Sort a shared inbox automatically, with a person checking

Three jobs, in order of risk

Sorting a shared inbox is really three jobs: labeling (what kind of email is this?), routing (whose job is it?) and drafting (a suggested reply). A wrong label costs a minute. A misrouted complaint can sit unseen for days. A bad draft is one click from a customer. Automate them in that order, and add the next only when the last is reliably right.

The automation: a new email arrives (the trigger). An AI step reads it and picks one label from your list. A filter or branch step (a rule that sends different emails different ways) passes anything unclear to a person. The tool then applies the label, tells the owner and, once you’re ready, saves a draft reply in the drafts folder. Sending stays manual.

Write the labels before the prompt

Build the list from last month’s real emails, not from how you wish the inbox looked. Five to eight labels is plenty, each with a one-line definition. For an online shop: “Order change: a customer wants to change or cancel an order that hasn’t shipped.” Ask for one label, spelled exactly as listed, and treat any other answer as UNSURE.

Then add the two that matter most. “UNSURE” is for anything that doesn’t clearly fit, and the AI step must use it instead of guessing. “Needs a person” skips automation entirely, with no AI draft:

• Complaints, including polite ones
• Refunds, cancellations and payment disputes
• Anything legal, or about health or safety
• Your own list: key clients, press, anything you’d want to see first

Mind what the AI step reads

Every email the AI step reads is sent to an AI service. Check the data settings of whichever one your automation uses, and keep sensitive mail, like payroll or staff matters, out of the shared inbox or filtered out before the AI step. Send only what it needs to pick a label: usually the subject and body, without attachments or long quoted threads.

The three questions, for an inbox

Write these down before the automation touches a real email, and share them with everyone who answers from the inbox.

• Who approves: whoever answers from the inbox reads each draft, edits it and clicks send. Nothing sends automatically.
• If nobody does: drafts wait, and so do customers. Agree that handled emails get archived, send the inbox owner a noon reminder listing anything still waiting, and name a backup for days they’re out.
• How you’ll know it broke: add a daily count per label. Everything under one label, a pile of UNSURE or no labels at all means the AI step or the connection has failed. Turn on the tool’s error emails, and spot-check ten labeled emails a week.