AI is Changing the Inbox and Your Email Strategy Needs to Catch Up
- Chris McLellan
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
Innovations like Gemini for Gmail are now acting as a filter that elevates useful, engaging messages and pushes low-value, low response emails out of sight. It's time to make adjustments to this beloved channel.
Quick Summary
Email marketing is changing fast and becoming much more like earned media channels like digital PR than simple distribution.
The first reader (scanner is closer) of emails will increasingly be a Large Language Model, not a human
AI systems like Gemini inside inboxes like Gmail are already evaluating and filtering messages for human owners based on usefulness and engagement.
Replies and engagement are the new channel metrics, putting a stake into the heart of open rates and click rates.
For example, even simple replies such as “Yes, makes sense” or “Got it, thanks” or "I'll be there" will carry far more scoring weight than a high open or click rate.
Messages that are personalized but not creepy, offer obvious and immediate value, and invite genuine interaction rise to the top.
At Friends Electric, we look at email not as a channel but as a relationship system, and the latest changes reinforce that mindset.
Case Study: Gemini In Gmail
Google is rebuilding Gmail around AI, and it signals a major shift in how email will work. Here are some of the features of the new Gemini-powered inbox, now in Beta:
Gemini reads every incoming message
Extracts key points
Suggests tasks and actions
Highlights topics it believes matter most
In Google’s own examples, the AI prompts users to reply to a coach, reschedule an appointment or pay a fee. The first “reader” of your email is no longer the person you wrote to. It is an AI deciding whether your message looks useful and worth surfacing.
Email is transitioning from an owned channel into something closer to earned media. AI will increasingly act as gate keeper, deciding what gets seen first, if at all.
Gmail is also adding AI overviews that summarize long threads and even entire inboxes. This creates a content compression effect:
Clear, practical messages survive the summary
Generic or promotional messages get buried
Value and actionability matter more than design or clever subject lines
For companies, this means inbox visibility must now be earned.
Engagement signals and genuine usefulness determine whether your messages appear at the top of someone’s inbox or disappear into the background.
What’s Changing
Inbox AI is influencing visibility across every type of email:
Prospecting: Cold outreach must spark real interaction. Templates and generic personalization underperform.
Workflows: Automated sequences need a clear purpose and an action that feels meaningful.
Newsletters: Passive reading as indicated by open rates is becoming weak signal. AI looks for replies, saves and return engagement.
Major inbox providers have already indicated that future experiences will rely heavily on engagement signals to sort and summarize email. Teams that continue to focus on opens and clicks risk losing visibility over time.
Practical Tips For AI-Friendly Email
Encourage replies: Ask short, simple questions or create a natural moment for the reader to respond. Replies carry the strongest weight.
Include dates or reminders: Emails with bookings, dates or small reminders get flagged as useful by inbox AI, which helps keep them visible.
Make newsletters conversational: Invite input, ask what topics readers want next or include a quick check-in question. Treat newsletters as a two-way channel.
Personalize with genuine context: One relevant insight or observation works better than automated merge fields that feel artificial.
Incorporate free tools and resources: Benchmarks, calculators, templates and checklists provide practical value. These assets drive interaction and give inbox AI clear signals that your messages matter.
Update your metrics: Track replies, saves, resource usage and follow-through actions. These reflect true engagement in an AI-filtered inbox.
Your Call to Action
AI is reshaping how inboxes decide which messages deserve attention.
If your email strategy still relies on opens and clicks, it is ready for a refresh. Friends Electric helps teams modernize prospecting, workflows and newsletters for an engagement-first inbox environment.
If you want a short diagnostic on your prospecting or newsletter performance, reach out and I can walk you through the key changes in a focused, twenty-minute discovery call.
About Friends Electric
Friends Electric is the Marketing Consultancy of Chris McLellan, a certified Chartered Marketer specializing AI and growth marketing services for startups, scale-ups, and tech-centric businesses.
I and growth marketing services.