AI email assistant tutorial: search your inbox and draft replies

Open Email in the dashboard sidebar. Check the mailbox selector at the top before reading, asking or replying. The demonstration uses support@northstar.example and the assistant TEST - Northstar Email Workspace. All names, addresses and messages are fictional.

Use Inbox, Sent and Drafts to switch between received messages, sent mail and unfinished replies. Ask your emails opens the mailbox question panel. New email starts a fresh message; we will use Reply later to keep our answer attached to the customer conversation.

Check the synchronization and index indicators before asking a factual question. Here, Search index up to date · 4 / 4 means all four messages in this controlled example are indexed. It does not establish that an unrelated mailbox, another folder or a longer history period is covered.

For your own connection, open the assistant and choose Channels, then Email. Enter the mailbox address you intend to use and a sender name recipients will recognize. These settings belong to the assistant whose mailbox and knowledge the workspace uses.

Use the sign-in method supported by your provider, or its documented IMAP details and an app password where required. The screenshot includes a Microsoft 365 sign-in option, but we did not complete that flow. The Active label belongs to our separately preconnected local test mailbox, not a demonstrated provider login.

The visible host 127.0.0.1, test ports and disabled SSL/TLS switches are for the isolated local GreenMail server only. Do not copy them into a production mailbox. Use the hostnames, ports, encryption and authentication specified by your actual provider.

Continue down the same settings page to Outgoing mail (SMTP). IMAP reads messages and stores mailbox drafts; SMTP sends messages. Configure working SMTP if you intend to use Send email in the workspace, even when Reply behavior remains Create drafts.

The screenshot labels SMTP optional and describes direct sending because the incoming-mail assistant can file drafts without sending them. That does not remove the SMTP requirement for a manual workspace send. Use IMAP credentials only if your provider actually uses the same authentication for both services.

Run Test connection with your real provider settings and resolve errors before relying on the channel. Check Inbox folder, Drafts folder and Sent folder against the mailbox folders. Leave Create drafts selected. This supplemental original frame shows the controls together; it is not a screenshot of a successful external connection test.

Choose the incoming folders relevant to this assistant. If several addresses share the mailbox, use Only these recipient addresses to limit which matching messages the workspace loads. Leave the field empty only when including all recipients is intended. Connect and index only mail you are authorized to process.

Enable AI search and questions about this mailbox, then choose Period for search and older emails. The screenshot shows 12 months. Select the shortest period that still contains the agreements you need, and wait for indexing to complete in the workspace. A configured period is not evidence that every older message has already been imported.

Read attachments and mailbox search are different features. The search index contains email text and attachment filenames, not the files’ contents, even when Read attachments is enabled for answering mail. Indexed text and filenames use knowledge allowance; questions and revisions use message allowance. Opening an email alone does not trigger an AI check.

Include previous correspondence gives incoming replies earlier context. It does not mean old emails are answered retroactively. If an agreement is missing from a search result, check folder selection, recipient scope, the time window and index readiness before changing your prompt.

Open Re: Northstar website project in Inbox. Email history shows the loaded messages newest first. Read Alex’s latest message, then inspect the older messages rather than answering from the subject line or preview alone.

The latest message says the copy for all five pages is ready, confirms the EUR 12,000 budget and expects product photos on October 2, 2026. It asks for two suitable discovery-call options. The original inquiry also asks for an English contact form and requests a November 16 launch.

Northstar’s earlier reply explicitly says no delivery date has been confirmed. We have not connected a calendar or provided availability, so there is no evidence for a booked meeting or free time slots. Our reply will ask Alex for availability and keep the launch date subject to review.

Choose Ask your emails. Use the exact test question: “What budget did Alex confirm for the Northstar website project?” The contact and project names narrow the task. A question such as “What is the budget?” leaves the assistant to work out which customer and project you mean.

The observed answer identifies EUR 12,000 in Alex’s September 25 inquiry and the September 28 confirmation. Each claim has an Open original email card. The recorded result reported complete coverage of this permitted test index with no search warnings.

Read any coverage warning in your own result. Complete coverage is limited to the permitted indexed scope, not every email that exists. If the result is ambiguous, add a date range or sender. Check the usage label before submitting: this test displayed at least four message units per mailbox question, not a universal price for every action or model.

Click Open original email on the September 25 source card. Check sender, recipient and date, then compare the highlighted quote with the complete message. The source says “Our budget is EUR 12,000.” It also says the requested launch date is not an agreed delivery deadline.

Use this check whenever a reply depends on money, scope, deadlines or a customer commitment. A source card tells you where a statement came from, but does not guarantee that the generated interpretation is right. Check newer messages too, because a later email may change an earlier agreement.

Close the dialog to return to the question conversation. Opening the source is not another AI request. The original email and the generated answer remain different records: the first is evidence; the second is an interpretation you can question.

Continue in the same question conversation with the exact input: “Was November 16 an agreed delivery deadline, or only a requested launch date?” Keeping the follow-up in context makes the distinction explicit instead of asking the assistant to guess what “the deadline” means.

