Why Summarizing Email is One of AI's Best Uses
A good summary goes a long way in a world of too much information.
One of the most cited uses of LLM AI is its application on email. As a breakthrough technology specifically designed to “understand” human written language, it is no wonder that email is such an obvious target. So much so that in a recent interview, OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman stated, "I think summarizing huge volumes of email is a very underrated thing."
At 121 emails per day per employee, email is the single largest repository of written content for nearly all organizations, from the largest multi-nationals to the one-person business. [1] Email is commonly the primary means of internal and external communications.
Despite being the “lifeblood” of the organization, there has always been a huge missed opportunity with email, namely, the immense value of the historic email record. The email record is a repository of the corporate memory, recording the thoughts, feelings, relationships, and knowledge of everyone who makes the organization what it is today. Yet despite this trove of information, it remains largely untapped. The reason is simple. There is too much content to tap. It is the classic needle-in-a-haystack challenge. As the primary communications channel, email is the ultimate chat technology, containing everything from strategic discussions to playful banter and everything in between, related and unrelated. Unfortunately, when going back only a few months, searching email is akin to looking for a particular drop of water in an ocean.
But … enter AI, or more specifically, LLM AI. Suddenly, we have a technology that can “understand” our communications for the first time. With LLM AI’s assistance, we can use computers to rapidly search emails for those precious drops of water in the ocean of content. Critically, LLM AI gives us two special abilities for tapping into our past email records.
Natural language questions
One ability is it allows us to search using natural language. We can search with phrases like, “Find me the emails from Bob about project X,” as opposed to constructing a query like “from:bob@acme.com Project X,” which requires prior knowledge of how to prepare a query (Gmail in this case). Even more impressive is LLM AI-powered search can be nuanced, like “Find me the emails from Bob where he expressed concerns about Project X.” With conventional search, this type of subtle query is impossible.
Summarization
Second, LLM AI allows us to get our answers as a summary. Traditional email search returns a list of emails. From there, you must read through each email to get the information you seek. LLM AI can retrieve emails, summarize all the relevant content, translate from most languages if needed, and present it all in bullet points. Wow!
This ability to summarize a lot of content is essential, not only because it saves us a tremendous amount of our precious time but because it is what our human minds need. The human mind operates on summarization, constantly synthesizing, taking inputs from our complex world, and distilling them into simpler patterns. The human mind is a summarization machine. When you look at a tree, you don’t think of it as individual branches, leaves, and a trunk. You think of it as a tree. [2]
In short, what makes LLM AI such a powerful tool for tapping into the vast value of the email record is:
- Natural language interface
- Ability to search for even nuanced criteria
- Summarization of content
However, a true demonstration of the power of LLM AI email search is best illustrated when applied to multiple accounts simultaneously. When queries can be used across various accounts, an organization’s sales team can quickly catch up on the company’s current status with a customer by asking, “Summarize our communications with prospect X over the last three months.” Leadership can quickly assess issues in engineering, “What problems have been raised in engineering in the last seven days.” Alternatively, customer relations can quickly pinpoint customer dissatisfaction, “Summarize the primary issues communicated by our customers in the last 30 days.” Now, imagine the value of summarizing communications spanning years or even decades — unlocking the vast repository of institutional knowledge like never before.
Herein lies one of LLM AI’s most significant promises, whether in email communications or wherever it is applied. AI, in a way unlike any technology before, can help to make life simpler.
The immense utility and power of LLM AI as a summarization tool for email isn’t conjecture about theoretical possibilities. At mxHERO, we specialize in intelligent email management (IEM) for greater security and productivity. Over the last year, mxHERO’s labs have studied the applications of LLM AI for email. Although, from the outset, we suspected LLM AI technology could significantly benefit the use of email, we discovered benefits far more significant than we could have imagined. In part because in the intervening time of our research, LLM AI technology had advanced rapidly and in ways we could not have anticipated.
Simplicity — the Promise of AI
Email, whether a few weeks or many years old, has long been a problem. It generates costs to manage and maintain and presents a constant threat as a target of security breaches. LLM AI enables us to turn email “lead” into gold — from a problem into a treasure trove of information and insight. It does so by simplifying vast complexity, making getting the information we need easier. Herein lies one of LLM AI’s most significant promises, whether in email communications or wherever it is applied. LLM AI reduces complexity through its power of summarization. We are all drowning in too much information — trapped in an ever-worsening pandemic of infobesity. [3] Unlike any technology, AI can reduce the noise into key bullet points, helping simplify our lives.
Sources
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