Search for “ChatGPT for Outlook” and you will find three different ideas: a browser tab where people paste mail, an add-in inside Outlook and a managed connection to the mailbox. They are not the same thing, and the difference decides what IT can control.

Three things people mean

Which Outlook is it?

The word Outlook covers more than one mailbox type. Company mail may sit on Microsoft 365, on Exchange Server in your own room or, for some small teams, on Outlook.com. A connection must match the system. AddSync AI works with Microsoft 365, Exchange Server, Outlook.com, Gmail and HCL Domino, so mixed companies can use one set of rules.

Company accounts or personal accounts?

Staff who use their own personal ChatGPT account for work mail create a problem IT cannot see. Offer an approved route instead. With option A, people use their own ChatGPT account, set up under your rules. With option B they use the AddSync chat window, with the model in an EU region.

What ChatGPT can do with the connection

The assistant gets four tools: search, show, save a draft and propose. It finds an invoice from September, summarises a thread, saves a draft reply in your Drafts folder and proposes a free time for a meeting. It cannot send, delete or move mail.

What IT sets once

• Who may use AI, switched on person by person or by group.
• How many messages one question may read.
• Data filters: folders, senders, keywords, message age and attachments.
• The journal: one line per tool, with no mail text.

For details see ChatGPT for email.

Set it up without surprises

1. Choose the routeOption A with your own ChatGPT account, or option B with the AddSync chat window.
2. Set the rulesClose sensitive folders and senders, and decide how many messages one question may read.
3. Connect a few mailboxesStart with the people who ask the most questions about mail.
4. Give a ten-minute briefingShow the four tools, the approval rule and where drafts appear.

Common mistakes

• Letting people use personal accounts for company mail.
• Treating an add-in as a policy.
• Forgetting that Outlook can mean three different mail systems.
• Skipping the filter because the pilot is small.

Questions and answers

Written by the AddSync team.