(Credit: Zain bin Awais)
You might already employ various strategies to organize your email using aliases and filters, but what if you want an easier method that doesn’t require nearly any work on your part? AI prompting can be a surprisingly effective alternative. I used Gemini in Gmail in the examples below, but other AI chatbots have similar functionality. For instance, Claude has a Gmail integration, and Copilot works seamlessly in Outlook. Whatever AI service and email client combination you prefer, these prompts can seriously reduce your email frustrations and workloads.
1. Summarize Long Threads (or Conversations)
Email threads can become overwhelmingly long, especially if you have been discussing the same topic for a while. Even worse is when you send a bunch of emails about the same topic across multiple threads or to multiple people. This makes it incredibly easy to fail to respond to something or forget about a part of the conversation that's actually important.
Luckily, AI can summarize emails for you. Click the Gemini icon in the upper-right corner, and ask it to summarize individual emails or larger threads. This can be as direct as ''Summarize Ted's email," or you can prompt Gemini with more natural language. Furthermore, Gemini can include emails from (or to) specific people or that are from within a certain timeframe, among other things. For example, you can ask Gemini to summarize a conversation with your manager and pull out any important action items. Relying on AI can be easier than skimming over lengthy email chains yourself.
2. Ask AI for an Email Overview
Have you ever opened an email and made a mental note to reply (or do something related) later, only to not remember anything about it when later rolls around? If so, a little trick I like to use with Gemini, especially near the end of a workday, is to click the Gemini icon and ask for an overview of the day’s email. The prompt can be as direct as "Give me an overview of today's email." Or you can add specific instructions, such as "Give me an overview of today's email and break it down into separate sections, making sure to include a work category." Both prompts give me a bird's-eye view of the day’s activity and help ensure I don't miss anything vital.
Even if you don’t get a lot of important emails every day, you can ask for an overview without any advertising or marketing emails in order to quickly see anything worth opening. You can also prompt Gemini to format its overview in any way you want, including with certain sections, such as personal or work, or to highlight emails from a particular person.
3. Find Emails Easily
If you’re anything like me, you occasionally need to find an email without having a good way to begin your search. Maybe you remember generally what it was about, or maybe it's just lost among the sea of other emails tied to what you’re searching for. In these cases, just click on the Gemini icon, describe what you’re looking for, and ask Gemini to find it for you.
This can be a lifesaver if you’re looking for a specific comment from somebody you get emails from all the time, or if you think you have a product key for an app you bought years ago in an email. If you tend to send yourself an email as a quick way to store information you don’t want to forget but don’t quite need regular access to, AI can locate whatever you’re looking for nearly instantly. Just prompt Gemini to "Tell me what my manager asked me to do in his earlier email" or, more simply, to "Remind me what Ted says I'm supposed to do."
Use AI However It Makes Sense to You
Unlike traditional ways of organizing an email inbox, using AI doesn’t mean changing a particular setting from one value to another: It’s a much more organic process. So, don’t be afraid to think outside the box. This also means you have a lot of flexibility in what prompts you send: Feel free to use natural language or ask for specifics. Maybe using AI to locate any advertisements in your email for easy deletion makes sense to you, or perhaps using AI to help figure out which emails you need to respond to first is more your speed. There aren’t any wrong answers here.