AI Email Automation Workflows: ChatGPT-Powered Response Systems

New Email Received (Gmail/Outlook)
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Extract Email Content
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AI Classification Analysis
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Assign Category Label
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Priority Scoring
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Route to Appropriate Handler
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Update Tracking Sheet

Analyze this email and classify it:

Email Subject: {{subject}}
Sender: {{from}}
Body: {{body}}

Categories:
1. ACTION_REQUIRED - Needs direct response within 24h
2. URGENT - Escalation, complaint, or time-sensitive
3. SALES_LEAD - Inbound business opportunity
4. SUPPORT - Product/service question
5. INFORMATIONAL - FYI, no action needed
6. LOW_PRIORITY - Promotional, newsletter, or spam

Also provide:
- Priority score (1-10)
- Suggested response time
- Key entities (names, dates, amounts)
- Recommended handler (sales/support/exec)

Output as JSON.

{
  "category": "SALES_LEAD",
  "priority": 8,
  "suggested_response_time": "2 hours",
  "entities": {
    "company": "Acme Corp",
    "contact": "John Smith",
    "budget_mentioned": "$50,000",
    "timeline": "Q1 2026"
  },
  "recommended_handler": "sales",
  "summary": "VP at Acme inquiring about enterprise pricing for 500-user deployment"
}

Email Requires Response
     ↓
Retrieve Email Context
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Check Knowledge Base
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AI Draft Generation
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Store Draft in Gmail
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Notify User via Slack
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User Reviews → Send or Edit

You are an email assistant for [Company Name].
Your role is to draft professional, helpful email responses.

Company Context:
- We sell [product/service]
- Our tone is professional but friendly
- We value quick, clear communication
- Common policies: [key policies]

Response Guidelines:
- Match the formality level of the incoming email
- Be concise (under 150 words when possible)
- Include a clear next step or call-to-action
- Never make promises we can't keep
- Acknowledge the sender's specific question/concern

Draft a response to this email:

FROM: {{sender_name}} ({{sender_company}})
SUBJECT: {{subject}}
BODY: {{email_body}}

CRM Context:
- Customer since: {{customer_since}}
- Plan: {{plan_type}}
- Recent tickets: {{recent_tickets}}

Relevant KB Article: {{kb_content}}

Generate a professional response that addresses their question.

Hi [Name],

Thanks for reaching out about [topic].

[Direct answer to their question]

[Supporting detail or next step]

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Best,
[Your name]

Hi [Name],

I'd be happy to schedule some time to discuss [topic].

Here are a few options that work on my end:
- [Option 1]
- [Option 2]
- [Option 3]

Alternatively, feel free to grab a slot directly: [Calendly link]

Looking forward to connecting!

Best,
[Your name]

Hi [Name],

I appreciate you sharing that concern about [objection].

[Acknowledge the validity]
[Provide counter-point or solution]
[Offer to discuss further]

Would a quick call help address any remaining questions?

Best,
[Your name]

Schedule Trigger (8 AM, 6 PM)
     ↓
Fetch Emails (Last 12 hours)
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Filter by Importance
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AI Summarization
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Format Digest
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Send via Slack/Email

📬 INBOX SUMMARY - December 26, 2025

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🔴 URGENT (2 emails)

1. Customer Escalation - Acme Corp
   From: John Smith (VP Operations)
   Issue: Integration failing in production
   Action: Immediate response required

2. Executive Request - CEO
   Re: Board presentation slides
   Due: Today 2 PM
   Action: Review and send

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🟡 ACTION REQUIRED (5 emails)

1. Sales Lead - TechStartup Inc
   Budget: $25K | Timeline: Q1
   Summary: Interested in enterprise plan

2. Meeting Request - Partner Co
   Proposed: Tomorrow 3 PM
   Topic: Integration partnership

[... 3 more items ...]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

📊 STATS
• Total emails: 47
• Promotional (auto-archived): 23
• Newsletters: 8
• Actionable: 12
• Informational: 4

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

💡 SUGGESTED PRIORITIES
1. Handle Acme escalation (revenue at risk)
2. Complete CEO slides (deadline today)
3. Respond to TechStartup lead (hot prospect)

Summarize these emails into a concise briefing:

{{email_list}}

For each important email, provide:
- One-line summary
- Sender and their role/company
- Required action (if any)
- Deadline (if mentioned)
- Priority level (urgent/high/medium/low)

Group by priority level.
Include inbox statistics.
Suggest top 3 priorities based on business impact.

