In my quest to reduce my workload (and that of the readers of my Why Simple Wins book), I longed for a future in which email was an automated task. In which the technology would summarize customer and employee messages, respond on my behalf, and even contact potential leads. With the introduction of new AI services from Microsoft, Salesforce, and others, the future of email has finally arrived. One promises to optimize your sales correspondence.
Another promises to guide you to inbox zero. And another aims to remove inefficiencies from sales and customer service experiences. If spending less time with your inbox is one of your business goals, explore the key players in this space below.
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot integrates with your Outlook and includes Business Chat, which works across your calendar, emails, chats, documents, meetings, and contacts. With natural language prompts like “tell my team how we’ve updated the product strategy,” Business Chat can generate a status email based on morning meetings, emails, and chat threads. Copilot combines AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to automatically detect and respond to customer inquiries; identify trends and opportunities in customer behavior; as well as suggest more efficient ways to manage customer interactions. Ideal outcomes for Copilot include lower operating costs, better customer service, and a deeper understanding of your customers or consumers. Although most Copilot features are currently limited to Viva Sales customers, you can add your company to the waiting list here.Shortwave’s Inbox Management is designed to help businesses and leaders organize, prioritize, and keep their inbox zero. The company was founded by ex-Googlers and champions the Shortwave method, inspired by a productivity system called Getting Things Done. Using AI and NLP, Shortwave can quickly and accurately identify inquiries from clients or colleagues and rank them based on relevance. In addition, Shortwave can automatically reply to simple emails and uses a feature called Smart Summaries to capture the key points of any email of any length. Using Shortwave, organizations in any industry should be able to spend less time on email and stay in the workflow for longer periods. Pricing is free for limited use; $9 a month for individuals; and upon request for use throughout the company.
- Salesforce Einstein GPT uses NLP and ML (machine learning) to quickly identify customer inquiries and automate their requests. The platform is overlaid on a CRM (customer relationship management) system, allowing you to leverage customer data and AI to automate requests and provide personalized responses. EinsteinGPT is designed to save you time while providing insight into customer behavior, identifying trends, and delivering improvements for customer interactions. For example, you can ask Einstein GPT to write an introductory email to a sales lead, requesting a meeting and including recent news about the lead. The entire process, including review and modifications, should take less than four minutes. EinsteinGPT is currently in beta for select users, and there is no word yet on pricing or a general release date.Availability aside, a key difference between the tools is the compatibility of each platform with other programs and services. Copilot is built on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform and works well with other Microsoft applications and Salesforce.
- Shortwave is built on top of Gmail and prides itself on being open and decentralized. Meanwhile, EinsteinGPT is built on the Salesforce platform and provides ChatGPT capabilities for Slack. Given how absorbing email has become—about 15.5 hours a week, according to this Adobe survey—it’s crucial that leaders and influencers explore inbox solutions that reduce work. From automated email and business correspondence management to streamlined customer service, these AI-powered options are paving the way for more valuable work (and fewer mundane tasks).
*By Forbes Spain