AI-generated email summaries: What marketers need to know

June 27, 2024

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Marketing has changed more in the last three years than in the last 50 years, and one of the driving forces behind these seismic shifts is artificial intelligence (AI)In fact, 45% of marketing teams now use AI in their email campaigns – and 31% plan to invest more in AI and machine learning this year.

Recent headlines show that AI-generated summaries are becoming increasingly popular from major players like Apple, Gmail and Yahoo. Top Email Clients to improve the inbox experience of their users. These updates will take shape in a number of ways – such as AI-powered text preview in Apple Mail And One-click AI summary in Gmail.

Let’s take a closer look at what each of these updates means for email marketers.

At Google I/O In May 2024, Google introduced several new improvements to Gemini 1.5 Pro (formerly Bard) for Google Workspace, including the ability to summarize an email or email thread.

Users who have Gemini enabled in Google Workspace can now summarize email content with the click of a button or by using the Gemini sidebar in Gmail. This works with a single email or across an email thread.

Source: Google

This helps users save time by sorting messages to capture the most important points and eliminate the occasional difficulties of Search for emails in your inbox.

This will probably not have as big an impact on email marketers as the new deliverability rules from Yahoo and GmailThere are a few points to consider here:

Accuracy of AI-generated summaries. Due to the nature of AI, the summaries generated may not be entirely accurate. Factors such as content complexity, linguistic nuances, or contextual understanding can affect the accuracy of summaries generated by AI. Therefore, as a sender, you should ensure that your emails…
Maintain a strong, clear email hierarchy. Hierarchy in email design reinforces visual meaning and helps subscribers consume content quickly. While the details of how Gemini generates AI summaries from emails are unclear, the semantic structuring of headings not only aligns with Best practices for email design but also improves the overall effectiveness of your email.
Adoption for twins. Although we don’t have information on how many Google Workspace users have enabled this feature, a comparison of downloads between ChatGPT’s mobile app and Gemini shows that there are significant differences in popularity (3.25 million downloads vs. 633,000 downloads in February 2024). In addition, the site is behind a paywall, which makes the barrier to entry higher for potential users.

When we talk about acceptance, privacy and data are likely to a persistent problem for users considering Gemini. Especially with the Third-party cookies With retirement in sight, we wonder if this will impact how users perceive and adopt AI-driven features like Gemini’s email summary…

At Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in early June 2024 Apple introduces Apple Intelligencethe name of a new suite of AI features. These include updates to the native Mail application such as Priority Messages (a new section that shows the most urgent emails), on-device categorization of emails (e.g. primary vs. promotional messages), smart email replies, and AI-powered email summaries.

These improvements will be released later in fall 2024 as part of iOS 18.

Instead of previewing the first few lines of every email in a user's inbox, they can see summaries right in the inbox without having to open a message. For longer threads, users can see a summary of the most important details with a single tap.

Source: Apple

The immediate question for most email marketers is whether the valuable content of the email “envelope” – consisting of the sender name, subject line, and preview text – will continue to retain its importance. We won't know for sure until iOS 18 is released, but here's what we'll be watching for:

Will this affect all emails? Apple's examples of AI summaries so far seem to only include emails from the primary inbox, not necessarily promotional emails, so it's unclear whether this feature will affect all emails a subscriber receives.
How accurate will the AI-powered email summaries be? As we highlighted previously with Gmail Gemini, there is a chance that an AI-generated summary of an email may be inaccurate.
Can users log in and out? If users can turn AI email summaries on or off, it becomes difficult to determine the impact. A segmented approach that identifies subscribers who open emails on Apple clients and devices and compares engagement before and after iOS 18 may be able to provide insights.
What will the acceptance look like? The system requirements of Apple Intelligence are quite restrictiveespecially for iPhones. While iOS 18 works on devices from 2019 onwards, Apple Intelligence features require either an iPhone 15 Pro or an iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Can the subject line and preview text still work together? The short answer is yes – but you have to be tactical about it. Tracy Pang, Litmus' email marketing manager points out that “not all subject line and preview text combinations make sense to Apple Mail recipients, so it's important to prioritize your subject line to ensure the overall message gets noticed.”

Consider the following combination:

Regarding: Landing in the inbox
Text preview: And avoid the spam folder with our latest guide

The preview text works as a standalone And in conjunction with the subject line.

“It's important to provide enough information in your email so that the AI email summary can accurately convey your message. This will ensure that your subscribers don't miss the overall goal of your email.”

Carin Slaterthe email developer at Litmus, highlights some important email marketing best practices:

“If you write good emails in which your Regarding and your email copy is aligned, it should not affect your metrics. However, if you try to use a surprise strategy or (God forbid) a Decoy tacticsthat could mess it up.

I would still recommend writing Text preview as there are email clients that will display this. And if you have a surprise strategy, try something like Scratch cards instead.”

Shortly after the announcement of Apple Intelligence, Yahoo revealed AI-powered email summariesthat have already been introduced in Yahoo Mail. This update is designed with the user experience in mind as Yahoo Mail users an average of two to six times a day.

This new extension displays AI-generated summaries of emails. Once opened, it provides a summary of the content in a bulleted list along with suggested actions, tasks, or required responses.

Source: Yahoo

User experiences will evolve, and email will evolve with them. Apple, Gmail, and Yahoo are among the most popular email clients, but when assessing what this means for your email program, your own subscriber base should be a priority—whether using your ESP or a tool like Litmus Email Analytics.

Find out which customers are most popular with your subscribers and adjust your strategy accordingly. Stay tuned for updates as we continue to monitor trends and provide insights!