Despite multiple flaws, decidedly mixed results, and some unresolved issues with the law and regulations, AI in email marketing is making slow yet steady progress toward becoming an integral part of communication and the environment.
From automation to hyper-personalization to content creation, it has already empowered marketing teams across industries to send highly targeted, optimized, and meaningful messages and achieve their goals.
However, its attempts to take over the World can be seen not only on one side of the email channel but also on the other. From 2024, apart from the generative content and design that the end-users see in their digital correspondence, they are going to experience AI potential firsthand.
So-called AI email summaries will help users handle their daily parade of emails and stay on top of their communications. Apple, Google, and Yahoo have streamlined the process of reading and replying to emails through their AI assistants, powered by natural language processing and machine learning technology.
While this new feature is supposed to level up the game for inbox customers, it might disturb the Force in the email marketing world as it directly influences how campaigns and messages are created. Let’s dive a bit deeper into this new feature and how it will affect email marketing in the future, as well as consider some recommendations to play along with it.
What Is an AI Email Summary in Apple?
Aiming to transform the device user experience by delivering meaningful and valuable experiences through high-end technologies, Apple Intelligence revolutionizes interactions across all their prime gadgets. In October 2024, the niche leader surfaced several new features that take user experience to the next level, and one of them was AI summaries for emails.
AI summaries for email is an advanced program that goes through email content (including the preheader area), gets all the key details, and provides an outline in a short, digestible form. So, instead of showing the first few lines derived from email, it analyzes the context and provides readers with the essential data, thereby helping them decide whether it has important information and deserves their time to interact.
This new feature also works for long threads and a chain of newsletters involving multiple people weighing in. App Mail clients may view details of multi-message conversations and get to the heart of the matter with just a tap.
There are two kinds of email summaries in the inbox: in the pre-open and post-open stages. In the pre-open stage, AI summaries replace the preview text that appears under the subject line. They take up no more than two lines of visible space, giving an extremely brief outline. They appear in the mailbox and on the Lock screen as part of the notification deck.
In the post-open stage, AI summaries are bigger and may contain more details, as Apple allows clients to choose between two types of outlines. The first one offers key details represented in three lines of synopsis. The second option includes a long summary broken into bulleted key points and lists. Both appear over the email content in a modal, pushing the email content below.
It is crucial to note that both summaries do not appear by default, meaning users have to trigger them.
How Does It Work for Clients?
First and foremost, it should be noted that this feature is available exclusively on the latest Apple gadgets, including the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and the iPhone 16 lineup, as well as macOS 15.1 and later, as it requires the latest and highest processing power and RAM storage, as well as device storage, so prepare to remove redundant files just in case. Expect this feature to reach a wider audience in the next three years.
Those with iPhone 15 Pro or newer models may already be testing this feature. In the pre-open stage, an AI system generates the recap automatically. It appears below the subject line, giving readers a glimpse into email content or thread in around 40 characters.
In the post-open stage, readers activate it manually. They select the message, tap the summarize button at the top of the message chain, and choose the desired variant. In general, the AI assistant creates a summary in several seconds. However, tests showed that it might take longer for lengthy threads and multi-client conversations as it goes through sent and received emails.
The summaries do not last permanently. They linger for a while and then disappear. So, if the users want the recap again, they need to repeat this procedure.
How Does It Work for Email Marketers?
This is where things get interesting. Although email marketers should not expect this feature to become fully functional until the next several years, as it is available only for new Apple clients, it has already disrupted email content and design creation.
With AI summaries (which in the preview stage are available by default and in the post-preview stage on a click), it is no longer a one-team game. Email marketers are losing control of preview text that email readers traditionally see in their inboxes. Plus, as the engine skims the whole content, they might consider every detail they put in as it is hard to tell what will and will not appear in an eventual recap and influence the message’s meaning.
What Is an AI Email Summary in Google?
In May 2024, at the Google I/O conference, the industry leader revealed an extended feature of Gemini (a generative artificial intelligence chatbot) that could now summarize emails for readers. The team has activated it on the latest devices, so expect it to work on the latest versions of Google Pixel and higher-end Samsung Galaxy phones, including the Galaxy S24 series, Z Fold 6, and Z Flip 6.
