Sort this morning's inbox into Act, Reply, Read later and Ignore
- Who it's for
- Owners who start the day with 50+ unread emails
- Outcome
- A short list of what needs you today, so you open the right five emails first.
- Why Handoff 1
- The agent only reads and lists. Nothing is moved, archived, sent or deleted.
Steps
- Give the agent read-only access to your inbox (or paste in subject lines and senders).
- Tell it your four buckets and what counts as urgent for your business.
- Ask for a table: sender, subject, bucket, one-line reason.
- Read the 'Act' and 'Reply' rows and open those emails yourself.
- Scan the 'Ignore' rows for anything from a customer, bank or HMRC-style authority before you trust the sort.
Copy-paste prompt
Works with any agent. Replace the [square brackets] with your details.
Read the emails that arrived in my inbox since [time]. Do not move, archive, label, reply to or delete anything.
Sort each email into one of four buckets:
- ACT: needs me to do something today
- REPLY: needs a reply but not urgent
- READ LATER: useful, no action
- IGNORE: promotions, notifications, newsletters
Urgent for my business means: [e.g. customer complaints, payment problems, anything from my accountant].
Return a table with columns: sender, subject, bucket, one-line reason. Put ACT first. If you are unsure about an email, put it in ACT and say why.Notes for each agent
Only features we found in each provider's official documentation on 14 Oct 2026 are stated as product facts, with the source linked. Product features change; check before relying on them.
Claude Suggested
Connect your email through a connector and keep Cowork in Manual mode, so any connector tool set to 'Needs approval' asks before it runs.
From official docs Official source
ChatGPT Suggested
Set the email app's permission to 'Allow read actions': ChatGPT can read without asking but asks before making changes.
From official docs Official source
Gemini Suggested
Gemini can use Gmail only when the Google Workspace connected app is on; Deep Research can include Gmail as a source when you select it.
From official docs Official source
Microsoft Copilot Suggested
Copilot in Outlook's 'Prioritize my inbox' assigns high, normal or low priority with a reason. It works on your primary mailbox only, not shared mailboxes.
From official docs Official source
Open agents & automations
In n8n, give the AI Agent read-only mail access for this job. If you add any tool that changes mail, put a human review step in front of it.
From official docs Official source
Common failure, and how to catch it
- What goes wrong
- It files a real customer email under 'Ignore' because it looks like a notification.
- How to catch it
- Ask it to put anything uncertain in ACT, and spend 30 seconds scanning the Ignore senders.
Time and cost
- Time to set up
- 15 minutes
- Cost
- Uses the AI plan you already pay for. Agent features (browsing, connectors, scheduling) may need a paid tier; check your plan before relying on them.
Sources
- https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13345190-get-started-with-claude-cowork
- https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001495-managing-app-permissions-in-chatgpt
- https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/15719111
- https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/outlook/frequently-asked-questions-about-copilot-in-outlook
- https://docs.n8n.io/build/integrate-ai/ai-examples/human-in-the-loop-for-tools
Reviewed 14 Oct 2026 against the sources above. This playbook has not been tested on every agent listed; it is written to be agent-agnostic.