Tame your inbox with these 5 AI hacks

116 snips

Feb 1, 2026

Neo Applin, Head of Inventium AI and workplace productivity specialist, shares practical AI tricks for email. He explains which AI tools can access your inbox. He demos triage and summarise workflows after time away. He outlines automated digests, prioritisation tables, catching up on long threads, and drafting replies that match styles.

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ADVICE

Pick An AI That Can Reach Your Inbox

Use an AI that can actually access your email service rather than a generic chatbot.
Expect the AI to read and summarise but be ready to review and send replies yourself.

INSIGHT

AI Is A Reader, Not An Autonomous Doer

AI can act as a fast-reading EA but typically won't autonomously take actions like sending replies or moving emails.
Treat AI as an assistant that highlights and drafts but requires your final decisions.

ADVICE

Triage By Date Range And Open Links

Ask the AI to summarise only a recent, specific window of unread emails to avoid overload.
Click the linked summaries to open important messages rather than trying to scan hundreds manually.

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Coming back from a few days off work should feel refreshing. Instead, it often means opening your inbox to 200 unread emails and not knowing where to start. In this How I AI episode, we look at how AI can help you get oriented faster by scanning, sorting, and summarising what’s landed while you were away.

If email is a constant source of friction in your workday, this conversation will help you approach it more strategically. We talk through practical ways to use AI to triage your inbox quickly, catch up on long email threads, and create daily or weekly digests that surface what actually needs your attention.

We also cover how to use AI to write better replies in your own voice, reflect the communication style of the person you’re replying to, and schedule meetings directly from an email thread using Microsoft Copilot.

Neo and I discuss:

Which AI tools can access your inbox and what that depends on

Using AI to summarise unread emails after time away

Creating tables that show what matters, what needs action, and what can wait

How to generate daily or weekly inbox digests automatically

Catching up on long email threads with clients, projects, or teams

Using sent items to identify emails you still need to respond to

Writing better replies by analysing your own writing style

Reflecting someone else’s communication style to get better responses

Scheduling meetings directly from email threads using Microsoft Copilot

Connect with Neo Aplin on LinkedIn and via inventium.ai, where he leads Inventium’s AI training and upskilling work with organisations and teams.

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/

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Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

Credits:
Host: Amantha Imber
Sound Engineer: Martin Imber

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