Gmail and AI: 70 Hours of Work Cut Down to 10 Minutes

An Ambitious Project Revamped with AI

About a year ago, I embarked on a project to write an article on the best AI-powered website builders. This project required a colossal investment of 70 hours, a significant portion of which was spent managing 236 emails exchanged with various hosting providers claiming to offer AI solutions. My editor recently asked me to update this article for this year.

A month ago, I had already taken the initiative by sending a series of emails to the five finalist companies I had highlighted the previous year. Over the past 30 days, I had several interactions with most of these companies, generating new threads of discussion.

The Challenge of Email Management

The main challenge in a project of this scale lies in managing the exchanges: sending an email, waiting for a response, and then moving on to other tasks. Last week, I decided it was time to review all the correspondence to assess if I was ready to start testing. Traditionally, I had to track down the names and email addresses of the people I had communicated with, a task made easier by a list I kept in an Apple note. However, I then had to sift through each thread to evaluate the status of each company, a task I found particularly tedious.

A Bright Idea with Gmail's AI

That's when an idea struck me: to use the AI integrated into Gmail to simplify this process. Google regularly touts the merits of its AI in Gmail, and I thought there might be a more efficient solution. So, I decided to attempt an AI hack with Gmail. I formulated the following prompt: "Look at my emails from the past few months and tell me which providers have responded and provided test accounts and which have not. Give me updates on the status of each of the five providers." I made sure to include the names and email addresses of the providers in this prompt.

Impressive Results

Instead of searching for a dedicated AI interface, I simply pasted the prompt into the Gmail search bar. The result was an extremely helpful AI overview. I was able to see the status of all five providers, including login credentials and discount codes needed to update the article. Without having to sift through the threads, I was able to identify the provider that had not responded.

Follow-Up Magic with Gmail's AI

My project was well advanced for four of the five providers, but the fifth was problematic. I didn't know if my contact had left the company or was simply unreachable. I decided to reach out to everyone I knew at that provider to get a response. I entered the following prompt into the Gmail search bar: "What contacts do I have at [company] and when was the date of their last contact with me?" The result came back in less than a minute.

Next Steps

Next, I asked Gmail to find the email I had sent to the first contact and to prepare a message for all the others. I requested: "Okay, find the email I sent most recently to [name] regarding the new revision opportunity. Prepare this to be sent to the contacts at [company] I interacted with in 2025, stating that I sent the original message on (insert date), that I haven't received a response, and that if they want to be included in this update, they need to reply quickly." Gmail prepared a draft that was exactly what I needed, and I simply clicked "Send."

Conclusion

By using AI prompts in Gmail, I reduced the time spent on this project to about 10 minutes in total. Most of this time was spent marveling at what Gmail accomplished with a few simple instructions. While I don't plan to use AI to draft my daily emails, I am convinced that for projects with many elements to manage via email, I will undoubtedly use this feature to save time in understanding and aggregating the project's status. We now have a new superpower. It is up to us to use it wisely and responsibly.