How to Use AI to Write an Email

Introduction

Email is an essential communication tool for both personal and professional needs. However, for many of us, sitting down to write emails can feel like a chore. We may struggle to compose messages that clearly convey our intent or spend more time than we’d like fine-tuning our words. This is where AI writing assistants can help.

AI tools like ChatGPT are capable of generating well-written email drafts in seconds based on simple prompts. Rather than racking your brain to craft the perfect email yourself, you can offload the initial drafting to an AI assistant. This allows you to skip straight to the editing phase, reviewing the AI’s work and making tweaks as needed. The result is saving significant time and mental energy around email composition.

With AI, you can take the hassle out of email writing. The technology can handle the busy work of putting together coherent drafts customized to your situation. That frees you up to focus on perfecting the final message. AI email assistants boost productivity by reducing the friction of email composition.

Choose an AI Tool

ChatGPT has emerged as one of the leading AI tools for quickly drafting emails. Its natural language capabilities allow you to provide a prompt describing the context and purpose of the email, and ChatGPT will generate a draft within seconds.

Other top AI writing assistants to consider for email include:

• Grammarly – In addition to checking grammar and spelling, Grammarly’s AI can suggest rewrites and content improvements.
• Jasper – Jasper is designed specifically for writing emails fast. Tell it who you’re emailing and what you need to communicate.

-Shortly – Shortly’s AI summarizes long text into concise, readable emails. It’s great for turning reports or articles into email updates.

• INK – INK helps you write professional, effective emails by analyzing your draft and suggesting improvements.

The key is choosing an AI tool that allows you to provide enough context to generate a quality first draft. ChatGPT is a leading choice thanks to its advanced natural language capabilities to understand prompts.

Provide Context to the AI

When using an AI tool to draft an email, it’s important to provide enough context and details for the AI to generate a coherent draft. Some key things to include in your prompt:

• Who is the email recipient? Provide name, relationship/role, etc. This helps the AI understand the appropriate tone to use.
• What is the purpose and goal of the email? Is it a status update, request, introduction, etc? This gives the AI direction on the intent.
• What tone are you aiming for? Formal, casual, friendly, urgent? Share the desired tone so the AI matches it.
• Are there any specifics you need to include? Due dates, names, numbers, or other key details will help the AI tailor the email.
• Do you need a subject line and/or email body? Specify which components you want the AI to draft.

Providing this level of context allows the AI to generate a draft tailored to your situation. The more details you give, the better the output will be. Don’t expect the AI to infer things you don’t state explicitly. Treat it like collaborating with a helpful co-worker.

Review and Edit the AI’s Draft

While AI tools can help generate a draft email quickly, it’s important to review the content carefully before sending. Here are some tips for editing an AI-generated email draft:

• Review the tone and voice. Make sure the tone and voice matches what you would use when emailing the recipient. AI tools don’t necessarily capture your unique communication style.
• Check for accuracy. Scan the email draft and correct any factual errors. The AI may misinterpret details you provided or make incorrect assumptions.
• Look for grammar mistakes. AI tools are capable of making grammatical errors which you should catch in review. Check for issues like subject-verb agreement, punctuation, spelling, etc.
• Ensure clarity. Rewrite confusing sentences or passages in your own words for maximum clarity. The AI’s phrasing may be awkward at times.
• Add your personal touch. Consider adding personal anecdotes, humor, or other flourishes that give the email your personal stamp. AI-generated text can seem overly generic.

So while AI email drafting tools can save time, always budget a few minutes to review, polish, and put your own spin on the draft before sending. A human touch is still essential for effective communication.

Conclusion

Using AI to draft emails can provide numerous benefits that save time and boost productivity. By leveraging tools like ChatGPT, you can generate an initial email draft in seconds rather than the minutes or hours it would take to write manually. The AI creates coherent, grammatically correct content customized to your situation based on the context you provide.

While the AI’s draft will likely require some editing and revisions from you, it eliminates the hardest part – starting from a blank page. The AI provides a strong starting point that you can then refine by adding your own voice, tone and details. This hybrid approach allows you to get thoughtfully written emails drafted faster.

The time savings from AI email drafting accumulate over the many emails most people write daily. This enables you to get through your email workload more efficiently while dedicating freed up time to higher value tasks. AI can take the hassle and frustration out of email writing.