As a business owner for nearly two decades, I’ve long since discovered the importance of boundaries between my work and personal life. Weekends and vacations are sacred for recharging and spending uninterrupted time with my family. But the reality is that I can never fully check out. If there’s an emergency, I need to be in the loop.

The question becomes: How can I stay updated on crucial events and communications without constantly monitoring my inbox? Unless you have a round-the-clock personal assistant, AI agents can be the answer.

I’m not alone in believing that AI agents are the next wave of AI. They have the potential to go even further toward automating rote, manual tasks that tend to clog up our days: like email. Microsoft recently found that professionals spend up to 8.8 hours a week on email—that’s more than a full day at the office. AI agents can help you recapture some of that time and redirect it towards tasks that only you, a human, can do. Here’s a closer look at how agents can act as your personal email assistants.

Keep Your Inbox Clean

I’m a big believer in Cal Newport’s concept of deep work. In order to carve out swaths of time for fully focusing on one task or subject, with zero interruptions, I group my busywork—like logistical matters, scheduling, and answering emails. That means my daily time allotted to my inbox is limited. I need to be able to parse out items that require an action and deprioritize everything else. I also want to not waste a moment of my day scanning spam emails.

You can give an AI agent the task of sorting your emails and keeping your inbox clean. An agent can analyze email content, the sender history, and any signals of urgency (“ASAP,” “right away,” etc.), and sort your emails into predefined categories. For example, “Urgent,” “Reply today,” and ” “Read later.” You can also ask an AI agent to completely filter out irrelevant emails while filing away any marketing emails that you might find useful (based on your previous interactions with the individual or organization).

Finally, an AI agent can analyze invitations within emails and sync them with your calendar, eliminating the need for you to take that step yourself—which leads to my next point. AI agents can autonomously act on email content and trigger the next steps.

Updating Business Processes

AI agents shine as compared to LLMs like ChatGPT in their ability to accomplish goals requiring multiple steps—all on their own. For businesses, that can be a game changer. Mismanaged emails and delayed replies can result in missed opportunities and needlessly lost business. An AI agent acting on emails (all while you tend to other matters) can keep prospects and customers moving through the pipeline.

For example, an AI agent can independently help customers. Let’s say a potential customer emails about a certain product but that product is out of stock. Your AI agent can categorize the email, check the stock, and, after confirming the product is sold out, suggest similar products that might interest the customer. When it comes to internal processes, an AI agent can scan emails for data and update corresponding business records (e.g., sales spreadsheets) or project management platforms. Imagine a new task arrives in your inbox. An AI agent can prioritize that email and independently add items to your Notion task list based on priority—no need for additional prompts.

An agent can extract key information from your messages and make any relevant updates across your business in real-time.

Drafting and Sending Personalized Messages

For businesses, personalization is crucial. McKinsey has found that 71% of customers want personalized interactions, and 76% feel frustrated when they don’t get them. Faster-growing companies generate 40% more revenue from personalization compared to slower-growing ones. Put simply, personalization impacts growth.

An AI agent can draft personalized messages to clients and business colleagues. For example, you can assign an AI agent the task of drafting email responses based on a received message’s content and previous interactions with the sender. Instead of drafting the same email over and over—thanking a customer for their feedback and addressing a FAQ—your agent can execute that task for you. Or, you can assign an AI agent to an outreach mission. Using publicly available information (for example, LinkedIn profiles), your agent can identify people who may be interested in your objective (hiring, business opportunities, etc.) and craft a personalized message to each recipient.

You may feel anxious about handing over the keys to your inbox. It’s understandable. One rogue email can have serious consequences, from lost business to a PR crisis. Fortunately, you can implement safeguards by choosing how much autonomy to grant an AI agent. For example, you can require a human to sign off before an email is sent. I review everything that goes out with my signature—to ensure I agree with the content and tone and tweak if necessary. Or, you can instruct an agent to notify you if it’s not 100% confident in its answer. For example, if the agent scans your database and still can’t confidently answer a client question, it can draft a reply and flag it for you to review before sending.

By integrating AI agents into your workflows and implementing safeguards where necessary, you can reclaim valuable time and maintain control over critical communications—allowing you to focus on your most impactful work.