Email can leave you with two jobs: answering people and working out what needs your attention. Here are four ways we use Claude and ChatGPT to help with email and daily work. You can adapt them to your own setup, starting with whichever would help you most.
Start with your connected tools
Make sure your email is connected to your AI tool. Check your organization’s data rules before connecting a work account, then try a few simple tests:
- Ask it to find a recent email you recognize.
- Ask it to read the full conversation, including your replies.
- Ask it to save a reply draft, if supported, then check that it appears on the right conversation.
Other systems to connect
Other useful connections, where supported:
- Your document store, such as Google Drive for Google Docs. Point your AI at your procedures (SOPs) and documents about you or your organization, then check that it can read them.
- Your calendar, for deadlines, available time, and meeting prep.
- Your task app, to see current work and commitments.
- Team messages, for context that lives in tools such as Slack.
Tips before you schedule
We generally recommend having AI prepare drafts for you to review, edit, and send. Keep your preferences in an email-processing document or AI skill. If you don’t have rules yet, ask your AI tool to interview you.
Try a small batch before scheduling and correct anything it missed. Test the scheduled run too: access varies by app, plan, and workspace settings. Ask it to flag anything it cannot check.
Let’s look at four workflows you can adapt to your own setup.
1. Draft replies to a support inbox
Amplify is our AI training program for animal advocates. Participants email us about registration, session times, recordings, and access. Answers come from our course page, curriculum, and schedule, plus internal registration records and participant support instructions.
We set up a scheduled task that runs each weekday. For email support, it:
- Reads new support emails and the full conversations, including previous replies and existing drafts.
- Looks up the answer in our course documents or registration records.
- Inserts draft replies for us to review and flags questions that need our input.
- Archives routine notifications and resolved conversations under rules we agreed on.
That gives us replies to review without looking up the same course details each time. You can use the same approach for your own support inbox, using the reference documents your team already maintains.
I want your help managing our support inbox. Each weekday, read new emails, use our reference documents to draft replies, and flag anything urgent or needing my judgment. Archive routine notifications and resolved conversations only under rules we agree on. Interview me about our inbox, reference documents, reply style, archive rules, and how I want results presented. Then help me set up a scheduled task. Keep replies as drafts for review, and return one linked bullet per item.2. Prioritize your email and draft replies
We also use AI to turn an inbox into a short list of things to handle next. It identifies what needs us, puts urgent requests first, and prepares replies. You can run this manually or make it a daily scheduled task.
Checking full conversations, sent replies, and existing drafts helps it distinguish an open request from something you have already handled.
Help me prioritize my email. Each weekday morning, review the past seven days and show what still needs my attention, most urgent first. Check full conversations, my sent replies, and existing drafts so you can tell what is already handled. Draft replies where you have enough context; ask me about the rest. Interview me first about my priorities and how I want the list presented, then help me schedule this. Keep replies as drafts and return one linked bullet per item.3. Find emails you may have missed
A separate sweep helps catch requests that slipped through, including emails you read but never answered. We use this as a backstop to daily email processing. You can ask your AI tool to do it weekly.
Help me find emails I may have missed. Every Friday, review the past 30 days, including read emails, for unanswered requests, deadlines, and promises I still need to follow through on. Check my sent replies and existing drafts to see what is already handled or waiting on someone else. Return one linked bullet per item, with what I need to do next. Ask me what to include before helping me schedule this; leave the inbox unchanged.4. Create a chief of staff thread
A dedicated chief of staff thread gives you one place to review messages, email, tasks, and your calendar together. For example, a morning brief could start with your larger project priorities, then flag deadlines, high-priority emails, meeting prep, and people waiting for a reply. This helps you plan the day around your projects as well as incoming requests.
You could start with your email, calendar, and one task app, then add other connected sources, such as Slack, as needed.
Act as my chief of staff. Interview me about my priorities, commitments, and where I track work, then help me schedule a morning review. Review my email (and other messaging tools if connected), tasks, and calendar together. Recommend the few things that would move my biggest projects forward, flag deadlines and meeting prep, and suggest a plan that fits the time I have. Tell me what you could prepare or draft for me. Return one linked bullet per item, saying what I need to do or whether no action is needed. Ask before sending messages or changing tasks or calendar events.Keep a human in the loop
Review recipients, facts, dates, and commitments before sending a draft. Some connected tools can send or change records, so agree on those permissions separately from reading and drafting. For a shared inbox, decide who reviews replies and maintains the reference documents; managing shared AI workflows covers those choices.
Time and effort
Start with one pattern and review its first few runs before adding another. The setup takes longer when your answers are scattered across documents or your reply and archive rules are still unclear. If you need help getting the assistant to walk you through setup, Just ask your AI has examples.
