eMail Zero
“Will I be the last person still writing pithy three paragraph emails?”
How chatbots are transforming email
Chatbots and AI summaries have already changed the way we search for information on the internet. There is no reason to think that it won't transform our direct communication with each other.
In keeping with their chronic inability to respect boundaries, AI agents are now constantly asking us if we want them to write an email for us.
If we decline and start writing, they jump in with suggestions for boilerplate content that the recipient didn't ask for and probably won't read.
As the writer of many a pithy three paragraph email, I am quite happily ignoring these offers. My writing reflects the seven traits that humans have, that AI doesn't:
Backstory
Friends and Colleagues
Humility and Self-doubt
Accountability and Propriety
Humour
Tactile senses
A Point of View, rooted in all of the above
When chatbots like Gemini and Copilot are given access to your Gmail or Outlook, they are to some extent able to simulate these by using historical email as the basis for new ones. Those historical emails were written by me, and I have the seven traits, so stuff generated from them by AI will at least seem to be from me.
That's nice for AI, but I like writing my own email, since I'm a fast typist and I think by writing.
In any event, all of this will be moot if the trend of not reading email continues. In particular, the trend of not reading past the first sentence or two. Instant messaging has become so dominant in our communication channels that a three paragraph email is as daunting to some as a novel. (which some people still insist on reading - go figure!)
But something has happened on the receiving end.
Now chatbots summarize email for recipients, giving them the one or two sentence messages they prefer, along with a chatbot interface should they wish.
Oddly enough, it has become worthwhile sending email that the recipient is not actually going to read, because their chatbot is going to read it for them and provide a summary with footnotes.
These summaries end up effectively advertising your email. If your email truly is pithy, and it has a clear ask, then you'll get ranked higher in the response to an "Any email I need to do something about?" prompt.
Emails that are informative, clearly written, and focused should also be treated better by AI summarization, which favours all three qualities.
Is it a tragedy that the actual email goes unread by the intended recipient? The fact is, most email readers are skipping, scanning and summarizing anyway, and they probably aren't doing as good a job of that as AI will.
For me, my personal sent mail tells the story of my life, in my own voice. AI is able to use all of it to compose emails that sound like me, and that reflect my backstory, but which are ultimately pointless. Faking something authentic defeats its own purpose. For me, AI reading is not a tragedy - AI writing is in a whole different category.
Another bonus of AI email summarization - say goodbye to the "reply-all apocalypse", in which a sender has inadvertently cc'd 100 people on an email that requests a reply, and 2 of those people unwittingly reply-all, and then 20 of those re: recipients impulsively lash out with "don't reply-all!" messages and then 40 of those re:re: people try to calm things down with "it's okay, just everyone stop replying please", and then everyone just sorta holds their breath for 24 hours. Good times...
An innocuous reply-all apocalypse will be neatly summarized by AI in a line or two - no biggie.
However, say hello to "Wrong Window - email edition" - in which your chatbot sends a very specific and well written email from you to the most perfectly wrong person for that particular message, and, rather than being a fleeting text message it's a fully written out email with dear you, and sincerely from me, and OMG can you please disregard that email, even though it was very expressive and sincere and seemed to be written just for you. e.g. "Write personal email to [wrong name] about [some topic]"
The pleasure of writing and reading a person:person email is real, and AI will not replace it. However, if the recipient never sees beyond the summary, and replies with AI-prompted boilerplate.... "Thank you for your email - so many interesting thoughts!" then at some point the futility of it all will become impossible to ignore.
eMail Zero is coming - for many it's already here.
As for me, I have to learn how to write three paragraphs in a one sentence text message, with strategically utilized emojis.
:grimace
References:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/07/google-drive-personalized-chatbot/683436/
https://www.wired.com/story/chatgpt-devil-worship-llm-training/
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/summarize-an-email-thread-with-copilot-in-outlook-a79873f2-396b-46dc-b852-7fe5947ab640
https://www.preppio.com/blog/your-employees-are-not-reading-your-emails
https://www.theverge.com/24167865/google-zero-search-crash-housefresh-ai-overviews-traffic-data-audience