Emails in minutes: from drafts to difficult replies
Email eats up to a quarter of the workday. Three formulas: a quick fact-based draft, a well-toned reply to a difficult email, and polite refusals. Plus the work-correspondence safety rule.
Email is the perfect place to start using AI: it's frequent, it's formulaic, and the time you save is easy to count.
Formula 1: a draft built from facts
Write an email to a client. Facts: the shipment is 3 days late because of customs, the new date is the 18th, and as an apology we're offering 5% off their next order. Tone: businesslike and warm, under 100 words.
You dictate the facts, the AI packages them. Faster than writing it yourself — and no "please be advised that pursuant to the above".
Formula 2: replying to a difficult email
Paste the whole email in: "Here's the email: […]. Write a reply: we acknowledge the delay, we don't accept blame for the downtime (that was their contractor), we propose a call on Thursday. Firm, but don't escalate." The trick is spelling out what you accept, what you don't, and what you're offering: AI is excellent at balancing tone, but the position has to come from you.
Formula 3: the polite no
"Turn down the request for 20% off: the margin won't take it. Keep the relationship: offer an alternative (free shipping). Under 80 words."
Refusals are the most unpleasant genre going — and the one AI takes off your hands best.
The safety rule for work email
When you paste a work email into a public chatbot, you're handing it to a third party. The minimum: strip out personal data and commercial secrets (names → "the client", amounts → "X €", company names → "the partner"), turn off training on your data in the settings, and if you handle sensitive material regularly, ask your company for a business plan.
The last touch
An AI draft is always a draft: read it before you hit send. Your signature, your responsibility.
Short questions on the lesson — with an explanation for every answer.