Much like Apple, Google uses AI powers to scan email content, derive key points, and create a recap to give their readers the gist of the message. It works with short and lengthy digital newsletters containing extensive text, details, and threads. It aims to help readers jungle over dozens of emails and multilevel conversations in their inboxes daily and save them from losing precious time on unwanted correspondence.
The feature is available in the Gmail application through the button “Summarize this email.” When tapped, it displays an information card with the most important details at the top of the message. Users may assess the feature’s efficacy by providing their feedback on the summary quality by clicking on the thumbs-up and thumbs-down buttons.
Last, Gemini allows Gmail clients to summarize several emails from multiple contacts around a certain topic.
How Does It Work for Clients?
AI summary for email is available in the Gmail application. The person must activate it manually by tapping the button at the top of emails. After Gemini provides a concise outline of the email content displayed over the email, users are welcome to collaborate with the chatbot more, for example, by requesting ideas for responses or data stored in Google Drive. So they do not have to leave Gmail until they finish their tasks there.
How Does It Work for Email Marketers?
Unlike Apple, which has a high entry level due to pricing, Google’s AI summary for emails is already available for Google Workspace subscribers, including business and education. Consumers who pay $20 per month for Google One AI Premium may already enjoy its capabilities. So, it might be accessible by a large crowd pretty soon.
This brings the technology closer to email marketing realities, arousing immediate challenges, such as losing control of preview text. Plus, email marketers must re-consider their email strategy and its key aspects to ensure their message is delivered correctly in the outlined form.
What Is an AI Email Summary in Yahoo?
Like Apple and Google, Yahoo is updating its mailbox software on the desktop with new AI capabilities to help its clients simplify email and task management. The company has published a press release to bring a cleaner and simplified mail experience to Yahoo Mail Desktop. This includes action buttons to quickly access and act upon emails and integration of one-line email summaries that will replace preview text.
Again, the Yahoo AI email summarize tool will scan the content and sift through every detail to determine the critical data of the message based on its NLP model. Ideally, it should scan and comprehend an email to bring a short recap and provide bulleted lists of proposed actions based on content to streamline the process and enhance productivity. By far, it efficiently deals with such data as dates, tasks, bookings, invitations, and calls.
How Does It Work for Clients?
The feature is currently available only for desktop applications to new and existing US users on an opt-in basis. It will soon be available on mobile applications.
Available under the new Priority Inbox tab, which first highlights the most important messages, it allows mailbox clients to summarize emails after clicking on them. Once opened, the top of the email message will show a summary of the contents in a bulleted list, along with some extra functionalities and recommendations on how to respond and act quickly.
How Does It Work for Email Marketers?
As befits, handling Yahoo’s new mailbox feature is the trickiest. Not only does it create a summary instead of preview text, but it also replaces the email subject with a generative description based on the content. That means email marketers lose control of the pitch, which is crucial in open and engagement rates.
Additionally, recent tests showed that the AI summary results are imperfect. They could be confusing and misleading, so email content must be as clean and precise as possible.
Why Email Marketers Should Care about AI Summaries?
Although AI summaries for email are still on probation, they may prove to be one of the most widely used features in the initial launch of Apple’s, Google’s, and Yahoo’s suite of AI-powered capabilities. Even though some tests showed them to be funny and ridiculous, and honestly, they do not get much information nevertheless, this might be enough for many mailbox users to get the context when the title does not unveil what an email is about. Either in the pre-open or post-open stage, it might help users decide whether to spend their time reading it or not.
On top of that, this feature is particularly helpful for threads. As many people might participate in the multilevel conversation, AI-generated summaries may provide mailbox clients with a brief description of whatever they are discussing and give some knowledgeable grounds for whether to weigh in.
Finally, AI summaries for email come with certain benefits, which make it vital for users. This includes the following.
It helps to avoid communication delays. By cutting down the time spent on emails and providing all critical details of the message, users might avoid delays in communication, either in a professional or personal landscape.
It helps to act promptly and efficiently. As has been pointed out, an AI-generated summary should uncover the key details of the message, thereby giving users the necessary knowledge for the next step. Yahoo and Google Intelligence might also provide recommendations and quick buttons to follow up immediately.
It helps to track actions and conversations efficiently. AI summaries ensure a seamless collaboration with various contacts. AI could be used to derive information on certain topics from various threads or messages to simplify the management of tasks.