The observed answer returns two pieces of evidence: Alex calls November 16, 2026 a requested date, and Northstar says it has not confirmed a delivery date. The correct conclusion is that the customer asked for that launch, not that the team committed to it.

The expected October 2 photos are useful planning context, not proof that delivery is feasible. Before promising a date, a person must check capacity, materials and any later agreement. A more polished draft cannot replace that decision.

Return to Alex’s conversation in Inbox and choose Reply on the latest incoming message. The editor prepares Alex Morgan <alex@northstar.example> and Re: Northstar website project. Check both fields before generating text, especially when the original message was forwarded or uses a different reply-to address.

Use More recipients if the real reply needs additional recipients, and inspect any existing copies carefully. Do not assume that a correct body makes the recipient list correct. For a completely new topic, use New email instead of attaching it to an unrelated thread.

The draft body is still empty in this frame. Scroll to AI assistant to describe the reply you want. You can use the conversation below the editor as a reference. Opening Reply has not sent anything, and a saved empty draft is not a completed answer.

In AI assistant, submit the tested brief: “Write a warm reply to Alex. Thank him for confirming the EUR 12,000 budget and the five pages of copy. Ask him to send the copy and to share his availability for a discovery call. Acknowledge that photos are expected October 2. Explain that the requested November 16 launch date still needs review. Do not invent time slots or promise a delivery date.”

The resulting draft thanks Alex, retains EUR 12,000 and the five pages, requests the copy, mentions the expected photos and asks for discovery-call availability. It says the November 16 request needs review once the materials and discussion are available. It does not supply made-up slots or claim that a meeting was booked.

Read the visible draft itself, not only the assistant’s message saying it has finished. The highlighted paragraphs show AI changes. Confirm each number and date against the conversation, inspect the signature and correct anything that is missing. Generate is a writing step, not a send approval.

Use the same AI assistant conversation for the exact revision: “Make it shorter and friendlier. Keep the budget and the request for call availability. Do not add a delivery promise.” A focused instruction tells the assistant what may change and which facts must remain.

The observed revision keeps EUR 12,000, the five pages and October 2 photos. It asks for availability for a quick chat and still says the November 16 date needs discussion after the materials and discovery call. Compare this wording with the first draft; shorter text still needs a factual review.

If a critical sentence should not change, protect that paragraph before another revision. More options provides Previous drafts for inspecting earlier versions. Each new AI revision uses allowance. Make small manual edits yourself when another generated version would add no value, and wait for Saved afterwards.

Wait until the editor shows Saved. Open another workspace view, then return to Drafts and select Re: Northstar website project. Confirm that you have reopened the existing reply rather than creating a second draft.

In the local test, the revised text, recipient and subject remained unchanged. The saved AI conversation also retained the original generation request and the revision request. You can therefore continue with the reasoning behind the draft, not just its latest text.

Drafts brings workspace drafts and mailbox drafts together. Check for a warning that the provider copy changed or could not synchronize before continuing. If someone edited the draft in another mail client, resolve the version difference first. Saved describes persistence, not successful delivery.

Before choosing Send email, review To, any copied recipients, the subject, signature and attachments. Check the EUR 12,000 budget, website scope, missing photos and the wording about November 16. The message asks for availability; it does not claim to have booked a call or guaranteed a launch.

Choose Send email only after that review. The screenshot shows Email sent and “Sent successfully; saving the Sent copy is pending.” Sending through SMTP and saving a copy to Sent through IMAP are separate operations. Try again in this notice retries saving the copy, not sending another email.

We checked the local server separately: exactly one message reached the fictional recipient inside GreenMail, and exactly one matching Sent copy was present over IMAP. The screenshot itself still shows the pending notice. There was no external delivery, and this test does not prove deliverability for your provider. If sending itself is uncertain, check the mailbox and provider status before sending again.

Open the conversation after sending. Under More options, set Follow-up status to Waiting for a reply. The Set by you label distinguishes this manual decision from an AI assessment. Open Saved views and choose Waiting for a reply to find the conversation again.

Use Set reminder to choose when to revisit it. The captured example shows October 2, 2026 at 9:00 AM in the local display; the stored reminder was verified separately. Check the displayed date and timezone when setting your own reminder. Due reminders is the view for reminders whose time has arrived.

This status and reminder do not schedule an automatic email. Draft a follow-up is available when a further message is appropriate, but no follow-up message was generated or sent in this test. Review a future follow-up as a new draft, and do not invent urgency or an agreement the customer never made.

Return to Channels → Email to distinguish the daily workspace from incoming-mail automation. Create drafts lets the incoming-mail assistant prepare replies for a person to review. Send directly is a separate choice that permits automatic sending under the configured rules.

The screenshot deliberately shows the confirmation dialog for direct sending, not an enabled and saved automatic-send configuration. Choose Cancel to keep this tutorial in draft mode. The saved settings were checked after the demonstration and still contained mode draft.

You do not need Send directly to manually send a reviewed workspace reply. If you later choose automation, first test knowledge requirements, allowed and blocked topics, attachment behavior, hourly limits and escalation handling. The linked setup guide covers those settings; this guide has verified the human-reviewed daily workflow.