one fixed price
- 01
Audit the inbox
We review a sample of recent emails, group them by type and volume, and identify which categories are routine enough to automate first.
- 02
Agree rules and tone
You set routing rules, approval levels and reply tone with us, plus a list of topics the AI must always hand to a person.
- 03
Connect your systems
We connect Gmail or Outlook to your CRM, helpdesk, storage and order data, so drafts and filing use real customer information.
- 04
Run in shadow mode
For the first week the system classifies and drafts without acting, so your team can compare its choices with their own before going live.
How to automate a shared inbox with AI
A shared inbox usually mixes many kinds of email: sales inquiries, support requests, supplier invoices, job applications, spam and internal notes. The first job of inbox automation is to sort them. An AI model reads each message and its attachments, assigns a category, an urgency level and the matching customer or supplier, and applies labels in Gmail or folders and categories in Outlook. Rules then route each category to the right person, team or tool.
Classification is checked against your own history before launch. We run the model over a few hundred past emails, compare its labels with what your team actually did, and adjust the categories and instructions until the results match. Emails that do not fit any category, or that mention legal threats, complaints or cancellations, go straight to a named person instead of being handled automatically.
AI draft replies that a person approves
Drafting is where inbox automation saves the most time, and also where care matters most. The AI writes a reply using your policies, your product or service details and the customer's history from the CRM or order system. It does not send it. The draft appears in the thread or in a review screen, a team member reads it, edits anything that is off and sends it. Each draft shows which sources it used, so checking is quick.
Over time you can choose to auto-send a small set of very low-risk replies, such as acknowledging receipt or confirming office hours, while everything else stays in review. That decision is yours, category by category. Messages involving refunds, pricing, contracts, medical details or complaints always stay with a person. The aim is faster, consistent replies, not a robot answering your customers on its own.
Sending email attachments to the right system
Attachments are where inbox work quietly eats hours. Someone opens the email, downloads the file, renames it, finds the right folder or record and uploads it. Automation handles that chain. Invoices can go to QuickBooks or Xero as draft bills, CVs to your applicant tracking system, signed documents to the client's folder in Google Drive or SharePoint, and photos to the matching order. Each file gets a consistent name and a link back to the original email.
When an attachment needs data pulled from it, such as an invoice total or a contract date, the inbox workflow hands it to a document processing step with its own confidence checks. If a file cannot be matched to a record, perhaps because the sender used a personal address, it waits in a short review list rather than being filed in the wrong place. Your team clears that list in a few minutes a day.
Email and Inbox Automation questions
Will the AI send emails to customers on its own?
Not unless you decide it should for specific low-risk categories. By default, every reply is a draft that a person reviews and sends. Topics like refunds, pricing, legal matters and complaints are set to always need human approval. You can widen or narrow auto-sending later, one category at a time.
Does inbox automation work with Gmail and Outlook?
Yes. We build on Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 through their official APIs, so labels, folders, categories and drafts appear natively in the inbox your team already uses. There is no new email client to learn. Shared mailboxes, group inboxes and delegated access are all supported.
How does it know which category an email belongs to?
We define the categories with you, then give the AI clear instructions and examples from your past emails. Before launch, it is tested against a few hundred real messages and its labels are compared with what your team actually did. Low-confidence emails are left unlabeled for a person rather than guessed.
Is our email data used to train AI models?
No. We use AI providers under business or API terms that exclude training on customer data, and we can process mail inside your own cloud account. Access is limited to the mailboxes in scope, and we follow GDPR, DPDP Act or HIPAA-aware practices as needed. An NDA is available before we see any messages.
What does email and inbox automation cost?
Cost depends on the number of inboxes, categories and connected systems. After the free 30-minute audit you receive a fixed-price quote in writing, with no hourly billing. Running costs, mainly AI usage and any automation platform fees, are estimated up front and billed to accounts your company owns and controls.
Often built together
Document Processing AutomationPull clean data from invoices, statements, IDs and contracts without manual entry.
CRM AutomationKeep your CRM accurate and moving without anyone typing in updates by hand.
AI ChatbotsAI chatbots grounded in your own help content that answer accurately and hand off to people.
Get a fixed quote for your Email automation
Send two lines about the process you want to hand over. We reply within one business day with what we would build, the tools involved and what it would take.
- 30-minute call, no slides, no pressure
- One fixed price before any work starts
- You own every workflow, account and line of code