AI Email Automation for Shared Inboxes
AI email automation reads each message in a shared inbox, sorts it, routes it to the right person and drafts a reply for staff to approve. Remolda puts one inbox into production in six weeks for $9,800 CAD + HST.
In short
- Price: $9,800 CAD + HST for the six-week AI Pilot Sprint: one shared inbox automated end to end.
- What it does: classifies incoming email, pulls key fields, routes to the right queue or person, and drafts replies from your approved answers.
- Works with Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Exchange Online) and Google Workspace (Gmail) through their official APIs. Your mailbox stays where it is.
- Staff approve every reply to a client until the error rate on each category justifies more autonomy.
- English and French mail handled in the same flow, with replies in the sender's language.
Your situation
Email automation pays off where one mailbox receives hundreds of messages a week and someone sorts them by hand. Typical cases:
- A general inbox feeds several teams. info@, intake@ or support@ gets everything, and one person forwards all day.
- Urgent items hide in the queue. A deadline, a complaint or a regulator's letter sits behind routine requests.
- The same answers get typed again. Status updates, document requests and eligibility questions repeat every day.
- Mail arrives in English and French. Replies take longer when the right colleague is busy.
What the automation does
| Step | What the AI does | Human check |
|---|---|---|
| Classify | Assigns a category and priority from your own list | Low-confidence items go to review |
| Extract | Pulls names, file numbers, dates, amounts | Staff confirm before a record changes |
| Route | Sends to the team, person or case file | Rules you set decide the owner |
| Draft | Writes a reply from approved answers and templates | Staff approve client-facing replies |
| Log | Records every decision and edit | Weekly review of errors |
When the email carries attachments that need reading, such as invoices, forms or contracts, the flow hands them to intelligent document processing. When the inbox is one step in a longer process, see AI workflow automation.
What the AI Pilot Sprint includes
A category map built from your mail. We review a sample of past messages with your team and agree on categories, priorities and owners.
One inbox in production. Connected through Microsoft Graph or the Gmail API, with routing to your queues, CRM or case system.
Draft replies from approved content. Templates and answers your team already uses, in English and French.
Guardrails agreed up front. Confidence thresholds, approval points, logging and access limited to the inboxes in scope.
Training and a runbook. The people who own the inbox learn to review, correct and adjust the flow.
How long it takes
Six weeks from kickoff. In our experience the usual split is one week for mailbox access and a sample of past emails, three weeks of build and testing on real messages, and two weeks of live use with adjustments. Admin approvals for API access and holiday schedules can move this by a week or two.
What it costs
The AI Pilot Sprint is $9,800 CAD + HST, fixed, for one inbox. Model and platform usage is billed to you by the vendor, so the running cost is visible from day one.
Several inboxes or processes competing for first place? The two-week AI Opportunity Audit ($2,900) ranks them, and its fee is credited toward the Sprint. All packages are on the pricing page.
Why Remolda for email automation
- Fixed price and scope. One inbox, six weeks, written scope before the invoice.
- Your mailbox stays yours. The flow runs in your Microsoft 365 or Google tenant, under your admin controls.
- People approve what clients see. Autonomy grows only where the logs support it.
- Privacy in the design. Personal information in scope is documented under PIPEDA and, for Quebec, Law 25.
- English and French. Categories, drafts and training in both languages; the bilingual chatbot page shows the same approach for the web.
How the work runs
The Sprint is the Implement step of the Remolda Cycle (Audit → Strategy → Implement → Empower → Evolve).
- Scope call. 30 minutes to pick the inbox and confirm it fits six weeks.
- Sample and categories. Past emails reviewed, categories and owners agreed.
- Build. The flow runs on real messages in review mode.
- Go live. Staff approve drafts daily; errors are logged.
- Review. Time per message and misroutes against the baseline, then a go / adjust / stop decision.
Frequently asked questions
What is AI email automation?
It is a workflow that reads each incoming email, decides what it is about and how urgent it is, sends it to the right queue or person, and prepares a draft reply. A language model does the reading and drafting; rules and approval steps decide what happens next.
How much does AI email automation cost?
Remolda's six-week AI Pilot Sprint is $9,800 CAD + HST for one shared inbox in production, including guardrails, training and a runbook. Model and platform usage (Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, Anthropic) is billed to you directly by the vendor.
Does the AI send emails on its own?
Only if you decide so, category by category. At launch every client-facing reply waits for a person to approve it. Autonomy is widened later for low-risk categories, such as acknowledgements, once the logs show a stable error rate.
Which email systems do you work with?
Microsoft 365 (Outlook and Exchange Online, through Microsoft Graph) and Google Workspace (Gmail API). Case management, CRM or ticketing tools can receive the routed items where they offer an API.
What happens to emails the system is unsure about?
They go to a review queue with the system's best guess and its confidence visible. A person makes the call, and the corrections are used to adjust categories and instructions.
Is client email safe to process with AI?
We use business tiers of model providers, which do not train on your data by default, and document the personal information in scope under PIPEDA and, for Quebec, Law 25 before the build. Access is limited to the inboxes in scope.
How long does it take?
Six weeks from kickoff to an inbox the team uses daily. In our experience, mailbox permissions and a sample of past emails drive the schedule more than the build itself.
Sources
- Microsoft Learn — Outlook mail API overview (Microsoft Graph)
- Google for Developers — Gmail API guides
- OpenAI — Business data privacy, security and compliance
- Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada — PIPEDA in brief
Facts checked:
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