{"id":274243,"date":"2026-01-08T15:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T15:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/274243\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T15:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T15:00:09","slug":"google-is-adding-an-ai-inbox-to-gmail-that-summarizes-emails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/274243\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Is Adding an \u2018AI Inbox\u2019 to Gmail That Summarizes Emails"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google is putting even more generative AI<\/a> tools into Gmail<\/a> as part of its goal to further personalize user inboxes and streamline searches. On Thursday, the company announced a new \u201cAI Inbox\u201d tab, currently in a beta testing phase, that reads every message in a user\u2019s Gmail and suggests a list of to-dos and key topics, based on what it summarizes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Google\u2019s example of what this AI Inbox could look like in Gmail, the new tab takes context from a user\u2019s messages and suggests they reschedule their dentist appointment, reply to a request from their child\u2019s sports coach, and pay an upcoming fee before the deadline. Also under the AI Inbox tab is a list of important topics worth browsing, nestled beneath the action items at the top. Each suggested to-do and topic links back to the original email<\/a> for more context and for verification.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Google<\/p>\n

Despite the continued spread of generative AI features, the underlying reliability<\/a> of these tools remains iffy. Back in 2023, when Google\u2019s chatbot was still called \u201cBard,\u201d I tested the company\u2019s nascent Gmail extension<\/a> that tried to summarize my messages and search through the inbox for insights. At the time, this extension was a complete bust, with a bevy of incorrect responses.<\/p>\n

Since then, Google has worked to better its base AI model, called Gemini<\/a>, and integrate those improvements into its suite of existing software services, including Gmail as well as Search<\/a>. Despite the company’s advances in AI<\/a>, current Gmail users are still shown a disclaimer stating that Gemini \u201ccan make mistakes\u201d when attempting to search an inbox and answer questions.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Google<\/p>\n

For users who are concerned about their privacy<\/a>, the information Google gleans by skimming through inboxes will not be used to improve the company’s foundational AI models. \u201cWe didn\u2019t just bolt AI onto Gmail,\u201d says Blake Barnes, who leads the project for Google. \u201cWe built a secure privacy architecture, specifically for this moment.\u201d He emphasizes that users can turn off Gmail\u2019s new AI tools if they don\u2019t want them.<\/p>\n

At the same time Google announced its AI Inbox, the company made free for all Gmail users multiple Gemini features that were previously available only to paying subscribers. This includes the Help Me Write tool<\/a>, which generates emails from a user prompt, as well as AI Overviews for email threads, which essentially posts a TL;DR summary at the top of long message threads.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Google<\/p>\n

Subscribers to Google’s Ultra and Pro plans<\/a>, which start at $20 a month, get two additional new features in their Gmail inbox. First, an AI proofreading tool that suggests more polished grammar and sentence structures. And second, an AI Overviews tool that can search your whole inbox and create relevant summaries on a topic, rather than just summarizing a single email thread.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Google<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Google is putting even more generative AI tools into Gmail as part of its goal to further personalize…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[289,18,23397,21898,823,11671,19,17,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-274243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-artificial-intelligence","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-email","11":"tag-gmail","12":"tag-google","13":"tag-google-gemini","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-technology"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115860080125918121","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}