It helps to reduce stress. Last but not least, ideally, AI summarize should reduce stress as users delegate analysis of the content to them and avoid the burden of unopened correspondence. They might also enjoy extra free time and use it for personal tasks.
In a word, AI summaries for email might find their rightful place in clients’ inboxes pretty much soon, so email marketers must embrace these innovations and adjust their strategies to stay in the game.
How AI Summary Might Affect Email Marketing?
AI summaries for email have a big chance of carving a certain niche and becoming an integral tool in users’ daily routines that enhance the management of crowded, messy, and sometimes overwhelming email accounts. This means only good things for inbox clients as they might create order out of chaos, streamline their activities, and boost their productivity.
However, for email marketers, this means some new challenges that must be overcome to stay in the game and ensure their companies maintain a strong position in the email channel. As they lose their control over preview text and, in some cases, subject lines, they have to re-consider the core aspects of their email marketing strategy and, in particular, campaigns to meet the highest standards.
To make matters worse, although AI has been with us for years, its results are still inaccurate. There are many examples of when it fails, even the simplest requests. AI summaries for email are no exception. Tests conducted by different teams showed that the accuracy and adequacy of AI-generated outlines are far from perfect. Though, this should not come as a surprise. Email content can be complex and tricky. There are so many nuances in language, cultures, and contextual understanding that even humans might experience difficulties in correct perception.
Let’s consider the core aspects of email marketing to see how AI summaries will affect them.
Metrics
The first thing AI summarizes for email will affect is the open rate. Aimed to save subscribers from the clutter in the mailbox and enhance message management, it should provide them with all the necessary data to decide whether to open the email and engage with it or skip it and move to another. This means that even brands with the strongest connection with their customers may see a decline in open rate as their clients will get all key details from the message in the recap.
The problem is that even though you might deliver the true value to your subscribers, highlighted in a summary, you might face some challenges caused by low open rates. First and foremost, you might get under ISP radar since a low open rate hurts the email sender’s score and overall reputation. Second, it might eventually affect deliverability. Third, it might ruin engagement with the brand. Finally, it might ruin critical email marketing metrics such as click-through and conversion rates as the open rate is their precursor.
Email Campaign
One of the main obstacles posed by AI summaries for emails lies in its ambiguous nature, as this feature is optional in the post-open stage. To see a recap of email content, mailbox clients must manually activate this function by clicking the button. Note this does not concern Yahoo, whose users enjoy the short outline with key points by default when they open the message.
The good news is that there is certainty in the pre-open stage, when Apple and Google create AI summaries by default, featuring them on notification boards or mail applications. Although it is here where email markets lose total control of their preview text, however at least they know that they need to handle this situation and consider the way AI will summarize their content to ensure their message is presented correctly.
Another critical detail affecting an email marketing campaign and overall strategy is that Apple, Google, and Yahoo might replace preview text with their AI summaries. In the case of Yahoo, it might even replace the subject line.
To make matters worse, early tests showed that Apple Intelligence does not consistently replace preview text with the generated content based on the email. Sometimes, it uses preview text to rewrite it and provide mailbox users with a summary; other times, it completely ignores it, offering a summary based on inner email content.
Either way, email marketers can no longer rely on the preheader, crucial in enhancing the subject line and improving open rates. From now on, the subject line remains on its own in persuading customers to open and engage with emails.
So, what does it mean? It means that companies must adjust their email marketing campaign and strategies to face this challenge. The first thing to do is to center the efforts around segmentation. Even though Apple, Google, and Yahoo are the biggest mailbox providers, businesses might still have clients who use other mail applications. So, they might preach their time-proven ways with them and rely on a powerful combination of subject line and preview text in a sales pitch.
Another segmentation method is considering Apple, Google, and Yahoo subscribers separately. Even though Apple and Google are similar in generating summaries, tiny yet vital distinctions still make them different. Plus, there is no evident data about how they behave, so these distinctions might get bigger. Therefore, it is crucial to handle them independently.
To overcome obstacles with preview text that email marketers can no longer rely on, it is highly recommended to revisit the subject line strategy. As a rule, companies use the duet of the subject line and preview text to create a powerful sales pitch. However, with AI summaries, this duet becomes a solo, with the subject line leading. It is also important to remember that Apple Intelligence might ignore it completely, and Yahoo might replace it.
