Emails

Advanced Email Automation: 102

Learn how to build an autonomous AI email assistant that filters, labels, and responds to your emails, helping you maintain an organized inbox.

Let's face it – managing a busy inbox can be overwhelming.

But Lindy is here to help! You can think of the Lindy we'll set up in this guide as your personal email assistant, allowing you to focus on what matters while your routine emails are handled automatically.

Whether you need to filter out spam, categorize receipts, or respond to common inquiries, Lindy has got you covered.

We'll start with this Email Triage Lindy.

Here's what the base template does:

Monitors your inbox for new emails
Labels emails into four email type categories

In this guide, we'll build on top of this Email Triager Lindy to:

Respond to emails that require a response
Archive spam emails automatically
Alert you for time-sensitive, urgent emails

And the best part? This enhancement will take less than 10 minutes to set up.

Let's get started!

Add The Lindy To Your Account

Once you have added the Email Triager Lindy to your account, open the Flow Editor to see how it works.

Connect Your Email

Click the Gmail Email Received trigger and connect the Gmail account you want Lindy to monitor.

You can optionally add trigger filters to ensure only certain types of emails trigger your Lindy.

Route Emails Using Conditions

After the Gmail Email Received trigger, there is a Condition step. The Condition will route your email to a specific set of proceeding email labeling steps in the workflow based on the nature of the email contents.

To view and edit the conditional logic, click on each Condition under the Gmail Email Received trigger to customize how your emails are routed. There are four conditions included by default:

Important
Question
Newsletter
Spam

Optional Conditions to add would be:

Receipts/Bills
Family/Friends
Required Lindy Response

For each Condition, you can customize the condition prompt. For example, for the "Important" condition, you could revise the default prompt to include additional details:

This seems like a high priority email.

Customize The Email Labels

After each Condition prompt is an Add Label to Email action. Click the Add Label to Email action to customize the labels added to your emails.

Keep the "Email ID" on "Auto" as Lindy will know to use the triggering email's email ID for this action parameter.

For the "Label Name", update the field setting to “Set Manually” and specify the label name you want Lindy to use to categorize emails that are routed to this step.

Repeat these steps for each Add Label to Email action.

Customizing Responses

In this section of the guide, we are going to modify the existing Question Condition to have Lindy both label and respond to emails that are routed down this path.

Click the “Question” Condition bubble and modify the prompt to:

this email contains a question regarding [insert your Company's Name/Product/Service/Offering]

Click the Gmail Add Label to Email below this Condition to customize the Label.

In this example, we are going to label these emails as "Requires Lindy Response".

After the Gmail Add Label to Email action, we are going to have Lindy query a Knowledge Base so she can respond to emails with knowledge from our company

A knowledge base is a repository of files, docs, websites, and text where Lindy can retrieve information.

Set Up Your Knowledge Base

Click the plus button after the Gmail Add Label to Email step and select the Search Knowledge Base step to add documents containing:

Frequently asked questions and their answers
Product or service information
Pricing details
Company policies
Templates for common responses

This will serve as the knowledge base for your Email Triage Lindy to craft responses.

In this example, we will add a company website as the knowledge base source.

Ensure you always click either “Add single link” or “crawl” and then hit Save.

Customizing Responses

Next, we need to add an email response action.

After the Knowledge Base step, click the plus button and select “Perform an action”. Under Recommended actions, click Gmail and select the Gmail Send Reply action.

Now we are going to customize the body of the email in the "Body" field.

In this field, switch it to "AI Prompt" mode and add a prompt to instruct Lindy on how to respond to emailer questions, using the information she found in the Knowledge Base.

Example prompt below:

Answer the emailer in a friendly and concise manner. Only respond to user questions using information found in the knowledge base. 

An example response could be:

"Hey {Emailer's Name}, 

Thanks for the email! We support all payment methods except for AMEX. 

If you have any other questions about our payment process, please let me know!"

**Always personalize this to the emailer, their inquiry and the content you found in the knowledge base**

Now after the Gmail Send Reply action, you'll notice two arrows, “After email sent” and “After reply received”.

If you want Lindy to reply once the emailer responds to her initial email, add another Gmail Send Reply action.

If you want Lindy to only respond if the user follows up with an additional question, add a Condition with the prompt:

The emailer followed up with another question.

You can then connect this to the initial Search Knowledge Base step to have Lindy perform a search through your connected knowledge base before responding.

You can add a second Condition if the emailer does not follow up with a question. Example prompt:

The emailer did not follow up with a question and does not require an answer/response.

In this scenario, it's best to have Lindy send a friendly sign-off to finish the email conversation. Click the plus button below the Condition, add another Send Gmail Reply action and in the Body field, you can add the below prompt:

Thank the emailer and tell them to have a great day.

Stopping Replies And Follow-ups

At any point, if you want Lindy to stop replying and end the conversation with the emailer, you can add a Gmail Observe action. This action allows Lindy to receive responses but prevents her from "taking action". The email thread will be observed but Lindy will not respond. This action ensures the conversation stops after she wishes them a good day.

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This step is optional but helps ensure the conversation does not unnecessarily continue and stops once the user has received the information they asked about.

Archiving Spam Emails

In addition to the email response flow, you can easily archive spam emails from your inbox before you see them with this Lindy template.

Click the Add step option under the “Label Spam” Gmail Add Label to Email action.

Select “Perform an action”.

Select the Gmail Archive action.

No further configuration is needed. Any emails that Lindy categorizes as spam will now automatically get archived.

Time-Sensitive Email Alerts

This section will help you stay on top of all important, time-sensitive emails by alerting you via Slack when you receive an email that requires an immediate response.

After the “Label Important” Gmail Add Label to Email action, click the plus sign to add a new step.

Add a Condition and insert this prompt:

This email is time-sensitive and requires an immediate response.

Then add the Slack Send Direct Message action.

Switch the "User" field to "Set Manually" and insert your Slack user email address.

In the "Message" field, switch to AI Prompt mode and add the following:

Alert the user about the time-sensitive email. Include the sender's name, subject line, and a brief summary of the email's content. Emphasize any deadlines or urgent action items mentioned in the email. End with a reminder to check their email for full details.

This setup will ensure you're promptly notified via Slack about urgent emails, allowing you to prioritize your responses without constantly monitoring your inbox.

Final Flow

Your enhanced Lindy flow should now include:

Intelligent conditions for categorizing emails
Flows for responding to emailer questions with information from relevant knowledge bases
Automatic archiving of spam emails
Alerts for time-sensitive emails

Test

Now that your Email Triager Lindy is set up, it's time to test it out!

Send a few test emails to your connected Gmail account, such as:

A newsletter email (to test spam filtering)
An email from a key client (to test important email flagging)
A common customer inquiry (to test automated responses)
A highly time-sensitive email

Your Lindy will quickly categorize these emails and take appropriate actions.

Remember, you can always refine your Lindy's behavior by adjusting the label conditions, updating your Knowledge Base, or modifying the response prompts to better suit your needs.

You did it! Now your Email Triage Lindy is set up to automatically manage your inbox, saving you time and ensuring you never miss important messages.

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