Six kinds of AI email assistant tools, the job each one was built for, a five-step way to choose between them, and one client thread run through every type so you can see the difference before you pay for it.
AI email assistant tools connect to Outlook or Gmail and take over part of the work of email. They sort what needs a person, write replies that sound like you, lift requests out of messages and turn them into tasks, and chase the ones that go quiet. There are six kinds, from a drafting helper inside Gmail to a full AI executive assistant such as Pidgy that runs the whole inbox. Choose by the job you need done, then by who presses send, then by where your mail is processed. Paid plans mostly land between $20 and $40 per user per month.
The one-paragraph definition, then the part the definition usually leaves out.
An AI email assistant tool is a program that reads your mailbox and does some of the work you would otherwise do by hand. It decides which messages need a person, writes a reply in your style, files threads by client or topic, pulls out the things you promised to do, and reminds you (or the other side) when a request has gone unanswered.
Autocomplete is the smallest version of this. The larger versions read the whole thread and your own sent folder before they write, notice that a client asked for two documents by Friday, and put those two documents on a list that somebody will check. The best of them never send anything by themselves. You still click send, and that single detail is worth more than any feature grid.
Vendors describe themselves in the same words. The products are not the same. Sort them by the job they were built to do.
| The problem you have | Tool type | Examples | Built for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Replies eat an hour a day | Drafting assistant | Fyxer, Superhuman Auto Drafts, Gmail Help me write | Editing instead of composing |
| Important mail gets buried | Triage and prioritisation | SaneBox, Shortwave, Superhuman Split Inbox | Surfacing the mail that matters first |
| Three people answer one address | Shared inbox | Missive, Front, Hiver, Gmelius | Assigning and discussing mail as a team |
| The firm already pays for the suite | Built-in suite AI | Microsoft Copilot in Outlook, Gemini in Gmail | Convenience inside tools you already run |
| Calls and mail blur into each other | Meeting and email hybrid | Fyxer | Notes and action items from calls next to the inbox |
| The whole inbox is the problem | AI executive assistant | Pidgy | Running the inbox end to end, tasks and follow-ups included |
Most tools do one job and do it well. Only the executive-assistant category, and to a degree the shared-inbox products, try to cover several.
Whichever product you pick, the same four steps run behind the screen.
The tool asks for access to your Outlook or Gmail account through the provider's own sign-in. Nothing is moved. Your mailbox stays where it is and the client you use every day keeps working.
It reads the open thread and, for drafting tools, a sample of what you have sent before. That sample is why a draft ends up sounding like you rather than like a press release.
A language model then does the job the tool was built for. It ranks the message, writes the reply, files the thread, or lifts out the request together with its deadline.
The good tools stop here and wait. Drafts sit in a queue until you have read them and clicked send. If a vendor cannot tell you plainly whether the product can send on its own, assume that it can.
A made-up but typical message, and what each kind of assistant does with it.
The email lands on a Tuesday from a client's finance manager. It says the signed engagement letter is attached, asks whether the draft accounts can be turned around by Friday, and mentions in passing that the fixed asset register "will follow next week".
Writes a courteous reply confirming receipt and answering the Friday question. Good draft. The fixed asset register is recorded nowhere else, so in a fortnight you will be searching the thread for it.
Puts the message near the top because the sender is a known client. It does not read for commitments, so Friday and next week stay inside the message body.
Summarises the thread in three lines and offers a reply. Handy on a phone, and only inside the suite that particular mailbox happens to live in.
Writes the draft, then records two items under the client's project, draft accounts by Friday and the register due next week. If the register has not arrived by then, it drafts the chaser for you to approve. This is the Pidgy pattern.
Do these in order. Each one removes a few products from the list.
Note where the hours go. Writing, sorting, chasing, or answering colleagues about who has what. The biggest number points at the category you need.
For client correspondence the answer is you. Rule out any tool that sends on its own, and any that cannot show you the queue before a message goes out.
Where is the tool hosted, does it train models on your messages, and will it sign a DPA. For confidential or regulated work, EU hosting and a written no-training commitment are the shortlist filters.
Not the demo inbox. Pick a messy client thread with a deadline buried in message six and see whether the tool notices it. That one test separates drafting helpers from assistants.
Most tools run from a free tier to roughly $20 to $40 per user per month, with the AI features often on the higher tier. Shared-inbox and enterprise products charge more per seat. Multiply by the people who will actually use it, not by the head count.
Each one is cheap to avoid and expensive to discover in month three.
If the pain is unanswered requests, a faster draft does not touch it. You need something that keeps a list and comes back to it on a date.
Demo inboxes are tidy. Yours has a nine-message thread in which the deadline moved twice and the attachment was the wrong version.
Firms with Outlook on one floor and Gmail on another end up with two tools, or one that half works. Check that the product reads both, ideally as a single inbox.
Hosting, training and auto-send take five minutes to ask about and months to undo if nobody asked.
Start with the two people who complain most about email. If it sticks with them, the rest of the office will ask for it.
Pidgy is the executive-assistant option in the guide, so here is the concrete version rather than the category label.
It reads Outlook and Gmail as one inbox and ranks the messages that need you. Replies and follow-ups are drafted in your own voice, with four tones to choose between, and each draft waits in a queue for your click. Commitments become to-dos, the to-dos sit inside projects with live progress, and a Plan mode blocks time in your week to get them done. Threads that go quiet get chased, and all of it rolls up into one Inbox Health score. Pidgy is hosted in the EU, never trains on your mail, and is in early access with more than 800 professionals already using it.
Ranked lists and how-to guides that go deeper.
Pidgy ranks your inbox, writes replies in your voice, turns requests into tracked tasks and chases the quiet ones, across Outlook and Gmail. Ask for early access below.