Email Sent (tracked)
     ↓
Wait 3 Days
     ↓
Check for Reply
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No Reply → AI Generate Follow-up
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Queue for Sending
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Wait 5 More Days
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No Reply → Final Follow-up
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No Reply → Add to "Cold" List

Prompt: Generate a friendly follow-up for this unanswered email.
Keep it brief. Reference the original topic. Add slight urgency.
Original: {{original_email}}

Output:
"Hi [Name],

Just wanted to bump this to the top of your inbox. I know things
get busy!

[Quick restatement of value prop or question]

Worth a quick chat this week?

[Signature]"

Prompt: Generate a second follow-up. Shorter, add new angle.

Output:
"Hi [Name],

Circling back one more time. Thought you might find this relevant:

[New piece of value - case study, article, insight]

Let me know if timing is better next month.

[Signature]"

Prompt: Generate a final "breakup" email.
Give easy out. Leave door open.

Output:
"Hi [Name],

I've reached out a few times and haven't heard back, which
usually means one of three things:

1. You're swamped (totally get it)
2. This isn't a priority right now
3. You're not the right person

Totally fine either way! I'll close out this thread, but feel
free to reach out whenever timing is better.

[Signature]"

Reply Received (Lemlist/Gmail)
     ↓
AI Sentiment & Intent Analysis
     ↓
Categorize Response
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Update CRM Stage
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Trigger Next Action
     ↓
Alert Sales Rep (Slack)

Action:
- CRM → "Meeting Scheduled" stage
- Send Calendly link automatically
- Alert rep: "🎯 Hot lead ready to book!"
- Stop outreach sequence

Action:
- CRM → Add objection tag
- Trigger objection handling email
- Alert rep with objection context
- Continue modified sequence

Action:
- Auto-send relevant collateral
- CRM → "Evaluating" stage
- Schedule follow-up in 3 days
- Alert rep: "📎 Sent requested info"

Action:
- Pause sequence
- Schedule resume for return date + 1 day
- No rep alert (automated handling)

Action:
- Immediate removal from all sequences
- CRM → "Unsubscribed" status
- Add to suppression list
- Log for compliance

Action:
- Extract new contact info
- Create new lead in CRM
- Start fresh sequence for referral
- Alert rep: "🔀 Referral received!"

Classify this email response:

Original outreach topic: {{original_topic}}
Response: {{response_body}}

Categories:
1. POSITIVE_INTEREST - Ready for meeting/demo
2. OBJECTION - Has concerns (specify type)
3. INFO_REQUEST - Wants specific information
4. OUT_OF_OFFICE - Away message
5. UNSUBSCRIBE - Wants off the list
6. REFERRAL - Pointing to someone else
7. NOT_INTERESTED - Polite decline
8. UNCLEAR - Needs human review

Output JSON with:
- category
- confidence (0-1)
- key_details (extracted info)
- recommended_action
- urgency (1-10)

Customer Email Received
     ↓
AI Sentiment Analysis
     ↓
Score Sentiment (-1 to +1)
     ↓
Update Customer Health Score
     ↓
Check for Red Flags
     ↓
Alert if Negative Trend
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Log to Dashboard

Customer Health Score Components:

Email Sentiment (30%)
- Average sentiment last 30 days
- Trend direction (improving/declining)

Engagement Level (25%)
- Response rate to our emails
- Time to respond
- Email frequency

Support Tickets (25%)
- Open ticket count
- Ticket severity
- Resolution satisfaction

Product Usage (20%)
- Login frequency
- Feature adoption
- Usage trends

HEALTH SCORE = Weighted Average → 1-100

❌ "Write a response to this email"
✅ "Write a 2-3 sentence response acknowledging their
   pricing question, providing our standard pricing link,
   and offering to schedule a demo call"

✅ "The sender is an existing customer on our Pro plan.
   They've been a customer for 2 years with no support
   tickets in the last 6 months."

✅ "Match the formality of their email. They used casual
   language, so respond conversationally while maintaining
   professionalism."

Time Savings:
- 2 hours/day × $50/hour × 250 days = $25,000/year

AI Costs:
- API usage: ~$100/month = $1,200/year
- Automation platform: ~$50/month = $600/year
- Total: $1,800/year

Net Savings: $23,200/year
ROI: 1,289%