Ai and Email, no thanks!

In my recent deep-dive into Fastmail, I touched briefly on the rise of artificial intelligence in modern inbox management. That review got me thinking, and the more I considered it, the deeper I wanted to dig into the topic.

The core question I keep asking myself is simple: is AI really a feature we need embedded directly into our email?

Have we genuinely become so uncomfortable using our own written voice—something most of us have done successfully thousands of times—that we need an algorithm to step in? Does AI in an email client actually save you meaningful time? And aren't a few minor typos just a universally accepted part and parcel of human communication?

I understand that some businesses might feel nervous about staff sending poorly worded messages to important clients. But if an enterprise feels compelled to have a machine vet, draft, or rewrite an employee's correspondence before it leaves the outbox, you have to ask a broader operational question: are they employing the right people in the first place?

It sounds harsh, I know, but AI is creeping into every digital corner. More and more websites now force you through aggressive chatbots to answer basic questions that could be solved in five seconds on an FAQ page or support portal. I’ve always been perfectly happy with self-serve documentation.

Don't get me wrong—I am far from anti-technology. I am pro-AI when used appropriately. I use Google’s Gemini daily, and I run my own articles through it to double-check grammar and spelling before I hit publish.

Email, however, feels different. As I argued in Email Is Still a Craft — Even When We Pretend, effective written communication relies on genuine intent, nuance, and personal style. Replacing that human touch with automated text generation completely misses the point of what makes email valuable in the first place.

Are other people really using email so differently from me? Just how long and complex are the day-to-day communications being sent via your inbox? If you are sharing tons of detailed, highly structured information, wouldn't you simply attach a document rather than cramming thousands of words into the body of an email?

My business uses Google Workspace, which comes with Gemini deeply integrated into Gmail. Have I ever used it? Nope. Will I ever use it? I highly doubt it. Do I really need a daily machine-generated summary of my inbox, or a suggested automated reply to a message from my wife? That feels like a recipe for disaster.

Reading Out Loud and Over-Engineering

Then there is the push toward text-to-speech AI assistants reading your inbox aloud to you. Unless you have a visual impairment or an accessibility requirement—where assistive technology is genuine and vital—why on earth do you need an AI to read out a written message?

If that’s genuinely your preference, send a voice note. Or, dare I say it, pick up the phone and call someone. What’s the next logical step in this endless cycle? Having your live phone calls dictated into text so you can read them instead of listening? We are over-engineering simple human interactions.

Email Works Just Fine

The fundamental point is this: email works just fine. Leave it alone. It doesn't need AI's help.

Let’s direct compute power toward saving the world, curing diseases, or solving climate change—not drafting three-line status updates.

I will never get bored of hitting the send button on a message I have taken the time to write myself. It might contain the occasional typo; so what? It could perhaps have been phrased slightly more elegantly; again, so what?

Outsourcing your email drafting to an AI means losing your actual voice. Every time I’ve tested AI email assistants, the end result sounds completely sterile and nothing like me. Friends and colleagues can spot a grammatically flawless, overly structured, AI-generated message in seconds. It strips out personality and replaces it with corporate noise.

I’m well aware that plenty of people reading this can point out the supposed productivity benefits of inbox AI, explaining how it saves them five minutes a day. Quite frankly, I don't care.

Email is personal communication. Don't let AI take it over.