Most AI Email Tools Are Overengineered

The 'AI inbox' products promise to answer your email for you and mostly build a more complicated inbox. I wanted less email, not a bot negotiating with other bots.

The feature I actually use is tiny: a filter that files the newsletters and stars the three that need me. Everything else, the auto-draft, the smart reply, added steps I didn't want.

Overengineered AI is a business model, the more it does, the more it can charge. But the job was 'show me the two that matter,' and a simple rule did that without a model.

Before adopting an AI email tool, write what you want it to stop, not start. If the answer is 'the noise,' a filter beats a chatbot, and you keep your words instead of its.