Should AI write your marketing emails? Where to automate and where to step in

AI-powered email platforms can now generate newsletters and determine the optimal time for them to arrive in recipients' inboxes. This feature may seem like a valuable asset for marketers with small teams and limited budgets, with 40% of marketers identifying expanded AI use as one of their top three email priorities for 2026. However, subscribers are also utilizing AI, often to determine whether an email merits their attention.

Consequently, a significant portion of US consumers may trust retailers' emails less if they become aware that AI authored them. This article aims to explore where AI enhances an email workflow, where it requires careful supervision, and where it could lead to detrimental outcomes. Examining AI's role in email creation reveals two primary categories.

The first involves generative models that compose and revise content based on prompts, while the second employs machine learning to analyze historical data and forecast subscriber engagement levels. Generative tools dominate the current landscape, with 28% of marketers incorporating AI deeply into their email workflows, and an additional 34% utilizing it frequently.

A mere 5% of marketers currently forego AI altogether. Among the most impactful AI applications are generative models for crafting subject lines and body content from brief prompts, rewriting drafts in varying tones or for diverse audience segments, predicting optimal send times for individual subscribers according to their historical engagement patterns, scoring contacts based on potential churn risk or lifetime value, detecting invalid or risky email addresses before they compromise deliverability, summarizing campaign performance in easily understandable language, and automating behavior-triggered email sequences.