What are AI summaries in email?

When I talk about AI summaries here, I am referencing the various methods in the inbox where the mailbox provider offers a pre-emptive AI summary of the email’s content.

It’s essentially attempting to save users’ time by helping them know, sometimes without even opening the email, if its content will likely be of value to them.

Something like this:

The text in the purple box is Yahoo’s AI Summary of the email shown below it.

If you are unaware of these, they are fairly new and currently in Beta for a lot of mailbox providers, from Gmail and Yahoo to even Apple’s Mail App, and will likely become a normal part of the mailbox moving forward.

In truth, I believe AI summaries and what comes out of it will affect email marketing in the years to come so strongly that we’ll barely remember the chaos from Apple MPP’s “proxy open” from just a couple years ago.

While it is helpful to the recipient, it actually waters down, if not outright blocks, your marketing strategy effectiveness.

And there’s nothing you can do to stop it…or is there?

What AI Summaries are replacing

Different mailbox providers are testing different variations for how this tool elevates the summaries.

There’s no clear distinction currently on what emails it chooses to do this for and whether reputation/previous engagements will ever be considered for implementing it or not.

Currently, though, the three main ways we’ve seen it implemented are:

1. Replacing Preview Text

Apple’s Mail App was seen early on replacing Preview Text with AI summaries instead.

There was alarm amongst the email marketing community when this was first observed but this has plateaued since, presumably because the rollout has not been huge across platforms.

2. Replacing Subject Line

Here’s where things REALLY get alarming.

I have personally observed Yahoo testing replacement of both the Subject Line and Preview Text (with an AI summary) when viewing the full inbox.

Compare the above example subject line “[Test] here’s your signup link” with what’s presented in the usual Subject Line spot in this example:

And while, yes, this is a beta, notice how the AI summary completely misrepresents the actual content/purpose of the email. How fun!

3. Replacing the “above-the-fold” experience

AI summaries are being added at the top of emails in some cases before even the sender information and header logo.

In the example above, I had to zoom out in the browser to take a full screenshot because the AI summary took up the whole screen on default zoom levels.

That’s right. I had to scroll to even see the sender's logo at the top of the actual email. Crazy!

As scary and problematic as that sounds, if this becomes commonplace, it has even stronger implications than simple text replacement.

If we are to attempt to protect our emails from AI screening, we need to understand the potential threats to your marketing strategy..

How AI summaries will affect email marketing as a whole

Casual engagers will become even less casual.

The immediate effect of this is less skimmers will open your emails.

Recipients won’t have to look further than that subject line slot when the AI summaries are there to know if it’s worth an open or not.

Tone, pitch, and secondary CTAs lost in translation.

Not only are the AI summaries taking important email real estate, they are replacing your team’s content and presentation efforts with generic AI presentations.

• Your in-depth content will be summarized into single lines.

• Your writing tone and voice will be replaced by generic, safe language

• Your content-funnel will be flipped bottom up while abandoning your carefully crafted lead-in.

• Your secondary content will go unseen as the summary deems it all irrelevant to the main section of email needing summarized.

In some cases, the AI summary will have two chances to impede engagement before subscribers can even see your brand’s logo(unless you have BIMI), let alone the actual content.

Less opens will lead to less inboxing.

From a deliverability perspective, there is real danger of AI summaries in the Subject Line/Preview Text making inboxing harder for promotional senders.

Not only are email opens used by these providers to determine reputation and inbox placement, but non-opens are also used for this.

• What happens when skimmers no longer have to skim?

• What happens when discounts and links are provided in the main mailbox without having to open a click-baited subject line to discover for yourself? (not that I recommend click-baited subject lines)

• What happens when curiosity is mostly removed from the inbox altogether?

Opens drop.

Reputation drops.

Emails land in spam.

And you are left with the choice of staying in spam or sunsetting even more subscribers each year than you did before.

Not great.

Is there a solution for this, though? I think there is.

How to win engagements despite AI summaries

Below, you’ll not find coding hacks or ways to game the system.

The solution for this problem is building further upon growing email strategies:: 

1. Build brand loyalty with your emails

When your subscribers go into their mailbox, they should: 

• Expect your emails

• Look forward to your emails

• Be rewarded each time they open your emails

How do you do this? You start by:

• Sending at consistent frequencies

• Creating a rhythm of excitement, expectation, and reward in your email cycles, as well as in individual emails

• Finding ways to provide personalized value to each recipient in varying ways (financially, emotionally, personally, etc.)

2. Provide content worth seeing beyond summary

You need to give subscribers a reason to want more than AI’s limp summary of your content.

You can do this by:

• Hooking subscribers with a unique tone, voice, or perspective

• Providing in-depth details and analysis of worthy topics

• Creating/using interesting graphics, formatting, and more

• Utilizing humorous memes, jokes, or stories that bring people back each time

• Surprising with easter eggs or unexpected pieces lower down in your content

There are even more things that can be done beyond this. It’s just important to find ways to truly earn, not just one open, but a habit of opens by rewarding it each time with something interesting or of value, or both!

3. Use email as midway point rather than a destination

Just getting their eyes on the email can’t be the goal moving forward.

You want to build email strategies that both induce open interest and also lead to a focus on something further—a click, a reply, a download, a purchase.

One email does not equal one sale anymore.

Your email strategy should be a part of a journey where you are having a conversation along the way.

I understand the automatic leaning towards focusing on link clicks and purchases, but don’t forget the value of offering an open ear.

Replies are an even stronger positive deliverability signal than opens and it is becoming easier than ever to build out an automated, personalized experience. 

You just have to build your email strategy inside a platform ready for it.

Closing

I know I started this blog sounding quite pessimistic about AI summaries.

Honestly, though, I look forward to the change it will bring to the landscape.

Every movement towards creating a more personalized and engaging marketing experience is also a movement towards more successful marketing.

Whether AI summaries really become what I expect it to become or not, if you take this information above and implement what works best with your audience, you will not only earn more conversions but easier inboxing.