Most people already use an AI assistant at work. It fails on one kind of question: the one about their own mailbox. What did the customer promise last week? Which meetings clash on Thursday? A general chatbot cannot see the answer, and pasting mail into a chat window is exactly what security teams try to stop.
- Mail AI connects an AI assistant such as Claude, ChatGPT or Codex to one person’s own mail and calendar.
- IT sets the rules once, with data filters that apply to the whole company.
- The AI gets four tools: search, show, save a draft and propose. It cannot send, delete or move mail, and every request goes to a journal.
- It is sold to companies and licensed per account. There is no public API.
Why a normal chatbot is not enough
An AI assistant is only as useful as the information it can reach. Your mailbox holds the decisions, promises, attachments and meeting changes that people ask about every day, and a chatbot in a browser tab has none of it.
The usual workaround is copy and paste. Someone selects a thread, drops it into a chat window and asks for a summary. It works, and it is also the reason many companies ban AI tools outright: customer data leaves the mailbox with no filter, no record and no way for IT to switch it off.
How Mail AI works
Mail AI puts a controlled connection between the person’s AI tool and the mail system. The AI never talks to the mailbox directly. Every request goes through AddSync, which applies the company’s rules first.
In practice the setup has four steps:
- The administrator connects the mail system. Exchange Server, Microsoft 365, Outlook.com, Gmail and HCL Domino are supported.
- IT defines what the AI may see, using data filters.
- Each person connects the AI tool they already use and asks questions about their own mail and calendar.
- The AI can search, show a message, save a draft and propose a next step. The person presses Send. Every request is written to the journal, without the text of the mail.
What people ask it to do
The assistant works for one person at a time. It is not a shared robot that reads everybody’s mail. The requests that come up most often:
| Request | Example |
|---|---|
| Summarise a long thread | “Summarise the supplier thread from the last two weeks and list open questions.” |
| Find something | “Find the attachment with the revised delivery schedule.” |
| Prepare for the day | “Which meetings do I have tomorrow, and what was said last time?” |
| Draft a reply | “Draft a short answer that confirms the date and asks for the purchase order.” |
Two ways to use it
Your own AI tool
People keep the AI assistant and the account they already have. AddSync sits between that tool and the mailbox as the guard, the tunnel and the journal.
The AddSync chat window
For people without an AI account of their own. They ask questions in an AddSync chat window, and the model runs in an EU region.
What IT controls
Data filters decide what the AI can see. There are four kinds, and they are set once for the whole company:
- Folders and categories, for example everything under HR or Legal.
- Senders and domains, for example a law firm or a bank.
- Keywords and patterns, for example contract numbers or the word “confidential”.
- Message age and attachments, for example only the last months of mail, and no attachments at all.
Next to the filters sits the guard. It decides who may use the AI, switched on person by person or by group, and how many messages one question may read. Your people still see all their mail in Outlook as before. The filter only limits what the AI receives.
Filters apply to the whole company. There are no separate levels for groups or single users, so the rule set is one page that IT and management can read and approve.
What Mail AI is not
Mail AI is built for companies, not for private users. It is licensed per account, it has no public API, and it does not replace your mail system. It is a managed way to give staff an AI assistant without exporting mail to a third place.
Who should look at it first
Teams that answer many emails a day gain the most: sales, support, project managers and executives. They are also the people who ask IT for “something like ChatGPT, but safe”. The simplest way to judge it is to try it on real mail during a 14-day pilot.
Questions and answers
Does Mail AI read everyone's mailbox?
No. Each person’s AI works with that person’s own mail and calendar. Data filters then remove folders, senders, keywords and old messages before the AI sees anything.
Can the AI send, change or delete my mail?
No. It has four tools: search, show, save a draft and propose. Sending, deleting and moving mail do not exist for it. A draft waits in your Drafts folder until you read it and press Send.
Which mail systems does it work with?
Exchange Server on premises, Microsoft 365, Outlook.com, Gmail and HCL Domino. Your mail stays where it is, because AddSync reaches it there and does not move it.
Do I need a ChatGPT or Claude account?
Not necessarily. With option A people use their own AI account. With option B they use the AddSync chat window instead.
How do we try it?
Start the 14-day pilot, connect a small group of mailboxes and compare the results with your usual way of working.
See it on your own mail
The 14-day pilot connects a small group of mailboxes under your rules, so you judge it on real work.
Keep reading
- How it works: The connection, step by step.
- Data filters: What IT can hide from the AI.
- Security and compliance: What the AI can reach and what you can prove.
Written by the AddSync team.
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