Email Design
Design is another core aspect of email that should be re-considered. Traditionally, email marketers strongly rely on it to deliver the message, make powerful impressions, drive engagement, and boost conversions. After all, subscribers eat with their eyes, so images, illustrations, icons, and graphical text have been reliable tools in delivering messages and convincing them to follow the lead.
However, with AI summaries, the game changes a bit. Email design does not influence AI summaries because intelligence ignores them completely. Whether Apple, Google, or Yahoo, it disregards visual material and any graphical text. That means email marketers can no longer use graphics as a prime tool to deliver the message. All visual elements, from tiny navigation icons to big hero areas, should play a supporting role that either highlights or stresses out the message.
Another important thing to consider is the ALT text, which email marketers also use to deliver the message. ALTs are an integral part of images and graphics primarily used to ensure accessibility as they provide crucial data for screen readers. However, Apple Intelligence ignores it, whereas Google might ingest HTML code inside the block yet disregard plain text.
To sum up, email marketers cannot rely on this data when AI skims the email content and creates a summary. On the one hand, email marketers should re-consider the role of visual material in delivering messages and achieving certain targets like boosting engagement or sparkling interest. On the other hand, they should not bother about alt text and visuals influencing the summary and distorting the meaning. There is a lot of food for thought.
Email Design Templates by Designmodo
Email Content
Content is arguably one of the most critical aspects of a digital newsletter. It brings value to subscribers and helps companies achieve their goals, such as impressing, converting, and generating revenue. The length and style of the content can vary to engage best and inform the target audience. It comes as no surprise that it plays a crucial role in creating accurate AI summaries, as intelligence solely relies on it when analyzing the data and generating a recap. Therefore, email marketers should prioritize it even more.
Apart from making content as clean and clear as possible, email marketers should take into account the peculiarities of AI summaries. For instance, recent tests have shown that both Apple and Google Intelligence disregard semantics and hierarchy in the content.
This means it does not matter to them whether it is a regular paragraph or header: they absorb and analyze the context. The same goes for styles and formats. AI ignores them entirely, so if you want to stress out a link, CTA, or any other key detail through color, size, or style, it will not work, at least for now.
The last thing to note is that during tests, it was noticed that in the short messages, HTML text located higher was given more priority than the one on the bottom, whereas, in the long messages, the location of text was ignored completely as summaries featured content found throughout the message.
The Professional Recommendations to Play Along
AI summaries for email disturb email marketers’ daily routines by causing obstacles in crafting email campaigns, creating email design and content, and analyzing key metrics. Here are four professional recommendations that might help you face these challenges and play along with this new feature.
Segmentation
The importance of segmentation could not be stressed enough in this particular case. As a tool for dividing your audience into small groups with shared preferences in mailbox providers, segmentation allows companies to adjust email campaigns, design, content, and other critical aspects according to the AI intelligence in use.
The wholly-grained segmentation might help to understand the nuances of AI-generated recaps and customers’ reactions. It also allows tracking key email deliverability metrics, open rates, and conversions more efficiently.
On top of that, segmentation underlies testing, which is critical in assessing the efficacy of email marketing strategies. It might provide accurate and relevant insights, which are crucial to making informed decisions about the next campaigns.
Besides dividing your database into groups according to mailbox provider, it is also critical to adopt the following practices:
- Get a thorough understanding of different types of segmentations. This includes demographics, geography, psychographics, behavioral factors, and some tiny and unique factors related to your niche, like website activity, post-purchase activity, customer lifetime value, loyalty program status, etc.
- Focus on targeting engaged subscribers (the ones who have opened your email at least once). Divide your list into groups and send the content they are most likely to care about.
- Consider the funnel stage of your subscribers.
- Adjust segmentation based on survey results and information from other resources, such as social media and website traffic.
- Experiment with segmentation through a range of well-coordinated tests.
Verification and Testing
Email testing is another professional recommendation that helps play along with AI email summaries. It is as critical as segmentation. If you fail this stage, you might get off the beaten track and follow some poor practices.
