Since the large language model (LLM) explosion started, companies have been trying to solve the problem of overflowing inboxes by using AI to categorize emails and draft replies that sound like you. Email client Superhuman is launching a new version of its auto-draft feature that identifies important emails and creates draft replies that sound less robotic.
Superhuman has attempted this in the past with features like instant replies and follow-up auto-drafts. However, a lot of those emails sounded like an overly enthusiastic AI salesperson, and I didn’t use them much. The new version of the auto-draft feature feels different. In the last few days, after gaining access to the beta, I have sent emails with little to no editing for some generated drafts.
The app understands which emails might need replies and drafts a response based on your tone from previous conversations. It also generates two other variations that you might want to send instead.
In my experience using the feature, I saw drafts agreeing to embargoes on a pitch to get more details, or confirming timing for a meeting that I could send with minimal edits. The feature also generated responses to emails asking for an authored post on TechCrunch, saying that I don’t handle that work. (TechCrunch does not accept authored posts.)
The feature is far from perfect, though. By default, it often generated a positive response to a pitch, or agreed to a meeting at a post-midnight time. Thankfully, I could select another response from the other variations quickly and send it away.
The feature learns from your usage and improves responses. For instance, after the midnight meeting debacle, when someone suggested a similar time, the feature generated a draft saying that the timing doesn’t work for me.
I receive thousands of emails every month, partially thanks to AI making first drafts easier for others, like comms and PR professionals. I don’t have the confidence to hand over the reins to AI to handle my inbox completely, but this feature could help me respond to more people when I don’t need to type out long messages.
Users can personalize emails by heading to Settings> Personalization and adding details about themselves and their role, along with adding files or links for more context.
Superhuman’s co-founder, Rahul Vohra, said during the testing phase that 40% of auto-generated drafts were sent within one day, and 60% of those were sent without any manual editing.
Vohra said that earlier features like Instant replies were built from older models like GPT-3.5, which were less intelligent or had a smaller context window. With this new implementation, the company is using an array of models.
“Today, we are using a mixture of models to make this work. The actual writing is done by frontier models from both Anthropic and OpenAI. So we’re applying the maximum amount of intelligence and context to this that we possibly can to make the feature work,” Vohra said.
Last year, Grammarly acquired Superhuman and then rebranded the company as Superhuman. Now, the company is building an assistant called Superhuman Go that spans platforms while carrying context over from one app to another.
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