Every year we see plenty of articles revisiting “Email Marketing Best Practices,” whether they’re aimed at bringing newcomers up to speed or giving veterans a refresher. We’ve written a few of those ourselves over the years. And while the fundamentals of email marketing are still recognizable, the details have continued to evolve as the industry has matured. Deliverability, inbox placement, authentication, and spam filtering weren’t always part of the conversation, but today they’re central to it. Now, with artificial intelligence beginning to play a larger role in how inboxes operate, it feels like the industry may be approaching another, potentially massive, shift.
Since the beginning of email marketing, things have obviously evolved in strategy, segmentation, email warm-up, deliverability, spam, and, of course, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. So this isn’t to say email hasn’t changed in the past 40 years, but the bones of email are still there. Something big has entered the space, though, maybe you’ve heard of it: Artificial Intelligence (AI). And no, this also isn’t an article about how AI can help your email marketing strategy or workflows. Rather, this article poses a question as we look to the years ahead: Is email marketing as we know it changing?
AI Entering the Inbox
I am part of an email marketing networking group that gets together every so often to discuss the various happenings in the industry. As you’d expect, AI has made its way into almost every discussion over the past year. One thing that continues to come up is that AI’s full integration into the inbox feels both inevitable and imminent.
AI has made its mark with summaries, smart replies, spam filters, smart compose suggestions, AI-generated draft writing, automated email prioritization, follow-up nudges, conversation summaries, and so many other areas that inbox providers will integrate into their systems in the near future. Whether email marketers are ready or not, inbox providers like Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook, and others will continue to use AI in their workflows.
SEO, GEO, and the Inbox
Since the introduction of AI into marketing, several new terms have entered our marketing vocabulary. One of the newer ones is GEO, or Generative Engine Optimization, which refers to optimizing content so AI systems can interpret, summarize, and surface it accurately. In many ways, GEO feels like the next evolution of SEO. Instead of optimizing strictly for search engines and rankings, marketers are now starting to think about how AI systems read and understand their content, and adapt that content to optimize for AI consumption
This shift hasn’t been too big of a leap for marketers. Many of the principles behind GEO are similar to the principles that have guided SEO for years. Clear topical signals, relevant keywords, descriptive alt text for images, logical structure, and alignment between headlines and the content itself. SEO pushed marketers to structure content so search engines could interpret it correctly, and GEO is pushing marketers to think about how AI systems interpret and summarize information.
What is changing is where we’re beginning to see these ideas applied. Historically, SEO and GEO conversations have mostly focused on websites and search engines. But as AI continues to creep into more and more systems, those same principles of machine interpretability may start showing up in places marketers haven’t had to think about before, like the inbox
As inbox providers integrate more AI into their platforms, whether through summaries, prioritization, spam filtering, or other features, the systems interpreting our emails are becoming more sophisticated. Historically, whenever a system begins mediating how content is surfaced or interpreted, marketers eventually start optimizing to accommodate how that system works.
My thought, and suspicion, is that we’re just seeing the beginning of this in inboxes. As long as the AI bubble doesn’t burst in 2026 (which could be an article all on its own), companies like Google, Yahoo, and Outlook will likely continue integrating AI deeper into their processes.
Meaning email marketers may eventually have to think not just about how their emails read to people, but how they’re interpreted by the systems sitting between the sender and the reader. And if that happens, what we consider “best practices” in email marketing could start shifting toward this new AI-driven norm.
Out with the Old, in with the New
All that being said, I expect the core elements of email will largely stay the same. Subject lines, body and image use, CTAs, send times, and length are all likely here to stay. However, with AI becoming the one judging inboxing and other metrics tied to quality control and spam, “who” we’re catering to may be changing.
I read a recent article that suggested email may soon become a machine-to-machine marketing channel. And honestly, you could say that about many aspects of marketing as AI becomes more involved in how content is filtered, interpreted, and delivered to actual humans.
And as many others have said, the real differentiator may be the human element. Creativity, nuance, vulnerability, humor, things that AI and LLMs still struggle to replicate. Many have said that even if AI becomes more involved in filtering, summarizing, and prioritizing the messages that reach the inbox, the final interaction still happens with a person. At least for now. It’s an interesting question to think about the point at which AI is making so many decisions in the inbox that the human element won’t matter anymore. By no means are we there yet, but look another five years down the line, and AI could be the one notifying you in your inbox when your favorite brand is having a 50% off sale, knowing you’ll be interested, and presenting something like a “Purchase Now” button, much like many AI assistants are already doing in places like Amazon.
That type of integration in the inbox would change email dramatically, which I won’t get into in great detail since it’s just speculation, but it’s something to consider.
It’s conceivable that in the near future, you may be writing for two audiences. First, the AI, to make sure that your email actually reaches the inbox, and then the customer at the other end who decides what gets opened, clicked, and acted on.
In that sense, the human touch may matter less when it comes to how systems evaluate messages, but it will still matter when someone on the other end decides whether to engage.
The Good News
I’m going to make a bet here and now and stay optimistic: email marketers will always be needed. AI and LLMs are not the “death of email,” but they may be the biggest evolution the industry has seen to date.
Although compared to others, I haven’t been in this space for very long (maybe 7 years), but if there’s one thing I’ve learned from other veterans who have been in the industry for much longer than me, it’s that email marketers are adaptable.
Over the years, this industry has seen constant changes in technology and regulations, and the people working in it have consistently found ways to adjust and keep moving forward, and that’s something that’s not going to change.
Until next time!
To learn more about email deployment, email compliance, and other industry insights, check out our full blog here.
Antonio Jones leads day-to-day marketing efforts as Marketing Manager at OPTIZMO Technologies, overseeing content, campaigns, and channels that support brand visibility and lead generation.