Email testing is also known as email validation. It includes a series of steps to refine communication. As a rule, the process entails the following:
- previewing email design to define inconsistency in the display;
- validating an email’s coding;
- evaluating content, grammar, formatting, styling, readability and visual appeal;
- checking email authentication.
This procedure generally helps companies view an email the way the recipient might in different environments and surface errors and inconsistencies. It provides the knowledge necessary to introduce timely improvements and ensure an email arrives as intended.
In the case of AI summaries, this range of tests allows the company to eliminate reasons that might compromise the quality of the email content or distort the context.
The best way to nail this stage is to use Unspam. It is a professional email spam checker with tools to ensure your digital newsletters are optimized, authenticated, and reach your target. It overviews critical technical factors such as SPF, DKIM, DMARC, Reverse DNS, List-unsubscribe Header, and Domain suffix to surface possible problems. It also checks all popular IP and domain blacklist providers to ensure your message will not be rejected.
However, most importantly, it scans the content and design of the email to locate various issues. With Unspam, you can rest assured that your message is not distorted, and AI will likely get the right meaning.
Track Progress and Monitor Development in Apple, Google, and Yahoo AI Technologies
Even the best email marketing strategies require changes to stay up-to-date and meet the latest standards, especially regarding AI technologies. Regardless of how well your project works, it is crucial to accept, track, approve, and deploy corresponding changes to the plan to stay proactive in your email channel.
Tracking your progress with handling AI summaries for email comes with numerous benefits. First, your company stays accountable for clearly understanding how good your progress is and what goals you still need to accomplish.
Second, your company may identify areas for improvement by surfacing weaknesses and possible inconsistencies in the email campaign and its key factors, such as segmentation, personalization, and automation.
Third, you get relevant feedback. Tracking performance allows for wholly-grained adjustments that maintain progress and take the campaign to the next level.
Finally, along with tracking email campaign performance, monitoring the development of Apple, Google, and Yahoo intelligence gives companies the knowledge to devise and deploy approaches in time to ensure their clients a seamless experience. It helps to introduce a proactive strategy, anticipate possible problems, and reinforce email marketing strategy.
Adopting the Best Practices for Email Content
Along with tracking your email performance and monitoring AI development updates, following and introducing the best practices for creating email design and content is crucial. As the landscape always changes, they will provide you with a stable foundation for experiments and necessary adjustments to ensure you deliver the right message to AI to be summarized. This way, you may exclude your mistake if something goes wrong with the generated outline and improve your chances of being recapped correctly.
Here are the best practices to follow:
- Use “white” techniques to acquire new subscribers. This implies a double opt-in system, following GDPR and CAN-SPAM ACT rules and providing a link to the preference center in your digital newsletters.
- Clean up the email subscription list regularly. Sift through your Apple, Google, and Yahoo users to define inactive subscribers and break them into groups according to certain criteria. Always delete those who asked for that.
- Authenticate emails.
- Use AI to define the right cadence for every individual.
- Personalize email content and design.
- Keep your email design consistent with the brand image, identity, voice, and tone.
- Write clear, friendly, and engaging email copy. Always check its grammar and readability.
- Use multimedia as a supporting tool to emphasize your message or make a strong impression.
- Come up with a strong subject line, and do not rely on preview text to explain it.
- Do A/B tests.
There are many good practices to introduce in your email marketing routine. Start with the best ones featured above and work your way up by analyzing your niche and target audience and defining approaches that work better for them.
Conclusion
People crave better ways to streamline their daily activities, such as managing multiple email accounts and reading through long messages or multilevel threads. According to stats, regular mailbox users find themselves overwhelmed with dozens of digital newsletters daily, spending their precious time reading lengthy emails or handling conversations with multiple contacts. They struggle to keep up with their inbox volume and to organize the messages that matter most.
Therefore, the AI summarizes feature, which displays the key details of the message and provides the gist of the message, has all grounds to become integral as it meets these growing demands. Apple, Google, and Yahoo have already embraced this feature and are introducing it in their corresponding mailbox applications.
As email marketers, you have nothing to do but accept these changes and adapt your email marketing strategy, plan, campaign, and other key factors accordingly. This process will not be smooth, as AI technologies are imperfect. Nevertheless, it is crucial to embrace these changes, push forward, and fight all the challenges to stay in the game and enjoy the benefits of direct and highly beneficial email communication.
