For AI email summaries, placing a clear call to action, the specific product/offer, and a deadline within the first 200 characters of live text is critical. This formula has been shown to increase click-through rates by approximately 19% for both B2B and B2C emails.
AI summary tools in Gmail, Apple Mail, and Microsoft CoPilot heavily favor bulleted content. In Gmail, 77% of emails with bullets had them pulled into the summary, rising to 84% for Apple Mail and 92% for CoPilot. Marketers may need to sacrifice aesthetic design for this functional advantage.
To influence what gets pulled into AI-generated email summaries, marketers must focus on the first 150 to 200 characters of live text. These summaries average just 29 words in length, making the initial copy extremely important for capturing the reader's attention in a crowded inbox.
Contrary to common privacy concerns, a recent survey found that over 70% of consumers are "very comfortable" or "somewhat comfortable" with AI tools reading their emails. This acceptance is driven by the desire to cut through inbox clutter and have relevant deals surfaced efficiently.