FYI: AI Will Forever Change The Inbox

My email inbox is a very scary place. There, I said it. Long gone are the days of Inbox Zero. Now, it’s just a mess: my contact lens prescription confirmation, abandoned cart emails for the dress I can’t decide on for my daughter’s graduation, replies from leads I’ve been meaning to follow up with, and that blog post I swear I’ll get to ‘someday.’ It’s a mess. We listen, we don’t judge. 

But recently, I found an app called Fyxer. It goes through my emails and sorts them out super smartly. Fyxer creates a separate folder for notifications or FYIs - hopefully, I tricked this email into landing there. 😉 It also organizes a folder with only the emails I need to reply to and prepares drafts with possible answers, ready to edit or send right from my draft folder. It’s like having a personal assistant for my inbox. Instead of dealing with 500 emails daily, I now only have 10 to reply to. It’s been a game-changer. And no, it’s not a paid ad. I wish.

Whether it’s Fyxer, Gmail’s native AI solution, or any other tool, AI is radically changing how people interact with their inboxes. These tools make it easier to filter out unnecessary noise, focusing on the emails that truly matter, like those you need to respond to. People will engage with fewer emails as inboxes become more organized and efficient.

As email marketing experts, we must be very cautious about approaching this new reality. When researching email and AI, you get a lot of content on how platforms like Klaviyo are capitalizing on AI to make better segmentation and implementation. But merchants are missing the point from the user's perspective. How will email be consumed once AI-powered inboxes are the norm?