The email inbox in 2026 is a whole new world. AI can now do the following for you:

-create full email drafts from short prompts

-generate concise summaries of long email conversations, and highlight action items users must take

-assign priority levels to your emails and explain why certain messages should take precedent over others

-and a lot more, which is great because now you can spend less time managing your emails, and more time doing the really important work you do at your corporate job *wink wink*

Writing and managing emails is a time-consuming chore, so at a quick glance, it seems like a good thing that we’ve developed these tools to reduce the amount of time we spend our inboxes at work, but I can’t help but wonder what this means for how people communicate with each other as a whole. I can see how AI features in your inbox can help you if you are a manager or director level employee that is managing multiple employees and workflows, or if you’re an individual who is running their own business or part of a smaller business and you’re performing several roles, but for the average office worker, how often are you touching work that requires your inbox to be that optimized?

I believe that workplaces have become too focused on how quickly we can communicate with each other, and are not placing enough emphasis on how we can communicate with each other more effectively on a daily basis. I’d love to solely put the blame on AI, but it’s just an exacerbation of the same issues perpetuated through instant messaging platforms like Slack and Teams. I hate writing emails as much as the next person, but I don’t like the implication that communication methods like email are a chore and a nuisance, rather than a necessity in order to communicate with someone and make sure they comprehend what they’re being asked or told.

I know some of you reading this are probably thinking “I hate my job, so why should I care?” but it’s not about loving the work that you do. It’s about engaging with other people in good faith. You don’t have to love your job, but you should want to be able to communicate with other people in the most effective, genuine way possible. Besides, the quicker someone understands something, the quicker things get done, which means less stress and earlier sign offs (hopefully).

With AI continuing to advance at a rapid rate, I believe that people should be more concerned with how they interact with others not just at work, but in all facets of their life. Good communication establishes trust between people, and trust is the basis of all great relationships. New developments in technology will come and go, but human connection will always be important no matter what.