AI Email Triage
Plenty of teams run on a shared mailbox rather than a helpdesk — accounts, operations, bookings, a general enquiries address. Triage works the same way there, with one constraint: nothing moves out of the mailbox.
Discuss your projectThe shared mailbox problem
A shared mailbox has no queue, no owner per message and no status. Several people open it, each assumes someone else has dealt with a message, and the ones that get missed are the ones nobody opened. There is also no way to tell, at the end of a week, what came in and how long anything took.
The usual recommendation is to adopt a helpdesk, and often that is right. But it is a real change for a team that does not want one, and for a mailbox handling a modest volume it can be more process than the problem deserves. Triage is the lighter intervention: it brings structure to the mailbox you have, using categories, folders and flags that Outlook and Gmail already support.
We would still say plainly that if you need SLA tracking, reporting and proper ownership, a helpdesk is the better destination and we can help you move to one. Triage on a shared mailbox is the right answer when the team genuinely should keep working in email.
What it does
Categorises in place
Applying the categories or labels your team already uses, so sorting and filtering work without anyone learning a new tool.
Routes to a person
Assigning by category and workload, either by moving to a per-person folder or by flagging and notifying in Teams or Slack.
Flags what is urgent
Outage language, deadlines, a third follow-up on the same issue, or a sender on your escalation list — surfaced rather than sitting in arrival order.
Separates noise
Newsletters, automated notifications, out-of-office replies and genuine spam moved out, which on most shared mailboxes is a large share of the volume.
Threads properly
Replies grouped with the original and the newest content distinguished from the quoted history, so a reply does not read as a fresh request.
Drafts replies
For the recurring questions, saved to the drafts folder for a person to review and send.
Reports
What arrived, in what categories, how quickly it was answered. Usually the first time the team has had any numbers at all.
Boundaries we set deliberately
Automation with access to a mailbox needs limits that are explicit rather than assumed.
- Shared and functional mailboxes only. We do not connect individuals' personal inboxes, and we would decline to.
- Nothing is deleted. Noise is moved to a folder, never removed, so a misclassification is always recoverable.
- Nothing is sent without a person. Drafts go to the drafts folder.
- Access scoped to the specific mailbox using Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace application permissions limited to it, not to the tenant.
- An audit log of every action taken on every message, so the team can see what was moved and why.
- A clear path back: triage can be switched off and the mailbox is exactly as it was, since everything happened inside it.
Common questions
Tell us what you need
Describe the problem and we will come back with scope, timeline, and a rate. No obligation to proceed.
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