I’ve always been an email enthusiast. Try texting me with something that requires action and I’ll be ready to say “Email me with that please”. That’s how I can get a piece of mind that whatever needs to be acted on will be acted on, when I am ready to do so. In fact, my inbox is my to-do list.
Live chat is great for specific things in both external communication (eg. to provide faster customer support or engage leads) and internal communication (eg. urgent approvals or group announcements). But people need to stop saying that it will replace email. It just won’t.
No, email is not perfect. A key limitation in my humble opinion is the lack of collaboration. Originally built for individual use, email is suboptimal and cumbersome for teams to work together. And that’s why we built Drag, which has served 200K+ Google Workspace users around the world over the past 6 years.
But there’s another big limitation yet to be tackled in email: automating recurring, repetitive and time consuming tasks. And with the number of emails being sent growing faster than the number of email users, this bottleneck has just been intensified over time (and costing businesses more and more). Fortunately, AI can help lift this burden.
Why email is irreplaceable
As an avid email user and someone that has been building email solutions for the past decade, I feel strongly that email is still the best communication channel for business. Here’s why I think email is irreplaceable:
It’s asynchronous
Not everything needs to (or should) be tackled immediately. Email doesn’t require an immediate response, which leads to less distractions and more thoughtful responses compared to the rushed nature of live chat.
It’s more organized
Finding information in chats is a mess, trying to forward a conversation is even messier. With folders, tags or searchable threads, email is at a big advantage against chat when it comes to filing and organizing information.
It leads to clearer accountability
Because of its structured nature, email is much easier to track progress and ensure follow-through. In chat, important messages may get buried and forgotten much more easily.
Why email is imperfect
But this is where email becomes a burden – and what many end up delegating whenever possible:
Time consuming organization
The same organization that puts emails a step ahead of live chat many times comes at a cost. It can be very time consuming to organize emails properly. Automations can help but still.
Lots of irrelevant content
Inboxes are many times clogged up with spam and other irrelevant content. Distinguishing important emails that actually require action from cold outreach or notifications that don’t require immediate attention can also take up a lot of time.
Longer and more-structured messages
From one side, the more thoughtful, well-structured and organized nature of email may save a lot of time in the future when referencing previous conversations. However, crafting thoughtful, well-structured replies can take extra effort.
Manual follow ups
Manually tracking who hasn’t responded to your emails and sending follow-ups may also lead to lots of wasted time.
If you are one of the millions of people around the world using email for business daily, chances are you’re either wasting hours doing admin work on your inbox or spending an unnecessary amount of money on an EA to do it for you.
Why HeyHelp
Imagine if you could save 1 hour daily for $1/day. That’s what we’re building.
HeyHelp is an AI Executive Assistant for Gmail users. Powered by Artificial Intelligence, HeyHelp handles the most time-consuming emails tasks, so you can focus on what really moves the needle on your work. HeyHelp will:
- Prioritize your emails, bringing the important and actionable ones to your attention first.
- Auto-archive unimportant or non-urgent emails such as Marketing or cold pitches.
- Draft responses for you, ready to be reviewed, edited and sent.
- Remind you about unreplied emails you sent and draft follow ups.
- Learn about you and replicate your individual behavior and tone of voice better over time.
We will be sharing our journey publicly 📖. If you want to be part of this adventure with us, make sure to join the waitlist!
